men should not be forced to take a Gift which Love and willingness is the condition of men use not to say Love me or I will hang thee or imprison thee This seemeth to make a new way of Preaching which Christ never made 4. Christs terms are self-denial Cross-bearing and forsaking all and following him for the hopes of heaven But this seemeth a new and contrary Gospel as if Christ had said He that will be my disciple rather than be imprisoned or die shall be saved or received Christ saith He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple Luk. 14. 33. This way saith He that will come to the Church-communion rather than forsake all shall be my disciple Christ saith He that loveth any thing even his life more than me cannot be my disciple This way saith He that loveth life credit wealth liberty so well as that he will rather receive the Sacrament than lose it shall be my disciple Christ saith except ye repent ye shall all perish This forceth a Minister to absolve a wicked man as if he should not perish if he will but rather say I repent than lose his liberty and estate God saith He that loveth the World the love of the Father is not in him This way saith Do but Love the world so well as to say and do any thing to keep it and then Pastor and people shall number thee with the Lovers of the Father God saith The carnal mind is enmity to God and is not subject to his Law nor can be This way saith If thy carnal mind make thee say or do any thing to save thy liberty or money thou art an obedient Son of the Church and of God And is not this to set up a new Gospel Gal. 1. 7. 8. 5. And this way compelleth men to lie and play the Hypocrites when we may discerne it is so Mr. Capel of Tempt would perswade us that a lie thus differeth from most other sins that it is so evil in it self as that it cannot in the very act be lawful When a man against all perswasion saith or sheweth you that he doth not believe in Christ or doth not repent to say to that man Say thou believest or Repentest or thou shalt be confiscate and lie in jaile is plainly to say Lie or suffer I deny not but that in some cases a man may be examined when it is foreknown that he will lie But it s one thing to force him to examination and answer and another to force him to that particular answer 6. It is a compelling men to pretend to that which we cannot compel them to that is to have a Right to so great a benefit as Absolution and Church Communion Force giveth no man Right to the Benefit and their force should not compel him falsly to pretend a Right 7. It confoundeth the Church and the world Whilest every man is made a member of the Church that had but rather tell a lie and take bread and wine than be undone what wicked man on earth will not do the same unless he be so Consciencious that mistake and Conscience hindereth him Is there any Infidel Heathen Atheist Murderer Traytor or Sensualist in the world that will not do it What should hinder him that believeth there is no God to do thus rather than be undone Is it so hard a word to say in a Chancellours Court I repent and deride and curse them when he is gone out or is a bit of Bread and a Sup of Wine so hard for a Glutton or Drunkard to get down as that any of them would rather lie in jaile 1. So that by this course the Church and the Infidel world are made equal and no man can prove that any Mabometan Congregation is not as good as to the persons as such a Christian Congregation For what Mabometan would not say and do this rather then be undone unless he be a Consciencious one who is not so bad as those Christians that have no Conscience 2. And by this meanes no conjecture can be made of the real members of the Church Thousands may be driven in at the doors but we have no means to perceive whither any of them indeed be Christians 8. And hereby the Church and the Christian Religion are greatly dishonoured while this odious stigma is made the marke of a visible member One that had rather say he is a Christian and repenteth than lie in a jaile Is this a laudable description 9. And hereby Mabometans Jews and Heathens are hardened in their Infidelity and reproach of Christ while Christians are such as these 10. It putteth every consciencious Minister into a snare and troubleth his Conscienceâ— or turneth him out when he must put the Sacrament into the very hand of every man that had rather take it than be imprisoned and must read the Absolution of every one that had rather say I repent than be undone 11. It hindereth the comfort of the faithful in Church Communion to know that this is the measure and Character of these with whom they must hold that Communion which is called the Communion of Saints 12. It destroyeth Church unity and Love For every visible member of the Church being a seeming Saint should be loved with the special Love which belongeth to Saints by us who are not Searchers of the heart But who that is not out of his wits can by any obedience to the Church be brought to Love all those as seeming Saints who will choose a Sacrament before a jaile He that cannot believe them such cannot Love them as such 13. It will strengthen them that Separate from us as no Church and make it not so easy to prove that we have any Church as else it would be when they should argue Where there is no credible Profession of Faith and repentance there is no true Church But c. Ergo. The Major is undenyable The Minor indeed is not true because many do Voluntarily profess and shew their Voluntariness other waies But no thanks to them that teach the accusers thus to argue When the Laws of Profession are Profess or lie in jayle there is no credible Voluntary Profession But c. The Major they prove Non esse non apparere here are equipollent But under such a law no voluntariness and Credibility is apparent Ergo And I know but this answer to the Minor it is apparent otherwise though not by that forced profession because multitudes daily shew that they approve of what they do 14. Force tendeth rather to hinder mens Repentance and Love to the Church For Fear breadeth Hatred or at least Hurt doth Kindness breedeth Love God winneth our Love by mercy And we are so to win the Love of others Give a man but a box on the ear or slander or wrong him and try whether it will make him Love you to say Love Christ and the Christian or I will undo thee and lay thee in jaile is
have as to the kind of power 2. How their Office must degenerate from purely spiritual into secular or mixt 3. And how numerous their Flocks and large their Provinces would soon be And here you must note these things 1. That the Bishop of every Church was made Judge of these causes not alone by himself but with his Presbyters or Clergy who judged with him 2. That yet this power was not then taken to be any essential or integral part at all of the Pastoral Office but an Accidental work which Lay-men might do as well as Pastors and that it was committed to the Bishop only as the best able for Arbitration because of his abilities and interest and that as a matter of meer convenience and also for the honour of his place 3. That therefore this Judging power for ending strife and differences might be alienated from the Clergy and done by Lay-men where there was cause 4. And that the Bishop had so much more power than the Presbyters that he could commit it from them to Lay-men All this that one instance of Silvanus in Socrates lib. 7. cap. 37. and in Hanmer cap. 36. whose words were thus Silvanus also no less expressed in his other acts and dealings the good motion of his Godly mind For when he perceived that the Clergy respected nothing but gain in deciding the Controversies of their Clients O woful Clergy he thenceforth suffered none of the Clergy to be judge but took the supplications and requests of suiters and appointed One of the Laity whom for certain he knew to be a just and godly man and gave him the hearing of their causes and so ended quietly all contentions and quarrels And the likeliest way it was You see here 1. that when Princes will needs make the Clergy Magistrates to honour them the wise and good men of the Clergy will return such power to the Laity as usually fitter for it 2. And that it is no wonder that when Law-business is cast upon the Clergy if they grow worse than Lawyers in covetousness and injustice 3. And yet this was not a making Lay-men to be Chancellors that had the power of the Keys For Silvanus did only appoint Lay-men to do Lay-mens work to arbitrate differences but not to excommunicate nor to judge men to excommunication as they do now 4. And this was not a making of Ecclesiastical Elders that were not Pastors and therefore it is no countenance for such but it was a prudent casting back that work on the Laity which good Emperours had in imprudent piety cast upon the Clergy that each might do his proper work 5. But this was but one good Bishop that was so wise and honest and therefore it proved no general reformation This Judicial power went so far and took up so much of the Clergies time that the Synod Taraconens was after this put to Decree Can. 4. that the Clergy should not judge Causes on the Lords day and Can. 10. that no Bishop or Clergy-man should take rewards or bribes for Judgments And the Canons so deterred Christians from seeking Justice from the Civil Judicatures that they had few but Heathens to be Judges of Yea the Christians thought so hardly of the Judges themselves for punishing men by the Sword when the Bishops even for murder it self did punish them but with Penance that they doubted sometime whether those Christians that exercised Magistracy or Civil Judgment after Baptisme were not therefore to be taken for sinners as is visible in Innocent 1. his Epist to Epist 3. to Exuper Tholesan cap. 3. in Crab. Tom. 1. p. 459. And before in Silvester's Concil Rom. apud Crab Vol. 1. p. 280. Can. 16. it is Decreed Nemo Clericus vel Diaconus aut Presbyter propter causam suam quamlibet intret in curia quum omnis curia à cruore dicitur immolatio simulachrorum est Quod siquis Clericus in curiam introicrit anathema suscipiat nunquam rediens ad matrem Ecclesiam A Communione autem non privatur propter tempus turbidum And Constantine is said to be a Subscriber with 284 Bishops 45 Presbyters and 5 Deacons And in former Counc sub Silvest Nullum Clericum ante judicem stare licet I know that Duarenus and Grotius describe not the Bishops power as so large as the Canonists do But Duarenus confesseth that Theodosius made a Law that lites omnes controversiae forenses ad judicium Ecclesiae remitterentur si alter uter litigatorum id postularet That all strifes and controversies forensick should be remitted to the judgment of the Church if either of the contenders required it And that Charles the Great renewed and confirmed the same Law Duar. lib. 1. p. 8. And Grotius de Imper. sum pol. p. 236. saith This Jurisdiction by consent the Bishops received from Constantine with so great power that it was not lawful further to handle any business which the Bishops sentence had decided that is saith he remotâ appellatione And he there sheweth that three sorts of Jurisdiction were by the Emperours given to the Bishops 1. Jure ordinario and so they judged of all matters of Religion and which the Canons reached which went very far in heinous crimes 2. Ex consensu pâ—rtium when the parties chose the Bishop for their Judge Vid. Concil Chalced. c. 9. 3. Ex delegatione which yet went further And even to the Jews such kind of power had been granted But of this whole matter of the Rise of such Prelacy their Courts and power Pardre Paulus hath spoken so well and truly in his Histor Concil Trident. pag. 330 331 c. that I would intreat the Reader to turn to it and peruse it as that which plainly speaketh our judgment of the History now in question Read also his History of Benefices 43. The countenance of the Emperour with these honours and immunities having brought the World into the Church or filled the Churches with Carnal temporizers the numbers were now so great that quickly the great Cities had many Parish Churches and the Country Villages about had some so that now about 400 or 500 Years after Christ most Bishops of great Cities had more Churches than one even several sub Assemblies and Altars as dependant on their Mother Church 44. Yet were their Diocesses which at first were called Parishes somewhat bounded by the Canon and Edicts which decreed that every City where there were Christians enow to make a Church should have a Bishop of their own and that no Bishop except two who bordered one on Scithia a rude unconverted Countrey and the other on the like case of which more in due place 45. And then every oppidum or populous Town like our Market-Towns and Corporations was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City and not only a few among many that have that name by priviledge as it is in England now So that even at this height of Prelacy about 500 600 or 700 Years after Christ they
great priviledge of Church-Communion and that giving it to the unwilling that had but rather endure it than a Prison is a great profanation of it and a cheat to poor souls and a horrid corrupting of Christ's Churches and Ordinances 68. If wilful Church-corruptions have made any places uncapable of a present conformity to Christ's Institutions their incapacity must not become the measure and rule of our Reformation But a true Conformity to the Institution must be intended and endeavoured though all cannot come up to it at the first 69. We do not hold that every Corruption in Number or Officers or Order nullifieth a Church or maketh all Communion with it unlawful as long as the essential constitution doth remain Yea though my own judgment is that every Church in Town or Country should have a Bishop yet if they would but set up one Bishop with his assistant Presbyters in every Corporation and Great Town with the neighbour Villages according to the antient practise from the middle of the third Century for many following so that true discipline might but be made possible to them that had a heart to practice it I should greatly rejoyce in such a Reformation much more if every Parish Pastor were restored to all the parts of his Office though he exercised all under the Government of Bishops 70. We hold the Parish Churches of England that have true Ministers that are not utterly uncapable through Ignorance Heresie Insufficiency or Wickedness to be true Churches of Christ But that is because we hold the particular Ministers to be true Bishops Episcopos Gregis etsi non Episcoporum and to have the power of the Keys over all their Flocks And that is because we hold that it is not in our Bishops power to deprive them of it though they would And because we hold that when Christ hath instituted and described the Office of a Pastor or Presbyter and the Ordainers ordain a man to that Office their power shall be judged of by Christs institution and not by the Ordainers will though he mistake or would maim and change it by his wrong description And that the Ordainer is but a Ministerial Invester delivering possession according to his Masters will and not his own And as long as Christ giveth to Pastors the power of the Keys and they themselves consent to receive and use them especially if the People also consent to the exercise of them it is not the Bishops will or words that can nullifie this power And if this Answer were not good I confess I were not able to Answer a Brownist who saith that we have no true Publick Churches of God's Institution Diocesan Churches being but Humane if they had Bishops in each Church under them and being sinful when they have none and Parochial Churches being Humane or null as having no Bishops of their own nor Pastors of Christ's Institution but half Pastors and therefore being but part of a Diocesan Church But all this is sufficiently answered by our foresaid Reasons which no high Prelatist can soundly answer 71. I do hold that those Parish Assemblies that have no Ministers but such as are uncapable either through notorious Ignorance or Heresie or utter Insufficiency as to the Essentials of their Office or by disclaiming themselves any Essential part of the Pastoral Office or by notorious Preaching against Godliness and opposing the Churches necessary good are indeed no true Churches of Christ but only are Analogically or Equivocally so called As you may call a Community of Christians that have no Pastor or Church which is no Organized or Political Society 72. But yet I think it not simply unlawful to joyn at any time with such an Assembly For I may joyn with a Christian Family or occasional Assembly though not as with a Church 73. We hold that all the Christians in the World in particular Churches or out do make up one Catholick or Universal Church which is Mystical and Invisible in that 1. the Faith of Mens minds is Invisible 2. and Christ is Invisible to us Mortals now he is in Heaven But it is also Visible 1. In respect of the Members and their outward Baptism and Profession 2. and because that Christ the Head was once Visible on Earth and is still Visible in Heaven to the Glorified part as the King is to his Courtiers when the rest of the Kingdom seeth him not and will Visibly appear again to all 74. We hold that this Universal Church is One in Christ alone and that it hath no other King or Head That he hath Instituted no Vicarious Head either Pope or General Council Nor is any mortal man or men capable of such an Office 75. We hold therefore that the Roman Pope and General Councils if they claim such an Headship is an Usurper of part of Christ's Prerogative which having usurped he hath used against Christ and his interest against the Soveraignty of Princes and against the true Unity Concord Peace and Holiness of the Churches 76. And we hold that it was the modelling of the Church to the Policy of the Roman Empire which gave the Pope the advantage for this usurpation And that the Roman Catholick Papal Church is a meeâ— Humane Form and an Imperial Church as much as the Archbishop of Canterbury as Superiour to the rest of England is of Man and that Body so united is a National Church And that the General Councils were never truly General as to all the Churches in the World but only as to the Roman Imperial Church None considerable ever coming to such Councils but those that were or had been in the Roman Empire or some very few that closely bordered on them Nor had the Roman Emperour who usually called or gave his Warrant for such Councils or Governed them any power over the Clergy of all the rest of the Christian World in Ethiopia the outer Armenia Persia India c. Nor did the Imperial Pope then exercise any power over them And we are perswaded that the power of the Patriarchs of Alexandria Antioch Jerusalem Constantinople and of the Metropolitaâ—â— Primates c. stood on the same foundation with the Primacy of the Pope and that one is no more of Divine right than the other But that the Papacy is the far more wicked Usurpation as pretending to more of Christ's Prerogative 77. We hold therefore that the Roman Church as such that is as pretending to be the Church-Catholick Headed by an Usurping Universal Bishop is no true Church of Christ but a Humane and traiterous Usurpation and conspiracy therefore by Protestants called Antichristian Though those that are true Christians among them are Parts of Christ's Catholick Church and those that are true Pastors among them may be the Guides of true particular Churches 78. We hold therefore that no Power on Earth Popes Council or Prince hath power to make Universal Laws to bind the whole Church of Christ on Earth because there is no Universal Head or
but that Metropolitans Primates Patriarcks and the Pope as Head of the Churches in the Empire stood all on the same ground and had the same Original as all Fathers Councells and History shew which truely proveth that as an Universal Papacy is a Treasonable Usurpation so an Imperial Papacy that is through the Roman Empire is but a human Creature and Metropolitans Patriarcks c. are the like and they that will feigne the one to be of Gods institution or necessary must say that the other is so to But after all this one consequence puts the world in hope that Diocesans may come in time to be reformed For seeling Kings may make and unmake Cities and consequently Bishop-pricks at their pleasure whenever it shall please his Majesty or any other wise and Holy Prince to declare every Corporation and Market Town to be a City we must needs have a Bishop in every one of them according to the principles of the Prelates themselves And then the Diocese will not be so great but a diligent Pastor may possibly sometimes see the greater number of his flock Obj. But they that do say that the Apoâ—les took this course do not say that it is so obligatory but that in cases of necessity we may do otherwise Ans 1. They alledge the very Law of nature for it that it must be so even in Heathen Empires ex natura rei as Dr. Hammond before cited 2. All meer positves give places to natural duties caeteris paribus in cases of true necessity we may break the rest of the Lords day we may omit the Lords Supper we may stay from the Church assemblies we may forbear to preach or pray or meditate or read So that the exception only of necessity will but equal this Diocesan model to other possitive ordinances which are indeed Divine Obj. What if we prove but the lawfulness of it though not the Duty Ans If you prove it not of Divine institution I have proved it to be sinful and shall do much more by all the evils which attend it And so much for these City Diocese and Metropolitans and modelling the Church Government to the state CHAP. VII The Definition and reasons of a Diocesan Church considered and overthrown I Have already shewed that we dispute not about aery notions nor Non-existence but about such Dioceses as we see and have and that by a Diocese we Non-conformists mean only a large circuit of ground with its inhabitants conteining many perticular Parishes And by a Diocesan Church we mean all the Christians within that circuit who have but one Bishop over them though they be of many Parish Churches yea few Presbyterians take the word so narrow as this For I think too many of them do with Rutherford distinguish between a worshipping Church and a Governed Church and sadling the horse for Prelacy to mount on do affirm that many about twelve usualy of these worshiping Churches like our Parishes may make but one Governed or Presbyterial Church But a Diocese in England containeth many hundred and some above a thousand Parishes as is said But the Diocesans Hammond and Downam define not a Diocese as we see it as conteining many Churches or holy assemblies but only as being the Church of one City with its territories Now the question is what it is that is the specifying difference by which a Diocesan Church is distinguished from others and constituted 1. Not that it is in a City For an Independent Church or a Presbyterian Church may be in a City When there is but one Church there or many Independent ones these are no other than those allow whom you take for your chief adversaries 2. Is it then the circuit of ground that is the boundary of these Churches either this ground is inhabited or not if not then earth and trees make their Churches If inhabited it is by Infidels or by Christians or both If by Infidels they are no members of any Christian Church and therefore not of a Diocesan Church Unless they will professe to have Churhes of Infidels If they be Christians either they are no more nor more distant than as that they may at least the main body of them come on the Lords daies to the City Church into one assembly or else they are enow to make more or many Church assemblies If the former than what differ they from a Parish Church or an Independent Church which is planted in a City When each of them are but one congregation where is the difference but in the arbitrary Name But if the City and territories have Christians enow for many Churches then either they are formed into many or not If they are they should by their own confession have many Bishops If not either Church Societies are Gods ordinance or not If not the City should have none If they are where hath God exempted the Country from the priviledge or duty any more than the City But if they should say that a Diocesan Church is one Church in a City and its territories consisting of Christians enow to make many of whom the most part take up with oratories for Churches this would suite our Notion of a Diocesan Church but not theirs For they say that it is not necessary that a Diocesan Church have more than one Congregation Therefore it must needs follow that their Diocesan Church must differ from our Parish or Congregational Churches only in potentiâ and not in actu or else earth or Infidels must be the differencing matter Unless they will say that the Order of Prelacy in it maketh the difference which is the office of a Pastor who is actually Governour but of one congregation but is in potentia to be the Governour of more when he can convert them and then is the Governour of them all in that territory when they are converted But if one congregation or many make not the difference a meer possibility in the Infidels of becoming Christians cannot make the difference because the Subjects of that possibility are no members of the Church at all Therefore the difference must be only in the office of the Bishop And if so then an Independent Church that hath a Bishop is a Diocesan Church And so an Independant and a Diocesan Church may be all one And then if a Bishop were but setled in a Parish Church in the City or Countrey it would make it a Diocesan Church And then when we have proved that the Country should have Churches and not meer Oratories and that every Church should have a Bishop and so that a Bishop is not to be appropriated to a City and its territories we have done all And that society which should have all Gods Church ordinances should have a Pastor necessary for the exercising of them all But every true Parish Church should have all Gods ordinances belonging to a single Church therefore they should have a Pastor at least to exercise them And a Pastor authorized to exercise all
in the Government of one Presbytery And our ordinary Parishes have Chappels in them and yet are one Church Ans 1. We must be excused from submitting now to the opinions of Presbyterians or any other party while we are giving an account of our own judgment in the case 2. The Presbyterians are not all of a mind in that point whether each of those Parishes be not a true political Church and have not its own plenary Pastor or Bishop and such a Government as belongeth to a particular Church though as they all think subordinate to a Presbytery of many Churches conjunct or as some call it of one Church denominated so from the higher Government 3. And as to our Chappels ordinarily they are but places for the Assembling of such as by age or foul weather or weakness cannot travaile to the Parish Churches and they are for distance and number in those Parishes that have them no more or other than may consist not only with the personal acquaintance of the members of the Parish Church but also with the frequent Communion of them all by turnes in the same Parish Church if they please to travaile to it as they may So that these Chappels of case as they are commonly called are not inconsistent with all the fore-described ends and dutyes of Church-members And even the Independants do confess that age distance persecution c. may allow one of their Churches to meet at once in several houses or places where several Pastors may pro tempore officiate and yet this consisteth with all the forementioned ends of the relation 4. And indeed disorders and confusions in Churches must not be our measure to judge of their Nature and constitution by though one in a Swoone may be hardly discerned from a dead man yet life is nevertheless essential to a man The Principalities in Germany may be so curtaled and intangled that it shall be hard for Lawyers to judge whether the Princes be proper Soverains and Monarchs or not And yet what doth constitute Monarchy and Soveraignity is known A Ship may be made so little and a Barge so big as that it may be hard to distinguish them by name and yet a Ship and Barge are divers If in one great house there be several men with their Wives Children and Servants in several rooms or parts and â—ne have some superiority over the rest they being free journy-men or labourers under him the degree of the Power of the chief Master here may be in several cases so various as that it shall be hard for any man to say whether this be one Family only or many But must we therefore remove all distinction of Families or forsake the old and usual definition The same I say of Primary perticular Churches Stepney Parish or Giles Criplegate or Martins in the fields may be so great as to make a doubt of it whether they are single Churches and so may some Lancashire Parishes that have very distant and large Chapelries But shall the disease or extraordinary case or dicffiulty of such a Parish make us change the old and true definition of a Church And thus some Presbyterians have argued from the Multitude of Converts at Jerusalem and Ephesus that they could not be one particular Church so as to meet all in one place which is the common and strongest objection against us But 1. undoubtedly there were many strangers there that were ready to pass away to other places 2. And the Spirit knew that the Church was quickly by persecution to be scattered 3. And on a suddain there was not time to settle them in exact order as afterward they did in all the Churches Acts. 14. 23. But many Apostles being there they might transiently have divers meetings at once 4. And the number and distance of them all was no greater then might consist with the forementioned Church Ends and definition They that meet one day with one Apostle might meet the next day with another and might have Personal Communion and Conversation And 5. The text saith that they did meet all in one place and as Doctor Hammond aforecited saith they deny the plain text that do deny it they were not distributed into divers assembles and the All that meet together must mean the greater part of the Church members at once And I my self have Preached to a Congregation supposed by understanding persons in it to be six thousand and all to have heard and as many more might have heard the next day and so twenty thousand might make a Church when vicinity maketh them otherwise capable and in Judaea we find that men speaking to Armies yea the Enemies Armies shew that far more could hear at once then can do with us whether voices or aire did make the difference I Know not and if the fore-named Parishes that have but one ordinary meeting place have 30000 or 40000 or 50000 souls in them we may conjecture at the case of Jerusalem hereby For though among those new Converts there were not so many neglecters of the Assemblies yet the passing strangers might be many To make the case plain I would but desire the dissenters to consider 4. Whether that Gods publick worship be not a duty Even the Communion of Christians in Doctrine Prayer and Sacrament 2. Whether there must not be some present Pastors to officiate before the Church in all these 3. Whether this Congregation must not be Christians and persons qualified for Communion and whether the Churches have not alwaies by the holy Spirits appointment differenced between Christians and Infidels and between Heretical or flagitious persons and the orderly and obedient and admitted the first sort only to Communion 4. Whether he that is present and delivereth the Sacrament should not know what he doth and to whom he giveth it and should not in the administring make a difference and keep away the Infidels Heriticks and openly flagitious and should not know the people whom he overseeth 5. And whether he can do all or any of this to a transient multitude that as the waters of a river are passing away when he still seeth strange faces only and those are his Auditors and Commuicants whom he never saw before or knoweth how can he know whether they are Baptized Christians or unbaptized Jews or other Infidels 6. Therefore is not an ordinary Cohabitation or vicinity of necessity to a fixed Church and Pastor that he may know them and they may know each other These things I suppose are past dispute 7. And then I ask whether such a society as this be not a true Church and such as is described in scripture and such as should ordinarily be continued in the world whether it be part of a more compounded general Church and under the general oversight of Apostolical Bishops is none of my question now but whether this be not an ordinary political Church of the first order 8. And if so whether every such Church by Acts. 14. 23 should
now may do to meet by parcels in several Houses sometimes in a danger yet their ordinary Meetings when they were free was all together in one place And Unum Altare was the note of their Individuation with Unus Episcopus when Bishops grew in fashion in the eminent sense 2. That the first that broke this Order and had divers Assemblies and Altars under one Bishop were Alexandria and Rome and no other Church can be proved to have done so for about three hundred Years after Christ or near nor most Churches till four hundred yea five hundred Years after 3. That when they departed from this Church temperament they proceeded by these degrees 1. They set up some Oratories or Chappels as are in our Parishes which had only Prayers and Teachings without an Altar Oblations or Sacraments in the City Suburbs or Country Villages near the People coming for Sacramental Communion to the Bishop's Church 2. Afterward these Chappels were turned into Communicating Churches But so as that at first the Bishop's Presbyters who lived sometimes in the same House with him and always near him in the same City and were his Colleagues did preach and officiate to them indifferently that is he whom the Bishop sent and after that a particular Presbyter was assigned to teach a particular Congregation yet so as that more of the Bishop's Presbyters commonly had no such Congregations but the most of them still attended the Bishop in his Church and sate with him on each hand in a high raised Seat and whilst he did usually preach and administer the Sacrament they did but attend him and do nothing or but some by assisting Acts as Lay-Elders do in the Presbyterian Churches principally employed in personal oversight and in joyning in Government with the Bishop And those same Presbyters who had Congregations joyned with the rest in their Weekly Work and made up the Consessus or College of Presbyters 3. And next that and in some places at the same time Communicating Congregations were gathered in the Country Villages so far off the City as that it was found meet to leave a Presbyter Resident among them but under the Government of the City Bishop and Presbytery of whom he was one when he came among them And all this while the Churches were but like our greater Parishes which have divers Chappels where there is liberty of Communicating 4. After this when the Countries were more converted there were more Country Parish-Congregations set up till they attained the form of a Presbyterian Church differing only in the Bishop that is a certain number of the Neighbour Country Parishes in one Consistory but with a Bishop did govern all these Parishes as one Church that is It was many Worshipping Churches as sis eight or ten or twelve joyning to make up one governed Church But at the same time many Pastors and People being convinced of the Church-form which they had before been under and of their own necessity and privileges did require the same Order among themselves as was in City Churches and so had their proper Bishops who were called Chorepiscopi or Country Bishops But these Country-Bishops living among the poorer and smaller number of Christians had not so many Presbyters to attend them as the City-Bishops had So that some Country Congregations had Bishops and some had none And the Churches being chiefly governed by the Synods who met for obliging Concord to avoid Divisions these Synods being made up of the City-Bishops at first they there carried it by Vote to make all the Country-Bishops under them and responsible to them Which they the rather and the easilier consented to because many obscure and unworthy Fellows did insinuate into the esteem of the Country-Christians who had no Bishops near them to advise them better and so became the Corrupters of Doctrine and the Masters of Sects and Heresies By this time one part of the Country Churches had Bishops of their own and the other had none but only Presbyters under the City-Bishops and Presbytery But yet it was but few Neighbour-Parishes like our Market-Towns and the Villages between them that were thus under the City-Bishop For every such Town was then called a City in the larger sense as it signifieth Oppidum and most such Towns had City-privileges too which was no more than to be Corporations and not to have a Nominal Eminency as now some small places have above greater as Bath rather than Plimouth Ipswich Shrewsbury c. Next to this the Emperors being Christians and desiring without force to draw all the People from Heathenism to Christianity they thought it the best way to advance the Christians in worldly respects which ever win on common minds And so they endued the Churches and Bishops with such Honours and Powers heretofore described as were like to the Honour and Power of the Civil Governors in their kind And the Bishops being thus lifted up did first enlarge their own Dioceses as far as they could and advance their Power and the World came unchanged into the Church both in Cities and Villages where the Christians were before so few that many think the Heathens were called Pagani in distinction from the Citizens who were Christian And then the Bishops put down the Chorepiscopi as presuming too much to imitate their Power And next to that lest every Corporation or Market-Town having a Bishop their Dioceses should not be great enough and ne vilesceret nomen Episcopi lest a Bishop's Name should not be honoured enough but become cheap by reason of the number and of the smallness of his Church they first ordered that no such small Cities or other places as had People enough for but one Presbyter should have a Bishop and afterward by degrees put down many smaller Bishops Churches and joyned them to their own And so proceeded by the advantage of Civil Alterations on Cities Names and Privileges to bring themselves to the state that they are in wherein one Bishop infimi ordinis that is no Arch-Bishop hath many hundred or above a thousand Churches and multitudes of Cities called now but Corporations Burroughs or Market-Towns I have repeated so much of the History lest the Reader forget what it is that I am proving and that he may note that if I prove now that in later Ages they kept but the Vestigia or Reliques of the former to prove how it was before their times and if I prove but a Church of Presbyterian Magnitude to have so long continued it sufficeth against that which we now call a Diocess And that we do not play with Names nor by a Diocesane Church mean the same thing with a Parochial or Presbyterian but we mean such as our Dioceses now are where a Bishop alone with a Lay-Chancellor's Court or with some small help of an Arch-Deacon Surrogate or Dean and Chapter without all the Parish-Ministers besides doth rule a multitude of distant Congregations who have no proper Bishop under him And now I proceed I.
one was new then so the other could not be old XVIII Another evidence is the state of Cathedral Churches which as many Episcopal Antiquaries say were first the sole Churches of the Bishops Charge or Diocese and that Parish Churches were since built one after another as Chappels be in Parishes by those that could not come so far And that the present Government of the Cathedral by the Dean and Chapters under the Bishop is the evident relict of the old Episcopal Government and truly telleth us what it was To pass by many others I will now recite but the words of Holingshead our Historian a Clergy-man Chron. Vol. 1. p. 135. Col. 1. Those Churches are called Cathedral because the Bishops dwell near them At first there was but ONE CHURCH in every JURISDICTION whereinto no man entered to pray but with some oblation towards the maintenance of the Pastor And for this occasion they were built very huge and great for otherwise they were not capable of such multitudes as came daily to them to hear the word and receive the sacraments But as the number of Christians increased so first Monasteries then finally Parish Churches were builded in every jurisdiction from which I take our Deanry Churches to have their original now called Mother Churches and their Incumbents Archpriests And the rest being added since the Conquest either by the Lords of every Town or zealous men loth to travail far and willing to have some ease building them near hand unto these Deanry Churches all the Clergie in old time of the same Deanry were appointed to repair at sundry seasons there to receive wholsome ordinances and to consult of the necessary affairs of the whole jurisdiction if necessity so required And some image thereof is yet to be seen in the North parts But as the number of Churches increased so the repair of the faithful to the Cathedral did diminish whereby they are now become especially in their nether parts rather Markets and shops for merchandize than solemn places of prayer whereunto they were first erected I need to say no more of this XIX The next evidence is That when Churches first became Diocesane in the sense opposed they were fitted to the form of the Civil Government And Dioceses and Metropolitanes and Patriarchs came in at the same door The very name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was long unknown in a sacred sense and was after borrowed from the Civil divisions when the Church was formed according to them And as Altare Damasc p. 290. saith Vox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut refertur ad Episcopum ignota fuit Eusebio superioribus seculis And the word Parish was also before used in our narrower sense for a vicinity of Christians And as Grynaeus saith in Euseb p. 1. not 3. Euseb promiscue usurpat haec duo vocabula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that a Diocesane as such thus formed to the Romane Civil form and a Metropolitane and Patriarch yea and the Pope as the Prime Patriarch in the Empire are all of Humane institution and all of the same original and right there are few Protestants that do deny 1. The reason of the thing plainly sheweth it 2. Their beginning at once sheweth it 3. And that they were never any of them setled out of the Roman Empire where that form obtained except that they setled here and there one on the verge of the Empire to have some care of the neighbour countreys till after that the Roman name and power invited small countreys adjoyning to them to imitation And Bishop Bilson of Chr. Subject often tells us that Metropolitans and Patriarchs are of Humane institution Godwin a Bishop in the Lives of the English Bishops de Convers Brit. c. 3. p. 30. saith Quis tam imperitus est ut non intelligat post mortem Tiberii fluxisse multos annos ne dicam seculum unum aut alterum priusquam Cardinalis Patriarchae aut Metropolitani nomen in Christianorum ecclesiis auditum est He might have added aut Diocesani for they were built by the same hand on the same foundation I do not mean that an Apostolical General Ministry was so new but a Diocesane of many Churches as Episcopus infimi gradus Multitudes of Papists and Protestants attest the novelties of these foresaid ranks Two testimonies of the Papists are so notable as that I will not pass them by Cardinal Cusanus that Learned Prelate and proud enough li. de Concord l. 2. c. 13. saith Omnes gradus Majoritatis Minoritatis in ecclesia juris positivi esse And therefore concluded that the Papacy is removeable from Rome Nay the very Canon Law it self saith Decret Par. 1. dis 22. c. 1. c. omnes Omnes sive Patriarchii cujuslibet apices sive Metropoleâ—n primatus aut Episcopatuum Cathedras vel ecclesiarum cujuscunque ordinis dignitates instituit Romana ecclesia what need we more witness It is from P. Nicolaus his decretal And though a man might suspect that he meant only of the personal Institution of the particular Patriarchs Metropolitans c. yet the context sheweth the contrary and that it is the species office or place that he speaketh of Because the opposite assertion is that the Roman Churches dignity was founded by God himself And the next Cap. 2. is that not the Apostles but the Lord himself gave the Roman Church its primacy XX. The next evidence is That we rarely read of any Bishops preaching in any Church but One unless he was driven out of it by persecution or unless it were in another Bishops Church If I should except only the great Patriarchal Churches out of all the world and that only as late as 400 or 500 years after Christ when Emperours had helpt to increase the Churches no impartial man would take that for any debilitation of my proof And yet I shall not easily yield to that exception In Antioch and Jerusalem I think it will hardly be affirmed that the Bishop used to preach to any Congregation but One In Great Constantinople equalled to Rome when find you Chrysostome any where but in one Church except when violence hindred him and then the same Congregation followed him Indeed the Novatians had a Church there and perhaps there was some bye Congregation or two of Christians who all communicated in the Bishops Church and therefore were but as Chappels But go into all the rest of the world and the case will be plainer except Rome and Alexandria Even Basil an Archbishop is not found a Teacher ordinarily any where but to his Church at Caesarca nor Gregory but at Nazianzum when he went from Constantinople and from Sasimis and so of the rest no not Ambrose in the great city of Milan And let it move none that Milan and some other Cities had more Temples than one for as Baronius before cited tells us there were then many Temples built as Monuments in honour of the Martyrs that were not Tituli nor had
a particle of the foresaid proportion But when others do it he saith He doth it by them 3. He doth not at all govern his flock with that which is the true Pastoral Government which is in person among them to guide them and resolve their doubts and admit those to Communion that are fit and refuse the unfit To admonish all the scandalous and unruly as personally known to him to watch over them and confirm the weak and refel seducers when they come among them But instead of this he never seeth them as to the main body of his flock nor knoweth them but summoneth their Teachers and Church-wardens and such as others that dwell among them or his Apparitors will accuse to him to come before his Lay-Chancellours Court as aforesaid and in his Viâ—itation to meet him so that here is none of the same work no nor Government it self but another kind of Government And here note 1. That the foresaid three parts of the office Teaching Worshipping and Ruling are all Essential to the office so that if he wanted but any One of them he were not an Officer of the same species with those that have them all much more if he have but One yea not One of all 2. That the flock or Church is not to be denominated from a small or inconsiderable part of it but from the main Body Therefore he that is the Teacher but of one Congregation of a thousand or many hundreds or scores is not to be therefore called the Teacher of that Church or Flock which consisteth of so many Congregations And so also for Worship and personal conduct He is not a Priest to that flock c. Much less when he undertaketh not one Parish Obj. So you may say of one of the old City Churches such as Alexandria where the Bishop preached but to one Congregation or of our Parishes that have Chappels where the Curate teacheth in the Chappels or wherever there are many Presbyters to a Congregation All do not preach at least to all the people Ans 1. I doubt not but Alexandria and all such places should have had many Churches and Bishops as the Christians grew too many to be in and under one 2. But yet when they had several Churches and Presbyters the people were not at all tyed to their own Parishes but might come to hear and joyn with the Bishop as oft as they pleased which though they could not do all at once they might do by turns some one day and some another And so they did So that still they had personal Communion with him though not every day 3. And they lived in Vicinity where they were capable of Converse and personal notice and private help from one another 4. And the Presbyters all joyned in personal oversight or Government of the whole flock and were each one capable of personal admonition and exhortation to any member 5. And those that attended the Bishop and did not frequently officiate in the chief actions yet were present with the Church and assisted him in officiating and were ready to do the rest when ever he appointed them or there was need so that though quoad exercitium they did not the chief parts of the work every day or usually yet 1. it was all the three parts of the Pastoral office which they did and undertook to do in season 2. And that to the same Church in person by themselves So that though Churches that swell to a disordered bulk are not in that perfect order as more capable Societies may be yet whilest their Communion is personal present as aforesaid the Church species is not altered as in our Dioceses it is III. A divers fundamentum vel ratio fundandi proveth a diversity of Relations But a true Parish Bishop and our Diocesanes have fundamenta that are in specie divers And so have a particular Church and a Diocesane Church Ergo a Parish Church and Bishop and a Diocesane Church and Bishop are specie divers The Major is undeniable The Minor I prove by shewing the diversity 1. The Fundamentum of the Relation of a Particular Church is either 1. Of the Relation of the Church to God 2. Or their relation as fellow members one to another 3. Or of their joynt relation to their Pastors or Bishops 4. Or of their Bishops or Pastors relation to them For certainly a Church is not only compounded of various Materials but its form is a compounded of these Four Relations set together and every one is Essential to it And he that cannot distinguish cannot understand Now everyone of all these compounding Relations is founded in a mutual consent 1. The Relation of the Members Pastors and the whole Church to God is founded in Gods consent and theirs Gods is signified 1. By his Scripture Institution and Command 2. By his qualifying and disposing the persons 3. By his providential giving them opportunity 4. And ad ordinem where it can be had by the Ordainers as to the Pastors relation who are Gods ministers to invest them in the office 5. And by his moving the hearts of the People to consent which belongeth to the giving of opportunity The Relation of all these to God is secondarily founded in their own consent that it may be a Contract The Pastors express theirs in their Ordination in general and in their Induction or fixing in that particular Church to the Ordainers and to the people The members express their consent either plainly in a Contract or impliedly by actual convention and submission and performing of their duties 2. The Relation of the members to each other is founded in their said Explicite or Implicite consent among themselves joyned to their foresaid consent to God 3. The Relation of the Members to their Pastors is founded Remotely in the said signification of Gods will by his Word and Providence and by the Ordainers for they are but Ministers and operate but by signifying Gods will And nextly by the mutual consent of the People and the Pastors 4. The Relation of the Pastors to the flock is accordingly founded 1. Remotely in the said signification of Gods will by his Word Gifts Disposition Opportunity and by the Ministery of the Ordainers 2. And nextly by the consent of Pastors and People Thus is a particular Church-relation founded and all these parts are necessary thereunto But as for our Diocesane Churches which have no particular Churches under them nor Bishops but only Congregations with several Curates being not politically and properly Churches For I meddle not with such A. Bishops Dioceses as consist of many true Churches with their proper Bishops let us see from what foundation they result 1. As to their Relation to God he never expressed his Consent nor owneth them that ever I could hear proved And therefore the Fundamental Contract is wanting Those that go Dr. Stillingfleet's and Bishop Reynold's way and say No Form of Government is of Gods appointment do grant that the
Pastor be ready to give an account of his Ministry and to answer any thing that shall be alledged against him And that the vote of the Synod obligeth all against unnecessary singularity 10. We refuse not that one in every such Synod be the moderator and if as of old every City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corporation had a Bishop so if but every Corporation or market Town or every circuit that hath as many Communicanâ—â— as can know one another by neighbourhood and some conversation and sometimes assembling like a great Parish with many Chappels had but so much power as is essential to a true particular Pastor and Church yea or but the power that a free Tutor Philosopher or Physician hath to manage his office by his skill and not as an Apothecary or meer executor of a strangers dictates we should quietly submit 11. And as we refuse not such Bishops even durante vita capacitate in every Church or City that is Corporation so if it please either the King or the Churches by his permission to give one grave and able man a general care of many Churches as even the Scots superintendents had at their reformation as Spotswood of Lothian c. not by violence to silence and oppress but by meer Pastoral power and only such as the Apostles themselves used to instruct junior Pastors to reprove admonish c. we resist not And so if Godly Diocesans will become Arch-bishops only of this sort and promote oâ—r work instead of hindering it we shall submit though we cannot Swear approbation it being a thing that Christian Ministers may doubt of and no Article of our Creed 12. And if the King do cumulate wealth and honour on them and give them their place in Parliaments to keep the Clergy from contempt yea or trust any of them under him as Magistrates with the Sword whether we like it or not we shall peaceably submit and obey them as Magistrates 13. And if for order sake these Diocesans should have a negative voice unless in cases of forfeiture or necessity in the ordination of Ministers to the Church universal not taking away the power of particular Churches to choose or at least freely consent or dissent as to the fixing of Pastors over themselves we would submit to all this for common peace Specially if the Magistrate only choose men to Benefices and Magistracies and none had the Pastoral power of the Keyes but by the Election of the Clergy and the peoples consent which was the judgment and practice of the universal Church from the beginning of Episcopacy till of late 14. And lastly we hold the Magistrate the only Governour by the Sword as well of Pastors as of Physicians and all others And though he may not take the work of our proper calling out of our hands no more than the Physicians yet he may by justice and discretion punish us for male-administration and drive us to our duty though not hinder us from it And we consent to do all under his Government Judge now whether we set up Popes or Tyrants By all this it is apparent that it is none of the designe of this Treatise to overthrow or weaken the Church of England but to strengthen and secure it against all its notorious dangers 1. By reforming those things which else undoubtedly will cause a succession of dissenters in all generations though all we the present Nonconformists are quickly like to be past troubling them or being troubled by them even of themselves many will turne upon the same reasons which have convinced us 2. By uniting all Protestants and turning their odious wrath and contentions into a reverence of their Pastors and into mutual Love and help This Treatise being hastened in three presses since Mr. Dodwel sent me his Letter that required it I have not time to gather the Printers Errata but must leave them to the discretion of the Reader Only for English Prelacy before the first Chapter and in many other places should be The described Prelacy I will end with the two following Testimonies One ad rem the other ad hominem The Lord pity his Ship that is endangered by the Pilots October 14. 1680 Richard Baxter Justin Martyr's Apolog. We had rather die for the confession of one Faith then either lie or deceive them that examine us Otherwise we might readily use that Common saying my Tongue is sworn my mind is unsworn vid. Rob. Abbot old way p. 51. Thorndike of forbearance of Penalties It is to no purpose to talk of reformation in the Church unto regular Government without restoring the Liberty of choosing Bishops and the Priviledge of Injoying them to the Synods Clergy and people of each Diocess So evident is the right of Synods Clergy and people in the making of this of whom they consist and by whom they are to be governed that I need make no other reason of the neglect of Episcopacy than the neglect of it THE CONTENTS PART I. Chap. 1. THe Reasons of this Writing Chap. 2. The English Diocesane Prelacy and Church Government truly described that it may be known what it is which we dissent from Chap. 3. Our judgement if the History of the ancient Church Government and of the rise of the Diocesane Prelacy Chap. 4. The judgement of those Non Conformists now silenced who 1660 addressed themselves to King Charles II. for the matter in Church-Government What they then offered and what those of the Authers mind now hold as to the Right of what is before but Historically related Chap. 5. Concerning the several Writers on this Controversie wherein there are sufficient animadversions on some and sufficient Confutations of the Cheif who have written for the Prelacy which we dissent from As 1. Whitgift 2. Faravia 3. Bilson 4. Hooker 5. Bishop Downams Defence 6. Bishop Hall 7. Petavius 8. Bish Andrews 9 Bish Usher in some passages 10. Of the Dispute at the Isle of Wight 11. John Forbes 12. The two Books of the Bohemian Discipline consented to 13. Grotius applauded 14. J. D. 15. M A. de Dom. Spalatensis considered and much of him approved 16. Doctor Hammond answered viz. his Annotations his Dissertat against Blondel c. who have written against Prelacy Chap. 6. It is not pleasing to God that Cities only should have Bishops and Churches with the Territories Chap. 7. The Definition and Reasons of a Diocesan Church considered and confuted Chap. 8. Whether the Infidel Territories or Citizens are part of a Diocesane Church Chap. 9. Whether converting a Diocess give right to their Converter to be their Bishop and Ruler Chap. 10. That a particular Church of the first or lowest order must consist of neighbour Christians associated for personal Communion in local presence in holy worship and Conversation and not of Strangers so remote as have only an internal heart Communion or an external Communion by the Mediation of others Chap. 11. That a Bishop or Pastor of a Particular Church
of the first rank afore-described must govern it statedly as present by himself and not absent by others Chap. 12. The just opening and understanding of the true nature of the Pastoral Office and Church Government would end these Controversies about Prelacy Chap. 13. That there is no need of such as our Diocesâ—nes for the Unity or the Government of the particular Ministers nor for the silencing of the unworthy Chap. 14. The true original of the warrantable sort of Episcopacy in particular Churches was the notorious disparity of abilities in the Pastors And tho original of that tyrannical Prelacy into which it did degenerate was the worldly Spirit in the Pastors and people which with the World came by prosperity into the Church Quaere Whether the thing cease not when the Reason of it ceaseth PART II. Chap. 1. THe clearing of the State of the Question Chap. 2. The first Argument against the aforedescribed Diocesanes that their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church form of Gods institution and setteth up a humane form in its stead Chap. 3. That the Primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as I before described Proved by Scripture Chap. 4. The same proved by the Concessions of the most learned Defenders of Prelacy Chap. 5. The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity Chap. 6. The same further confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 7. More proof of the aforesaid Ancient Church limits from the Ancient Customs Chap. 8. That the Diocesanes cause the Error of the Separatists who avoid our Churches as false in their Constitution and would disable us to confute them Chap. 9. The second Argument from the deposition of the Primitive species of Bishops and the erecting of a humane inconsiâ—tent species in their stead A specifi k difference proved Chap. 10. Whether any form of Church Government be instituted by God as necessary or all be left to humane prudence and choice Chap. 11. Argument third from the destruction of the Order of Presbyters of divine Institution and the invention of a new Order of half Sub-presbyters in their stead Chap. 12. That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keyes in doctrine worship and discipline and no other proved by the Scriptures Chap. 13. The same confirmed by the Ancients Chap. 14. And by the Confessions of the greatest and learnedest Prelatists Chap. 15. Whether this Government belonging to the Presbyters be in foro Ecclesiastico exteriore or only in foro Conscientiae vel interiore Chap. 16. That the English Diocesane Government doth change this Office of a Presbyter of God's institution quantum in se into another of humane invention The difference opened Twenty instances of taking away the Presbyters power from them Chap. 17. That the great change of Government hitherto described the making of a new species of Churches Bishops and Presbyters and deposing the old was sinfully done and not according to the intent of the Apostles Chap. 18. Argument fourth from the impossibility of their performance of the Episcopal Office in a Diocesane Church And the certain exclusion and destruction of the perticular Church Government while one man only will undertake a work too great for many hundreds when their work is further opened in perticulars Chap 19. The same impossibility proved by experience 1. Of the ancient Church 2. Of the Foreign Churches 3. Of the Church of England 4. Of our selves Chap. 20. Objections against Parish discipline answered The need of it proved Chap. 21. The Magistrates sword 1. Is neither the strength of Church discipline 2. Nor will serve instead of it 3. Nor should be too much used to second and enforce it The mischeifs of enforcing men to Sacramental Communion opened in twenty instances Chap. 22. An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishop no King 2. Of the Rebellions and Seditions of them that have been against Bishops Chah 23. Certain brief consectaries Chap. 24. Some Testinonies of Prelatists themselves of the late state of the Church of England its Bishops and Clergy lest we be thought to wrong them in our description of them and their fruits Chap. 25. The Ordination lately exercised by the Presbyters in England when the Bishops were put down by the Parliament is valid and Re ordination not to be required jure divino as supposing it null A TREATISE OF EPISCOPACY Confuting by SCRIPTURE REASON And the CHURCHES TESTIMONY That sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by Corruption Usurpation Schismes and Persecution Meditated 1640 when the c. Oath was imposed Written 1671 and cast by Published 1680 by the Call of Mr. H. Dodwel and the Importunity of our Superiors who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity The designe of this book is not to weaken the Church of England its Government Riches Honour or Unity But to strengthen and secure it 1. By the concord of all true Protestants who can never unite in the present Impositions 2. And by the necessary reformation of Parish-Churches and those abuses which else will in all ages keep up a succession of Nonconformists As an Account why we dare not Covenant by Oath or Subscription never to endeavour any amending alteration of the Church Government by lawful meanes as Subjects nor make our selves the justifying vouchers for all the unknown persons in the Kingdom who vowed and swore it that none of them are obliged to such lawful endeavour by their vow By RICHARD BAXTER a Catholick Christian for love concord and peace of all true Christians and obedience to all lawful commands of Rulers but made called and used as a Nonconformist London Printed for Nevil Simmons at the three Cocks at the West end of Saint Pauls and Thomas Simmons at the Prince's Armes in Ludgate-street MDCLXXXI These Books following are printed for and sold by Nevil Simmons at the three Golden Cocks at the west end of St. Pauls A Christian Directory or sum of practical Theology and cases of Conscience directing Christians how to use their Knowledge and Faith how to improve all helps and meanes and to performe all duties how to overcome temptations and to escape or mortifie every sin in four parts 1. Christian Ethicks or private Duties 2. Christian Oeconomicks or Family Duties 3. Christian Ecclesiasticks or Church Duties 4. Christian Politicks or Duties to Our selves and Neighbours in Folio Catholick Theology Plain Pure Peaceable for Pacification in three Books 1. Pacifying Principles c. 2. Pacifying Praxis c. 3. Pacifying Disputations c. in Folio The Life of Faith in three Parts The first Sermon preached before his Majesty c. The Second Instructions for confirming believers in the Christian faith The third directions how to live by faith or how to exercise it in all occasions in Quarto Naked Popery or the naked Falshood of a book called the Catholick naked Truth
forbear pronouncing of all Traytors Murderers Adulterers Perjured Atheists c. that never profest Repentance at their Burial that God hath of his mercy taken to himself the soul of this our dear brother except the unbaptized c. aforesaid And note 1. that the Parish Priest hath no power to do these things either by himself or in conjunction with the Bishop or any other 2. And that there is not one Suffragan Bishop or Chorepiscopus in England under the 26 Bishops to do any part of their work in these 97025 Parishes CHAP. III. Our Judgment of the History of the Antient Church-Government and of the rise of the Diocesan Prelacy I Shall anon shew more fully that there are two things especially in which we think the very Species of our Diocesan Prelacy to be altered from the antient Episcopacy One is in the Extent of their Office as to their subject Charge a Bishop infimae speciei of the lowest species having then but One Church and now a Bishop infimae speciei having many hundred Churches made into one or nullified to make One 2. In the Work of their Office which was then purely Spiritual or Pastoral and is now mixt of Magistratical and Ministerial exercised by mixed Officers in Courts much like to Civil Judicatures The History of their rise I suppose is this 1. Christ made a difference among his Ministers himself while he chose twelve to be Apostles and special Witnesses oâ— his Doctrine Life and Resurrection and Ascension and to be the Founders of his Church and the Publishers of his Gospel abroad the World 2. As these Apostles preached the Gospel themselves and planted Churches so did many others as their helpers partly the seventy sent by Christ and partly called by the Apostles themselves And all these exercised indefinitely a preparing Ministry before particular Churches were gathered abroad the World and afterwards went on in gathering and calling more 3. Besides this preparing unfixed Ministration the same Apostles also placed by the peoples consent particular fixed Ministers over all the several Churches which they gathered 4. These fixed Ministers as such they named indifferently Bishops Elders Pastors and Teachers Whereas those of the same Office in general yet unfixed are called either by the General name of Christ's Ministers or Stewards of his Mysteries And in regard of their special works some were called Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists 5. These Apostles though unfixed and having an Indefinite charge yet went not all one way but as God's Spirit and prudence guided them they dispersed themselves into several parts of the World 6. But as they did many of them first stay long at Jerusalem so afterward in planting and setling Churches they sometimes stayed several months or years in one place and then went to another And so did the Evangelists or Indefinite Assistants whom they sent forth on the same work 7. While they stayed in these newly planted Churches they were themselves the chief Guides of the People And also of their fixed Bishops 8. This abode in settling the particular Churches and their particular Bishops or Elders occasioned Historians afterward to call both Apostles and Evangelists such as Timothy Titus Silas Silvanus Luke Apollo c. the Bishops of those Churches though they were not such as the fixed Bishops were who undertook a special Charge and care of one particular Church alone or above all other Churches 9. On this account the same Apostle is said to be the first Bishop of many Churches as Peter of Antioch and Rome Paul of Corinth Ephesus Philippi c. When indeed the Apostles were the particular fixed Bishops of no Churches but the Bishops equally of many as a sort of unfixed Episcopacy is included in Apostleship 10. On this account also it is that Timothy is said to be Bishop of Ephesus because he was left there for a time to settle that and other Churches of Asia near it as an Assistant of the Apostles And so Titus is called the Bishop of Crete because he staid in that Island which was said to have an hundred Cities on this work which belonged not to a particular Bishop but to the more indefinite Ministry 11. How many such fixed Bishops Elders Pastors or Teachers each particular Church must have the Apostles never determined by a Law But did de facto settle them according to the number of souls and store of qualified persons In some Churches it is possible there might be but one with Deacons In others it is evident that there were many as at Jerusalem Corinth c. 12. The particular Churches which were the charge of these fixed Bishops or Elders were Societies of Christians conjoyned for Personal Communion in God's Worship and mutual assistance in holy living And though for want of convenient room or liberty they did not always meet all in the same place yet were they ordinarily no more than could meet in one place when they had liberty and never more than could hold personal Communion if not at once yet at several times in publick worship As it is now in those places where one part of the Family goeth to Church one part of the day and another on the other part And those by-Meetings which any had that came not constantly to the publick Assemblies were but as our House-Meetings or Chapel-Meetings but never as another Church Nor were their Churches more numerous than our Parishes nor near so great 13. At the first they had no Consecrated nor Separated places for their Church-Meetings but Houses or Fields as necessity and opportunity directed them But as soon as they could even nature taught them to observe the same appointed and stated places for such Assemblies Which as soon as the Churches had peace and settlement they appropriated to those sacred uses only though they had not yet the shape or name of Temples 14. Though the Pastors of the Church were all of one Office now called Order being all subordinate Ministers of Christ in the Prophetical Priestly and Regal parts of his Office in the Power and Duty of Teaching Worshiping and Government yet was the disparity of Age Grace and Guifts to be observed among them and the younger Pastors as well as people owed a meet reverence and submission to the Elder and the weaker to the stronger who had notoriously more of God's Grace and Guifts So that in a Church where there were many Pastors it was not unlawful nor unnecessary to acknowledge this disparity and for the younger and weaker to submit much to the judgment of the elder and more able 15. While they kept only to the exercise of the meer Pastoral work of Teaching and Worshiping and that Government which belongeth hereunto they had little temptation comparatively to strive for a preeminence in Rule or for a Negative Voice But aliene or accidental work did further that as followeth 16. The Apostles did reprove those Worldly contentious and uncharitable Christians who went to Law before
Heathen Judges And the thing shewed so little of the Christian Spirit of Love and was also of so ill consequence by scandals and dissentions that it was worthy to be reproved especially in Christians that were persecuted by those Magistrates Therefore almost all the differences of Christians were necessarily decided by Arbitration And none were thought so fit to be the Arbitrators as the Elders or Pastors of the Churches By which it came to pass that where Churches were great and the ceasing of persecution which came but as storms that passed away did restore that peace which cherished dissentions the work of the Elders in these Arbitrations was not small especially as added to their greater proper Office-work 17. At the same time many Heresies arose which occasioned Divisions in the Churches and sometimes among the Officers themselves 18. And the Ministers being though holy yet imperfect as well as other Christians the remnants of self-conceitedness and pride occasioned also the trouble of the Churches For when the Apostles themselves while Christ was with them strove who should be the Greatest and have the highest place it is no wonder if they did so afterward who had not so great a measure of Grace as they 19. Besides all this when the Apostolical Virtues ceased there were few Philosophers or Learned men that turned Christians and few that had excellent Gifts of Oratory fit to be Teachers of the Churches And the most of the Elders were good men but of inferiour parts Like the better sort of our unlearned godly Christians By which means it came to pass that some one of the Clergy in every Church when there were many having so much Knowledge and Oratory as to overtop the rest he was ordinarily more esteemed than the rest 20. By these four means conjunct it quickly came to pass that in every Church that had many Elders some one was chosen by the rest and by the people to be the chief and to have some special power of Church affairs And 1. In cases of frequent Arbitration there seemed a kind of necessity that some One be Umpire For if half go one way and half the other there can be no end 2. And in case of Heresies and different Opinions in Religion if One had not in each Church some deciding over-ruling power or Negative Voice it is no wonder if Divisions were the hardlier prevented and the Churches Unity hardly kept 3. And especially when some One was really wiser and abler than the rest it was thought but suitable to Nature that he rather ruled the juniors and weaker sort than that their Votes should rule him or rule without him 4. And when all men have too much self-love and Pride which enclineth them to desire pre-eminence and maketh them judge too high of themselves it was thought safer for all the Clergy and People to judge who among them was really the best and wisest man than to leave every man to be judge of himself and of the rest For so it was too likely that every man would think himself the wisest Therefore one was chosen as supposed by others even by the whole Church as the fittest man to have a deciding and overseeing power among the rest to avoid contention which their own strife about pre-eminence would cause 21. And there was a fifth cause which was not much less than any of the rest which was that often through the scarcity of fit persons One man was first settled over a new-gathered Church before any others could be had to joyn with him And therefore he being there first alone and that in sole power it was thought unfit that any that came after him should come in without his consent or Ordination because he was the sole Governour so that 1. because they came after him 2. and that by his Will if not Ordination it must needs follow that he would usually have the pre-eminence As it is now among us where the Rector of the Parish where there are divers Chapels chusing his Curates who are usually his Juniors he is constantly of greater power than they and ruleth them accidentally though his Office be the same as theirs 22. As by these means one Pastor got a pre-eminence of esteem and power above the rest so in a short time he got the title of Episcopus Bishop to be appropriated to himself alone leaving the name of Elders and Pastors and Priests unto the rest in common with himself For he was now become the prime Overseer of the whole Church both people and Elders 23. Our own experience sheweth us how it came to pass that the people themselves not only consented to all this but also desired and promoted it especially then when the effects of Clergy-ambition had not fully appeared to the World For even now when a great Parish can get one Learned able Pastor they say we will allow you so much but your Curates must take less And they will not endure that the young and weak Curates have either equal maintenance or equal honour or power over them as the chief Pastor of the Parish hath so that the people themselves are against an equality of power where there is not an equality of worth 24. Though we cannot prove that this fixed Episcopacy was either set up by the Apostles or countenanced by them nor yet that it was begun and in being in their days yet it could not be long after their days that it begun And if Hierome mistake not it began at Alexandria some years before the death of St. John the Apostle 25. All this while the Bishop was not supposed to be of a distinct Office or species of Ministry now called An Order but only an Overseer and chief of persons in the same Office with him being in common with the rest Episcopus plebis and extraordinarily Episcopus Cleri vel Episcoporum seu Presbyterorum As one of the Monks is made Abbot in a Monastery or as one Justice among many is of the Quorum or one Judge on the Bench is the chief Justice Or as the President in an Academick College 26. The chief thing in which a special power was given to the Bishops above their fellow Presbyters was in Ordination that none should be Ordained without them It being a matter of exceeding great consequence to the Churches what Ministers were set over them and therefore put chiefly in the power of these chosen men And the next part of their power was in having the chief disposal of all Church affairs as our Parish Pastors have now among their Curates so that nothing was to be done in the Church without and against their consent and pleasure 27. This Episcopacy did so universally obtain that I remember not to have read of any sort of Christians Orthodox or Heretical Catholick or Schismatical who ever refused it or spake against it till Aerius's time And even he spake not against it as flatly unlawful but as unnecessary as far as I can
gather from Epiphanius And after him all sorts and Sects of Christians still owned it Even the Donatists and Novatians who had their Bishops as well as others 28. In Scripture times we read not of any meer fixed Bishops of particular Churches who Ordained either Bishops or Presbyters but only Apostles and their unfixed Assistants who had an equal charge of many Churches Not that the Office of the Indefinite unfixed Ministry was not the same with the Office of the fixed Bishops in specie For both had power to do all the Ministerial work as they had a call and opportunity to exercise it But because it being the employment of the Indefinite or unfixed Ministers to Gather and plant Churches before they could be Governed the Ordination of Elders over them was part of the planting of them and so fell to their lot as part of their constituting work 29. How it came to pass that the Itinerant or Indefinite exercise of the Ministry for planting Churches so quickly almost ceased after the Apostles days is a matter worthy to be enquired after For whereas some think that de jure obligatione it ceased with the Apostles as being their proper work that cannot be true 1. Because many others were employed in the same work in the Apostles days 2. Because it is Christ's own description of that Ministry to whom he promiseth his presence to the end of the Age or World Mat. 28. 19 20. 3. Because to this day there is still lamentable necessity of such Five parts in six of the World being yet Infidels 30. It is most probable that this service abated and withered gradually by the sloth and selfishness of Pastors And that it was the purpose of the Apostles that the fixed Bishops should do their part of both these works that is Both to preach for the Converting of all the Infidel Countries near them and also Govern their particular Churches yet not but that some others might be deputed to the Gathering of Churches alone And then these Bishops finding so much work at home and finding that the Itinerant work among Infidels was very difficult by reason of Labour Danger and their want of Apostolical gifts hereupon they spared themselves and too much neglected the Itinerant work Yet I must confess that such Evangelists did not yet wholly cease Eusebius Hist lib. 5. cap. 9. saith Pantaenus is said to have shewed such a willing mind towards the publishing of the Doctrine of Christ that he became a Preacher of the Gospel to the Eastern Gentiles and was sent as far as India For there were I say there were then many Evangelists prepared for this purpose to promote and plant the Heavenly Word with Godly Zeal after the manner of the Apostles 31. It was the ordinary custome of the Apostles to preach and plant Churches first in Cities and not in Country Villages Because in Cities there were 1. the greatest number of Auditors and 2. the greatest number of Converts And so there only were found a sufficient number to constitute a Church Not that this was done through any preeminence of the City or ignobility of Villages but for the competent numbers sake And had there been persons enow for a Church in Villages they would have placed Churches and Pastors there also as at Cenchrea it seems they did 32. When there was a Church of Christians in the City and a few Converts in the Country Villages that joyned with them they all made up but one full Assembly or Church fit for personal Communion for a long time after the Apostles days the main body of the people being still Infidels so that the Christian Churches stood among the Infidels as thin as the Churches of the Anabaptists Separatists and Independants did among us here in England in the days when they had greatest Liberty and countenance 33. Though at first the Bishops being men of the same Office with the other Presbyters were not to do a work distinct and of any other kind than the Presbyters might do but only Lead them and Preside among them in the same work as their Conductors as I said before of a chief Justice c. Yet afterward the Bishop for the honour of his calling appropriating certain actions to himself alone the Presbyters not exercising those acts in time the not exercising them seemed to signifie a want of Office or power to exercise them and so subject Presbyters who were never made by the Apostles that can be proved nor by their command were like a distinct Order or Species of Church-Officers and grew from syn-Presbyters or assessours of the same Office in specie to be as much subjects to the Bishops as the Deacons were to the Presbyters 34. All this while the Bishop with his fellow Elders and Deacons dwelt together in the same City and often in the same House and met in the same Church the Bishop sitting in the midst on a higher seat and the Presbyters on each hand him in a semi-circle and the Deacons standing And the Presbyters Preaching and otherwise officiating as the Bishop appointed who ruled the action And the Converts of the Villages came to this City Church as Members of it and joyned with the rest In the days of the Author of the Epistles ascribed to Ignatius every Church had but One Altar and One Bishop with his Fellow Elders and Deacons as the note of its Unity or Individuation For so many people as had personal Communion at One Altar with the Bishop or Elders were the constitutive parts of the Churches 35. Thus it continued also in the days of Justin Tertullian and Cyprian no Bishop having more than one Church or Altar without any other formed self-communicating Church under him but only Oratories in City or Country 36. The first that brake this Order were Alexandria and Rome where Converts soon multiplyed to a greater number than could meet in one place or Communicate at one Altar wherefore sub-assemblies with their particular Presbyters were there first formed who Communicated distinctly by themselves Though there is no proof that they Communicated there in the Sacrament of a long time after that they met for Preaching and Prayer Yet even in Rome and Alexandria the only places that had more than one stated Assembly for 200 years or more there were not so many Christians then as in the Parish that I now live in See more of my Proof in the beginning of my Church History abridged whos 's first and second Chapters belogn specially to this Treatise and therefore I must refer the Reader to them 37. Even in Epiphanius time about 370 years after Christ it is noted by him as a singularity in Alexandria that they had distinct Assemblies besides the Bishops whereupon Petavius himself largely giveth us notice that in those days except in a few very great Cities there was but one Church-assembly in a Bishops charge 38. After that in Cities or Country Villages the Converts multiplyed into more
than could meet in one Assembly and had allowance to Communicate in their sub-assemblies yet were they appointed on certain great and solemn Festivals to Communicate all with the Bishops at the chief City Church which sheweth that the sub-assemblies then were few and small 39. Thus was the Apostles Order by degrees subverted and whereas they settled distinct Churches with their distinct Bishops no Bishop having two Churches under him that had not also their proper Bishop now One Church was made of many without many Bishops sub-Presbyters first in the same Church being introduced at last sub-Churches also were set up And when they should have done as we do with Bees let every new Swarm have a new Hive and should have multiplyed Bishops and Churches homogeneal as sufficient numbers of Converts came in instead of this the City Bishops kept all under them as if they had been still one Church yet not as Archbishops that have Bishops under them and kept their sub-Presbyters as their Curates to officiate in the several Churches that had all no Bishops but One. 40. The causes of this were apparently most of the same which are mentioned before for the making of sub-Presbyters Especially 1. The selfishness of the Bishops who were loth to let go any of the people from under their superiority Because it was more honour to rule many than one single Congregation and he was a greater man that had many sub-Presbyters and whole Assemblies at his command than he that had not And also many afforded greater maintenance than a few And 2. the same Reasons that made men at first set up one Presbyter as Bishop over the rest to avoid Divisions and to determine Arbitrations did now seem strong to them for the keeping up the Authority of the City Bishop over the sub-Assemblies round about them 3. And Cities only having been possessed of Bishops for many Years if not Ages before there were Christians enow to make up Country Churches both the Bishops and the City Inhabitants easily overlooking the Reason of it took this for their Prerogative and did plead Prescription As if Schools being planted only in Cities first the Cities and Schoolmasters should thence plead that none must be setled in Country Villages but what are ruled by the City School-Masters And thus the Cities being far the strongest and the Interest of the Citizens and Bishops in point of honour being conjunct and none being capable of a Country charge but such as the City Bishops at first Ordained to it because then there were no other Bishops without resistance it came to pass that both Churches and Presbyters were subjected to the City Bishops 4. And it greatly advanced this design that the Churches which were planted in the Roman Empire did seek to participate of all secular honour that belonged to the place of their Residence And as Dr. Hammond hath largely opened though not well justified did form themselves according to the Model of the Civil Government so that those Cities that had the Presidents or chief Civil Rulers and Judicatures in them did plead a right of having also the chief Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judicatures And thus not only Cities ruled the Country Villages but in time the distinct powers and pre-eminences of Archbishops Metropolitans Primates Patriarchs and the Roman chief Patriarch or Pope came up And the Pagan Common-wealth and Christian Church within the Roman Empire and the neighbouring parts that were influenced by them had a great resemblance 41. But that which most notably set up this exsort swelling and degenerate Prelacy was the mistaken zeal of Constantine together with his Policy and the ambition of Christians and Bishops that were gratified by it For 1. As Constantine perceived that it was the Christians that were his surest strength and when the Heathen Soldiers turned from one Emperour to another as they were tempted he knew that if he only did own the Christians they would unanimously own him and be constant to him so also his Judgment and Zeal for Christianity did concur with his Interest and Policy And as all the Secular and Military Rulers depended on him for honour and power throughout the Roman world he thought it not seemly to give the chief Christians who were the Bishops less honour than he did to the Heathens and to common men Nor did he think meet to deny to the Christian Churches such priviledges as might somewhat set them higher than his other subjects 2. And the Bishops and Christians coming from under long scorn and contempt and coming newly from under the cruel Persecution of Dioclesian and affrighted anew by Maxentius and Licenius they were not only glad to be now honoured and advanced but greatly lifted up with such a sudden wonderous change as to be brought from scorn and cruel torments to be set up above all others As we should have been had we been in their case and it 's like should no more have feared the ill consequents of too much exaltation than they did 3. And the Christian people thought that the exaltation of their Bishops was the honour and exaltation of their Religion it self as well as of their persons 42. Whereas as is aforesaid the Christians had commonly stated the power of Arbitrating all their Civil differences in the Bishop alone when the Apostle intimated that any Wise man among them as such was fit for that business it grew presently to be accounted a heynous crime or scandal for any Christians to go to Law before the Civil Magistrate And Constantine finding them in possession of this custom did by his Edict confirm it and enlarge it decreeing that all Bishops should be Judges of all the Christians causes by consent and that no Civil Judge or Magistrate should compel any Christian to his bar Insomuch that in Theodosius his days when one of Ambrose his Presbyters had a cause to be tryed he denyed himself to be a Christian that he might have it decided by the Civil Magistrate that was Christian also So that even Christian Magistrates might not judge unwilling Christians but the Bishops only Yet had not the Bishops then the power of the Sword but decided all as Arbitrators and enforced their Sentences with rigorous penances and Church-censures By which means 1. many the more turned Christians without the Faith and Holiness of Christians that they might both partake of the Christians honour and immunities and specially that they might be free from corporal penalties for their crimes And who would not do so if it were now our case 2. And by this means the rigorous penalties of the Church by penances were the more easily submitted to as being more easie than corporal pains and mulcts And when thus by the Laws and countenance of so great an Emperour the Bishops were made the Judges of all that were Christians at present and all that would turn Christians that desired it it is easie to understand 1. what a Lordship they must needs
and entered Italy after that Ambrose had stopt him a while Theophilus Alexandr sendeth an Agent Presbyter with two Letters and a rich present one to Maximus and one to Theodosius ordering him to stay the issue of the Fight and give the Present with his Letter to him that proved the Conqueror But a Servant stole the Letters from the Priest and opened the whole business and caused the Priest to fly and hide himself 50. These contentions of the Bishops and corruption of manners so distasted the more Religious sort of the people that it occasioned the multiplying of separating Heresies and greatly encreased and confirmed others especially the Donatists and Novations because men thought them to be of better lives than the Orthodox 51. Yea by their very abuse of good and holy men they drove even the Orthodox often to separated Societies as thinking so bad Prelates unfit to be communicated with As in Constantinople their abuse ejection and banishment of Chrysostome caused great numbers of his faithful people to forsake the Church and meet only in separated Conventicles And though they differed in no point of Doctrine Worship or Discipline from the rest all that they could do by tyranny and threats would never bring them again to the Church but they were called Joannites and assembled by themselves till Atticus by wise and honest means first began the reconciliatiâ—â— by the publick inserting of Chrysostome's name among their honoured Bishops in the daily Liturgy of the Church and Proclus after wisely perfected it by fetching the bones of Chrysostome with honour from the place of his banishment into the Church But Theodoret Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 36. ascribeth it to that good Emperour Theodosius Junior It 's like a good Bishop and he consented For saith Socrates c. 40. Proclus behaved himself fairly towards all men perswading himself that it was far easier for him by fair means to allure men to the Church than by force to compel them to the Faith 52. The multitudes of Schismes and horrid enormities in the Church of Rome the grand corruption of Religion by them the shameful divisions between the Greek and Western Churches began so long ago and continued to this day with much more such evidence do tell the World that is willing to see what all this tended to as it's perfection 53. And having thus shewed how the Bishops of the Flock came to be Bishops of Bishops and how they grew from the Pastoral Office to a pompous denomination mostly secular and how the Bishops of single Churches did grow to be the Bishops of multitudes of Churches turned into one Diocesan Church of another species we shall leave it to those that are wise and impartial to judge whether a true Reformation must retrieve them and what Age and state of the Church must be our pattern to which we should endeavour to return and in what point it is that it is meet or possible for Christians unanimously to fix between the Apostolical institution and the height of Popery And what satisfying proof any man can give that in a line of 1500 Years that it is the right point that he hath chosen CHAP. IV. The Judgement of those Nonconformists now silenced who 1660. addressed themselves to King Charles the Second for Concord in the matter of Church-Government what they then offered and what those of the Authors mind now hold as to the Right of what is before Historically related AS I have delivered our Judgment about the History of Prelacy so shall I next freely and truly express my own Judgment and those that have concurred with me about the right of Church-Government it self supposing those 100 Propos ad Lud. Molinaeum which I have published about the Nature of Church-power and the extent of the Magistrates power in Church-matters For Truth hath great advantage when it appeareth 1. compact and entire 2. and in the open light Since the writing of this our judgment is more fully published in the Nonconformists first and second Plea for Peace Prop. 1. Since the Fall of Man as God hath given a Saviour to the World by whom he hath made a new Covenant with or for Mankind so hath he delivered all things into the Redeemer's hands and given him all power in Heaven and Earth making him the Administrator General and Head over all things to the Church 2. Some things are under Christ as Utensils viz Inanimates and Braites some are under him as meer enemies subdued as Devils some are under him as generally Redeemed and subjects de jure or quoad obligationem to be Ruled and used upon terms of Mercy And so are all Mankind in general till the day of life and grace is past some are under him as Visible Consenters and Professed subjects so are the Baptized and visible professors of Christianity And some are under him as sincere Heart-Covenanters Justified and Sanctified and to be Glorified by him 3. As Nature it self is now delivered up to Christ and the Law of Nature is now part of his Law and the Instrument of his Government both for the common good and order of the Redeemed World and also as sanctified to the special good and order of his Church Even so is the Office of Magistracy now under him and derived from him and dependant on him in both these forementioned respects Notwithstanding all the vain arguments which Mr. Brown a Scotch Divine Cont. Velthusium hath written to the contrary which need no confutation to an intelligent Reader 4. But the Office of the Sacred Ministry is much of Grace and Institution and less of Natural original than Magistracy For though it be of Natural obligation that one man teach another and that there be some fitter persons than the multitude to instruct the people and guide them in Gods Worship Yet that in specie there should be Preachers of the Gospel and Administrators of this instituted worship and Church-discipline this is it self of Christs Institution as the Doctrine worship and discipline which are their Office-work are of his Institution 5. And though a great part of a Christian Magistrates work be also Instituted viz. to promote Christs Instituted Doctrine Worship and Discipline yet so much also of his work is natural as that he may be called a Magistrate though he be not a Christian Magistrate while he executeth Gods Laws of Nature for the common good But he is at least less fitly called a Minister or Priest of God who shall only teach the Law of Nature and guide an Assembly in meer Natural Worship omitting all that is by Institution Or if any think otherwise it being but de nomine at least this is certain that the Christian or Evangelical Ministry is by Institution 6. Therefore though so far as the Mosaical Magistracy was founded in Nature or in any Revelation expounding the Law of Nature we may under the Gospel fetch proofs thence for the Christian Magistrates Authority and Obligation Yet can we fetch
baptizing 2. and then to teach and guide them Yet all are not called equally to the exercise of all these parts But some were by the Apostles and the Holy Ghost indefinitely employed in an unfixed course in converting men and gathering Churches yet officiating also in gathered Churches where they came And others were fixed in the stated relation of Pastors to particular gathered Churches to teach and rule them and worship among them yet so as also to Preach for the conversion of unbelievers as far as they had ability and opportunity 21. The unfixed Officers were called Ministers in General and Stewards of God's Mysteries and Evangelists But the fixed Officers were also especially called Bishops Pastors and Elders Though sometime â—arely the other also had such Titles because of their doing the same work transiently in the Churches where they came 22. They that were unfixed Preachers or Evangelists had not that special and particular Charge of all the souls in particular Churches and in some one Church above all the rest as fixed Bishops or Pastors have But they had a greater Obligation than these Bishops to preach to Infidels because it was their ordinary chief work 23. The Pastors of particular Churches had such a Charge of those particular Flocks above all other Flocks materially as that they were not obliged equally to do the same for others as they did for them Though yet when they had a particular call they might transiently or occasionally perform the work of the Pastoral Office to other Churches 24. This relation to their particular Flock was not such as disobliged them from their higher regard of the Universal Church For our relation to that is stricter and more indissoluble than to any particular Church And we must always finally prefer the Church Universal though materially we are to labour in our particular Churches principally and sometimes only because by such Order the Church Universal is best edified 25. The Apostles usually but not only planted Churches in great Cities rather than in Country Villages 26. This was not that hereby they might oblige others to confine Churches to Cities only nor because they had any special honour for a City but because they were the places of greatest â—â—â—â—course and had best opportunity for Assemblies and most materials to work upon 27. Neither the Apostles nor others for some Ages after Christ did divide the Countries about such Cities and assign part of theâ— to be the Diocess of one Bishop and the other part to the Bishop of the next adjoyning City Nor was there any bounding of Parishes or Diocess nor any determination to which Bishop such and such ground or Villages of unconverted Infidels did belong Only as natural prudence guided them and the spirit of God they so dispersed themselves that none might hinder another in his work but as most tended to the propagation and orderly governing of the Churches 28. Therefore no City Bishop had such a Particular Charge of the souls of all the individual Infidels either in his City or the Country round about him which some feign to have been his Diocess as he had of the souls of the Church which he was Pastor of Though he was bound to do all that he could to convert all as he had opportunity he stood not in any Pastoral relation to this or that individual Infidel as he did to all the individual Christians of his charge Ignatius requireth the Bishop to know all his Flock by name and enquire after them even the servants but not so of all Infidels in his City or Circuit 29. No man was therefore the Pastor of any Christians in a particular Church relation meerly because he converted them Nor was there ever any Law made by Christ or his Apostles that all should be members of that particular Church whose Overseer did convert them much less that at a distance they should be the members of his Episcopal charge though in another Church 30. The Apostles setled in every particular Church one or more with the Pastoral power of the Keys to teach and govern that Church and to lead them in publick worship And every such Body should still have one or more Pastors with such power And no Pastor or Bishop should have more particular Churches under his special immediate Charge than one unless as an Archbishop who hath Bishops in those particular Churches under him 31. A particular Church of Christ's Institution by his Apostles is A sacrrd Society consisting of one or more Pastors and a capable number of Christian Neighbours consociate by Christs appointment and their own consent for personal communion in God's publick worship and in holy living In this definition 1. The Genus is a sacred Society so called 1. to distinguish it from a meer community or unbodied company of Christians 2. and to distinguish it from Civil and prophane Societies For the Genus is subalternate and the species of a superiour Genus 2. The constitutive parts are Pastor and People 3. I say Pastors as distinguishing it from all other societies as headed by other Officers or Rulers As Kingdoms by Kings Colleges by their Governours Schools by School-masters Families by Parents c. For Societies are specified by their Governours 4. I say one or more because it is the Office in some person that is the constitutive part the number being indifferent as to the Beings though not as to the well being of the Society 5. The People being the other material part of the Society I call them Christians that is Baptized Professing Christians to distinguish them from all Infidels who are uncapable to be members 6. I call them Neighbours because the Proximity must be such as rendereth them capable of the Ends of the Society For at an uncapable distance they cannot have Church-communion 7. I put in a capable number because too few or too many may be utterly uncapable of the Ends One or two are uncapable defectively such multitudes as can have no Church communion are uncapable through excess of which more after 8. The form is the Relative Union of Pastor and People in reference to the Ends Which I mean in the word Consociate 9. The foundation or prime efficient is Christ's Institution 10. The Condition sine qua non is their mutual consent 11. The end or terminus is their Communion 12. The matter of this Communion is both God's publickworship and a holy life which distinguisheth them from such as associate for civil ends or any other besides these 13. The proper species of this holy Communion is that it be Personal By which I mean such as Pastor and People may ordinarily exercise in presence to distinguish it from that sort of Communion 1. which we have only in spirit in faith judgment and affection with Christians in all parts of the World And 2. from that external Communion which several Churches hold together by Messengers Delegates or Letters For if that kind of distant Communion would
serve to the being of a particular Church we might be of the same particular Church with men in the several parts of the World 32. Deacons are subordinate Officers or Ministers to Christs Ministers not essential to the Church but only Integral as needful to its well being in such Churches where the number and benefit of the People do require them 33. The necessity of these Individual or particular Churches is founded in the necessity of the foresaid publick worshiping of God and in the use of the mutual assistance of Christian Neighbours in the matters of salvation and in the need of the personal inspection and conduct of the Pastors over all the Flock 34. The difference between this personal Communion and the distant Communion by Letters or Delegates or meerly internal in Faith and Love is so great and notorious as must make those Societies specifically distinct which are associated for such distinct Ends. 35. Yet do we not hold that all true Churches do Assemble together in one place or that they consist of no more than can meet at once For whole Families seldom go all at once to the Assembly Therefore if one part go to day and another the next day they worship God publickly in personal Communion though not all at the same time 2. And many may be sick and many infants and many aged and the great distance of some may make a Chapel or subordinate Meeting often needful And yet 1. they may all come together in one place at several times for Church communion 2. And they may live so near that one may be capable of neighbourly converse with others and of admonishing exhorting and encouraging each other in their Christian Course 36. Where a Church is so small as to need but one Pastor Christ doth not require that they have more And One can neither be superiour or inferiour to himself 37. But it is most desirable that a Church be as numerous or great as will consist with that sort of Communion which is the end of the Society and consequently that they have many Pastors Because this tendeth to their strength and beauty and it is a joyful thing to worship God in full Assemblies 38. The work of a Bishop or Pastor of a single Church is to mention it more particularly to Teach the Church the meaning of the Scriptures especially of all the Articles of Faith and the things to be Desired in Prayer and the matters and order of Obedience to all the commands of Christ To instruct the Children in the Catechistical or Fundamental verities To Baptize to Pray in the Assembly to praise God to celebrate the Lords Supper to visit the Sick and pray for them To visit the several Families or personally instruct those ignorant ones that understand not publick Preaching as far as he hath opportunity To watch over the Conversations of the several Members and to receive informations concerning them To resolve the doubts of those that seek resolutions and to offer help to them that are so sensless as not to seek it when their need appeareth To comfort the sad and afflicted To reprove the scandalous To admonish the obstinate before all To censure and cast out the impenitent that continue to reject such admonition To absolve the penitent To take care of the Poor And to be exemplary in holiness sobriety justice and charity I pass by Marriage Burials and such other particular Offices And I meddle not here with Ordination or any thing that concerneth other Churches but only with the work of a Bishop or Pastor to the People of his proper Flock 39. The ablest Man among us for mind and body may find full and needful employment of this sort among an hundred persons especially such as our common Christians are But if he have five hundred or a thousand he hath so much to do as will constrain him to leave something undone which belongeth to his Office Therefore our Market Towns and large Country Parishes where there are ordinarily two three or four thousand in a Parish have need of many pastors to do that for which the Pastoral Office was ordained Much more our greatest City and Town Parishes that have ten thousand twenty thousand and some above thirty if not forty or fifty thousand in a Parish 40. The office of a Pastor containing the Power of the Keys as subordinate Ministerially to Christ in his Teaching Ruling and priestly work is not by man to be divided and part of it to be given to one sort and part to another though they that have the whole power may variously exercise it as there is cause But every Church must have such as have the whole power as far as concerneth the People of that Church 41. To divide the essential parts of the Sacred Office as to give one the power of Teaching only another of Worshiping only and another of Ruling only or any two of these without the third is to destroy it and change the species as much as in them lieth that do it And as no one is a man without his Animal Vital and Natural parts so no one is a true Pastor without the threefold power forementioned of Teaching Ruleing that Church by Pastoral means and Conducting them in publick Worship He may be a Pastor that is hindered from the exercise of some one of these or more but not he that hath not the Power in his Office Dividers therefore make new Church Offices and destroy the old 42. Churches headed by such a new sort of Officers specifically distinct from the old of Christ's Institution are Churches specifically differing from the Churches which Christ Instituted Because the Society is specified by the species of its Head or Governour 43. To make a new sort of Church-Heads or Rulers as their Constitutive parts is to make a new sort of Churches 44. The three forsaid Essential parts of the Pastoral Office are not to be exercised by any Lay-man nor by any man that hath not that Office Nor may the Pastors do that work per alios or delegate Lay-men or men of another Office to do it as in their stead For the Office is nothing but just Authority and Obligation to do that work And if they convey such Authority and Obligation to another they convey the Office to another And so he is no longer a Lay-man or of another Office only 45. Therefore though many Pastors of the same Office may in a great Church distribute the work among them yet none of them must do it only as the delegate of another not having himself from God the Office which containeth the power of doing it 46. But the Accidentals of the Pastoral Office may be committed to a Lay-man or one that is no Pastor As to summon Assemblies to keep Registers or the Church Books Goods Buildings with many the like And so some think that the Apostles instituting Deacons was but a communicating the Accidentals of their Office to other men Therefore if
swear that they are duties or may be done as of humane obligation by those that cannot say they are of Divine obligation 55. We hold that the first Churches that did divolve all arbitrations of differences among Christians upon the Pastors did that which brought no great present inconvenience when the People were but few and the Pastors had sufficient leisure but that which prepared for the degenerating of the Ministry and the Churches lamentable corruption And therefore that they should have foreseen this and done as St. Paul directed them and referred matters to any fit wise man among them And when they saw the mischief they should have quickly reformed it as Silvanus Bishop of Troas aforementioned did And that if there were Lay Elders in any of the ancient Churches as one passage in Origen and one in Ambrose and this of Silvanus in Socrates have made some think they were truly Lay and appointed only to such Arbitrations as these and such other Animadversions over the rest as Lay-men may do A help that I once tryed and found to be very great 56. We hold that when Constantine gave the Clergy the sole Power of Judging the Causes Civil and Criminal of all the Christians he shewed more ignorant zeal than true discretion and did let in a pestilence into the Church and that instead of that he should have only left Arbitrations to mans free choice and have set up a Christian or Righteous Magistracy to whom both Bishops and all other Christians should submit 57. We hold that when Christians so multiplyed as that they grew uncapable of Personal Communion at one Altar it was the duty of them and the Bishops to have ordered them into new Churches whcih should every one have had its proper Bishop or plenary Pastoral Office among them and not to have kept them all still in the name of one particular Church infimi ordinis when they were uncapable of the nature and end 58. We hold that it was sinfully done to make a new Office or Order of subject Presbyters that had not the Governing power of their perticular Churches neither alone nor conjunct but had only the power to Teach and Worship the Government being reserved only to the Bishop of another called a Mother Church 59. But we believe that this came not in till many hundred Years after Christ and that but by slow degrees and that after subordinate Churches and Altars were invented and set up yet the Pastors under the name of Presbyters had much of the Governing power of the Keys though with and under the Bishop of the Mother Church 60. The deposing of all the first rank or Order of Bishops which were before over each particular Church the making of a new Office of half Presbyters the making of Churches of a new species as being under a new sort of Officers the making Archbishops who should have many Churches and Bishops under them to become the Bishops of the lowest rank having none under them but above all these the making of the Pastoral work especially discipline become utterly impossible by putting that into one mans hand that cannot be done but by many or many hundred these and such like are the things that we can neither swear to nor approve 61. We hold that though the Magistrate may shape his part of the Church Government variously according to the Interest of the common good yet that the Spiritual or Pastoral part should not have been molded into the shape of the Civil Imperial Government And that so doing did give the Papacy that countenance which is the ground of its usurpation 62. For we hold that the essential constitution of the Pastoral Office and its work and the essential constitution of the Church Universal and of Individual or particular Churches are all of Divine unalterable Institution And that all Laws of Christ for such Constitution and for Administration are unalterable by man Though we hold that Circumstancials and Accidentals are alterable as being not setled by any Divine determination As e. g. how many Ministers shall be in each Church which of them shall be more regarded than the rest as being of greater wisdom how ost and when and where they shall assemble with many the like 63. We hold that as all Christians ordinarily should have personal Communion in particular Churches so those Churches and their Bishops should hold such Communion as is needful to their strength and concord and the common good 64. This Communion of Churches is to be held internally by Concord in the same Faith and Love and Religion and externally by the same profession and instrumentally 1. by Messengers and Letters and 2. by Delegates and Synods when there is need which as is said for Time Place Numbers Provinces Orders are left to humane Prudence 65. If any that divide the Country into Provinces will settle Synods accordingly and settle over them Presidents for the ordering of their proceedings and will give power to one above others to call such Synods and will call these Provinces or Nations or Empires by the name of Provincial National or Imperial Churches and the Bishops so exalted by the name of Metropolitans Primates Patriarchs c. We contend not against this as unlawful in it self though we easily see the accidental danger being taught it by long and sad experience so be it 1. that none of these be pretended to be of Divine Institution but of humane determination 2. and that they meddle with nothing but such accidentals as are left to humane prudence 3. and that they equal not their humane Association with the Christian Worshiping Churches which are of Christ's Institution 4. and that much less they do not oppress their brethren and tyrannize nor deprive the particular Pastors and Churches of their proper priviledges and work But alas when were these Rules observed by humane Churches 66. The Canons of such Synods or Councils of Bishops may be made Laws indeed by the Civil power and they are if just obligatory to the people by virtue of the Pastoral Authority of the Bishops But as to the particular Bishops they are only Agreements and no proper Laws the Major Vote of Bishops being not proper Governours of the rest and bind only by virtue of Christ's General Laws for Love and Concord 67. The Pastoral power is not at all Coactive by secular force on body or estate but only Nunciative and perswasive commanding in Christ's name as authorized by him and executed no otherwise than by a Ministerial word and by with-holding our own acts of Administration and denying our Communion to offenders Nor did the Apostles themselves pretend to any other than this power of the Word for the Keys are exercised but thus excepting what they did by Miracle And if Bishops would go no further they would work on none but Voluntiers and their usurpations might be the more easily born 67. And indeed we are fully perswaded that none but Voluntiers are â—it for the
Soveraign but Christ 79. By all this it is evident that we grant all these following disparities in the Church 1. The disparity of Age standing and Gifts among Ministers of the same Order 2. A kind of paternal priority where one was the Teacher Educater or Ordainer of the other 3. An accidental disparity when one only by the Patron or Magistrate hath the sole possession of the Maintenance and power of the Temple 4. We will not unpeaceably contend against the guiding power or negative Vote of One Bishop in a particular Church over the rest of the Pastors of the same Office Nor do we take such a power to make a distinct Office 5. We do not strive against the Presidency of one in Synods as Moderator No though it were durante vitâ which Bishop Hall thought would serve to heal us 6. We do not deny Obedience to any Bishop who is Commissioned by the King to exercise as a Church-Magistrate his part of the Church-Government 7. Much less do we strive against the Power of Kings and Lawful Magistrates Circa Sacra of which Grotius hath excellently written de Imper. But we take the Magistrate to be the necessary and only Ruler by the Sword to keep Peace and Order among Church men as well as among men of all other Professions 8. Yea I do not contend against the Divine Right of General Bishops or Archbishops such as Timothy and Titus nor will deny Obedience to them who take care as Visitors of Many Churches which have every one their proper Bishop one or more with true plenary Pastoral power of the Keys to guide the people of their charge 9. We refuse not to receive Ordination from such General Bishops 10. Nor do we refuse to be responsible to them when we are accused of any male Administration or to admit of Appeals from us to them 80. By all which it appeareth 1. How falsly we are charged to be against all Episcopacy 2. And how falsly and deceitfully all those Writers state the Case and plead against us that only plead for a Congregational or Parochial Episcopacy or any of this which we grant and how they cheat their Readers who make them believe that our Controversie is whether there should be any Episcopacy and not what kind of Episcopacy it should be 3. What friends they will prove to the Church that will rather do all that is done against it than endure those that grant all this which we do grant them 81. That I am not singular in all this I prove in that it was only Archbishop Usher's Reduction of Episcopacy to the Primitive state which the Nonconformists malitiously called Presbyterians did offer to his Majesty and the Bishops 1660. as the means of our Concord and which was rejected Yea that they thankfully accepted though not totally approved that higher Model expressed in his Majesties Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs And now I suppose I have given Strangers and Posterity a truer Description of the Judgment of the present Nonconformists than malicious turbulent ambitious Persons use to give of them or than the extreams and freaks of a few Sectaries would allow men to receive CHAP. V. Concerning the Writers of this Controversie With a Summary Answer to the Chief that write against the Cause which I defend I Have not been altogether negligent to read the Controversies on this Subject nor I hope partial in Reading them If I have it hath been because I had rather have found Conformity to the Prelacy to be lawful for then I had not above nine years been silenced and denied not only all Church maintenance but leave to preach Christ's Gospel nor had I been exposed as I have been to so much wrath and malice expressed in so many scurrilous lying invectives and libells besides other ways Even when I doubted of the use of the transient Image of the Cross I was of opinion that Prelacy was lawful and so was likely to continue if the Prelates would have given me leave But in 1640 they put a New Oath upon us Never to Consent to the Alteration of the present frame of Prelacy as under Archbishops Bishops Deans Archdeacons c. and that it ought so to stand And I thought it was then time when I was put to such a solemn Oath to search more throughly into all the matter before I sware And in searching I found in general that almost all Writers for Episcopacy either confound Diocesan Prelacy such as ours with the Episcopacy of a single Church or at least all their proof extendeth to no more than I have here granted When they offer us the definition of a Bishop which few of them do it is such as neither supposeth any more Churches than one to be his Charge nor any Presbyters under him at all but only a Power of Ordaining Presbyters and ruling them when he hath them whether in one Church or more And I find that they are so far from proving that ever the Apostles appointed a distinct Office of Presbyters which had not the power of the Keys over the People in foro interiore exteriore as they call them but had only power to Teach and Worship under Bishops as a superior Office or Order as that they prove not any such to have ever been under the Apostles themselves and some of themselves do plainly deny it Nor do they prove that long after the Presbyters were any more subject to the Bishops than the Deacons are now to the Archdeacon or the Bishops to the Archbishop who are of the same Order So that whoever else they speak to they say nothing to me and seem not to know where the Controversie lyeth viz. 1. Whether a Bishop of the lowest rank being no Archbishop or having no Bishops under him over many Churches or Societies of Christians stated under their proper Pastors or Presbyters for ordinary personal Communion in all God's publick Worship be of Divine or Lawful Humane Institution 2. Whether an Order or Office of Presbyters that have not the power of the Keys even in foro exteriore be of Divine or Lawful Humane Institution whom for brevity I shall hereafter call half-Presbyters So that the Question is not whether one Man was after sometime called peculiarly the Bishop and in the same Church sate over Presbyters of the same Office as Archpresbyters or as Archdeacons over Deacons or Archbishops over Bishops Nor yet whether there were or should be a General sort of Bishops or Archbishops over the Bishops of particular Churches But whether any stated Body of Worshiping Christians as afore described like our Parish Churches that have unum altare should be without a Bishop of their own or without a Pastor that hath the threefold power before described of Leading the People in Doctrine Worship and Discipline called the power of the Keys And whether he be a true Presbyter or Minister of Christ that wants this power And whether they that depose the Parish Ministers of
we differ he indeed saith much to little purpose and finally giveth away his Cause or as he merrily telleth his Adversary pag. 62. l. 3. 6. 47. he useth it as Sir Christopher Blunt's head was used after his apprension first healed and then cut off For 1. in his lib. 3. Where he speaketh of the power of Ordination he not only confesseth that it is in Presbyters with the Bishops and that the Bishops have but a superiority of power therein but is angry with his Adversary for supposing the contrary saying ch 3. p. 68. But where good Sir do I say they must have the sole power in Ordination which you have so oft objected and now again repeat make you no conscience of publishing untruths Cannot Bishops be superiour to other Ministers in the power of Ordination and Jurisdiction which is the thing which I maintain unless they have the sole power so p. 64 c. Therefore he granteth that extraordinarily in case of necessity Presbyters may Ordain that is without a Bishop page 69. and page 108. he giveth this reason for the validity of their Ordination Because Imposition of hands in Confirmation of the Baptized and Reconciliation of Penitents were reserved to Bishops as well as Ordination and yet in the absence of Bishops may be done by Presbyters And that the Papists themselves grant that the Pope may license a Presbyter to Ordain Presbyters If therefore saith he by the Popes license a Presbyter may Ordain Presbyters much better may a Company of Presbyters to whom in the want of a Bishop the Charge of the Church is divolved be authorized thereto by necessity And if all this be so no doubt but the Power of Ordination is in Presbyters as such though they are not to exercise it alone nor without or against the Bishop And so formerly they were not to Preach or Baptize nor Congregate the Church without him For why cannot a Lay-man Ordain with the Bishop but because he hath no such authority And Cap. 5. as to the power of Jurisdiction he saith the same p. 110. 111. I deny not Presbyters which have charge of souls to have Jurisdiction both severally in their Parishes and jointly in Provincial Synods And I have confessed before that Presbyters have with and under the Bishops exercised some Jurisdiction I grant that Godly Bishops before they had the countenance and assistance of Christian Magistracy and direction of Christian Laws used in all matters of moment to consult with their Clergy This was practised by Cyprian Ambrose also in 1 Tim. 5. 1. teacheth that there was a time when nothing was done without the advice of the Presbyters which therefore by Ignatius are called the Counsellors and Co-assessors of the Bishops Which course if it were used still as it would ease the Bishops burden very much so would it nothing detract from their superiority in Governing And page 115. The thing which I was to prove if it had been needful was that whereas Presbyters did Govern each one the People of a Parish and that privately the Bishop Governeth the People of the whole Diocess and that publickly So that both Ordination and Jurisdiction belong to the Presbyters Office though in the exercise of it they must be governed themselves Is not this the very sum of Archbishop Usher's Model of Primitive Episcopacy which we offered his Majesty and the Bishops at first for Concord and the Bishops would not once take it into their Consideration nor so much as vouchsafe to talk of it or bring it under any deliberation When alas we poor undertrodden Persons not only desired to be low our selves but yielded to submit to all their heights their Lordships Parliament dignities grandure and to let them alone with their real sole Ordination and Jurisdiction over us poor Presbyters and to have taken as much care of the People as they would so we could but have obtained any tolerable degree of Government to be setled in each particular Church either in all the Presbyters or in one Bishop and not have had all the particular Churches deprived of Bishops and all the Pastoral Jurisdiction But our great Controversie is handled by Bishop Downame in his second Book wherein he laboureth to prove that the Bishops Church or rather Charge was not a Parish but a Diocess And first page 4. he giveth us a scheme of the Scripture acception of the word Church as preparatory to his design In which there are many Texts cited not only without any shew of proof that they speak of what he affirmeth them to speak but contrary to the plain scope of the places And he tells us that the word Church is used in Scripture for the Church Militant Congregated in an Universal or Occumenical Synod And offereth us not one Text for instance which he doth though injuriously for all the rest Nor is there any that so speaketh He tells us that the word is used particularly to signifie the Church of a Nation in the singular number but could name no such place as to any Church since Christ but only the Jewish Church Acts 7. 38. And he saith it is used to signifie particularly and definitely the Church of a Nation in the plural number And is not this a strange kind of Allegation The Scripture speaketh of the Churches in a Nation Therefore it useth the word for the Church of a Nation in the plural number Is one Church and many all one with him Would he have applauded that man that would have said that such an Author useth the word College for the College of an University in the plural number because he named the College in an University and this to prove that an University is one College Had it not been better said The New Testament never useth the word Church for all the Churches in one Nation since Christ definitely but ever calleth them plurally Churches Therefore to call them all One National Church is not to imitate the Scripture His first Instance is Rom. 6. 4. All the Churches of the Gentiles A sad proof of a National Church What Nation is it that the word Gentiles signifieth No doubt the Gentile Churches were in Gentile Nations But that doth not prove that the Christians in any Nation are ever called in Scripture since the Jews Nation One Church but Churches His next instance is 1 Cor. 16. 1. The Churches of Galatia And the rest are all such v. 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1. Gal. 1. 2. 22. The Churches of Asia Macedonia Judaea But I hope he intended no more than to tell you that the Christians of several Nations are never called a Church but Churches as having any sort of Union than National He giveth many instances when the word Church is used definitely to signifie the Church of a City and Country adjoyning But to prove it used to signifie several Churches in City and Country adjoyning but one only Two Texts he alledgeth to prove that the word Church is used
definitely to signifie these Churches Congregate into a Synod or Consistory But I believe his word of neither place One is Mat. 18. 17. Tell the Church c. If I say that tell the Church signifieth tell the Society containing Pastors and Christians though it is the Pastors that you must immediately speak to and the offender must hear I give as good proof of my exposition as he doth of his If I speak to a man and hear a man though it be only his ears that hear me and his tongue that speaketh to me yet by the word man I mean not only ears and tongue If the King send a Command to a Corporation to expel a seditious member though the Mayor or Aldermen only do it Authoritatively and the People but executively yet the word Corporation doth not therefore signifie the Officers only The other Text is Act. 15. 22. But I will not believe him that the whole Church signifieth the Synod only For though they only decreed it I think the rest consented and approved it and are meant in the word the whole Church I grant him that Rom. 16. 1. the word signifieth the Church of a Village or Town But he will never prove that it is not meant of a Church of the same Species as City Churches were And as to the House or Family Churches which he mentioneth Rom. 16. 5. 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Phil. 2. Dr. Hammond expoundeth Col. 4 15. of the Church that did meet in his house and so some do all the rest But that we stand not for nor doth it concern us But when he addeth a multitude of Texts as using the word Church indefinitely not defining the place Society of a Nation or City quantity c. most of the instances brought are of Churches definite as to place and of the same Species as the Apostles Instituted though when the Church of such a place is said to do a thing it 's no determination what number of the members did it His first instance is Acts 4. 31. and next Acts 15. 3 9 c. The Churches had rest through all Judaea and Gallile and Samaria Acts 15. 3. Speaks of the Church of Antioch which v. 27. it 's said they gathered together v. 4. mentioneth the Church at Jerusalem v. 11. mentioneth the Churches of Syria and Cilicia Acts 18. 22. Speaketh of the Church at Caesarea Rom. 16. 16. Speaks of the Churches where Paul lately travelled v. 23. Gaius was the Host of a definite whole Church at Corinth And when 1 Cor. 4. 17. he speaketh of his teaching in every Church it is an Universal enunciation but of Churches of a certain or definite species and so of the rest Then p. 5. he telleth us what is truly and properly a Church on Earth and saith Every company of men professing the true faith of Christ is both truly a Church and a true Church Ans. Yes As Canis caelestis is truly a Dog and a true Dog but not properly but equivocally A Church in its most famous signification is a Society constituted of the Pastor and Flock as a School of the Schoolmaster and Schollars And an accidental meeting of Christians in a Market or Ship is no more properly called a Church than School-boys meeting in such places are a School No nor occasionally praying together neither So p. 5. He concludeth that the Christian People of one City and Country adjoyning whether Province or Diocess are one Church yea of any Nation or part of the World not because under one Spiritual Government or Priest-hood but because one People or Commonwealth ruled by the same Laws professing the same Religion All this is de nomine only But are we not likely to dispute well when we never agree of the Subject or terms of the Question We have no mind to contend about Names Let him call the World or a Corporation or Kingdom or Ecclesiam Malignantium by the name of a Church if he will so that we first agree what Church we dispute of We talk not of any accidental meeting or Community but a Society before defined constituted of the pars gubernans and pars subdita And of this sort we know of Divine Institution an Universal Church Headed by Christ and particular Churches headed under him by their Bishops or Pastors A Church without a Head in Fair Ship or Temple we talk not of Nor yet of a Church that hath but an Accidental Extrinsick and not an Essential Constitutive Head to them as they are Churches of Christ's Institution Whether it be the Emperour of Germany or of Constantinople Mahometan Christian Papist or Protestant we believe that every Soveraign is so the Head that is the Ruler of the Church that is of the Christians in his Dominions We denominate â formâ Bishop Downame may denominate whence he please à materiâ or ab accidente c. and say They are one Church that are under one Prince Law of one Religion Do with your Equivocals what you will But forget not that it is a Pastoral particular Church of the Holy Ghost's Institution that we Dispute about Otherwise I deny not Diocesan or Patriarchal Churches nor deny that the Papal Kingdom is a Church of a certain species right or wrong And forget not his Concession p. 6. and we need no more Indeed at the very first conversion of Cities the whole number of the People converted being sometimes not much greater than the number of the Presbyters placed among them were able to make but a small Congregation But those Churches were in Constituting they were not fully Constituted till their number being increased they had their Bishop or Pastor their Presbyters and Deacons without which Ignatius saith there was no Church c. Of wâ—â—â—h after He next Cap. 1. laboureth much to prove that the words Ecclesia Paraecia and Diocaesis of old were of the sâ—â—e signification About words we have no mind to strive But all the proofs that he brings of the extent of a Church to more than one Congregation or Altar are fetcht from later times when indeed Churches were transformed into Societies much different from those before them He citeth Concil Carth. 2. c. 5. 3. 42 43 c. that places that had no Bishops before should not receive Bishops without the consent of the Bishop whom they were before under Indeed by these Canons we see much of the state of the Church in those times and partly how the Case was altered Every Church had a Bishop of its own Those Churches were almost all first planted in Cities The multitudes were Heathens but the City Christians with those in the Country near them were enow to make a Church or Congregation In time so many were Converted in the Country Villages that they were allowed Assemblies like our Chappels at home And some of them had Country Bishops set over them And in many places greater Towns which they then called Cities were anew converted The Presbyters
that were abroad among these new Converts or scatered Christians made them know that every Church should have a Bishop and that they might choose one of their own And few Presbyters being then Learned able men in Comparison of the Bishops by this advantage of presence among them many raw and schismatical Presbyters crept into the Peoples affections and perswaded them to choose them for their Bishops when they were chosen and ordained they encroached on the rest of the old Bishops Diocess and also refused to come to the Synods lest their failings should be known pretending that they must stay with their own People Now the Bishops that complained of this did not alledge 1. That no Bishop should be made but in a City 2. Nor that when Christians multiplyed they must not multiply Bishops accordingly but all be under their first Bishop only 3. Nor that a new Congregation had not as good right to have and chuse a Bishop of their own as the first City Congregation had But only to keep ignorant Schismatical Presbyters from deceiving the People for their own exaltation and from hindering Synodical Concord they Decreed that none in their Diocesses should have Bishops without the first Bishops consent And that being so Consecrated they should frequent Synods and should be Bishops only of that People that first chose them and not encroach on the rest of the Diocess And whereas he hence gathereth that the Country Churches ever from the beginning belonged to the City Bishops There were no such things as Appendant Country Churches from the beginning of the City Churches But it 's true that from the beginning of the Country Peoples Conversion when they were not enow to make Churches themselves they belonged to the City Churches as Members Even as now the Anabaptists and Independent Churches consist of the People of Market-Towns and the adjoyning Country Associated into one Assembly After that the Country Meetings were but as Oratories or Chappels And when they came to be enow to make dinstinct Churches of some good Bishops had the Wit and Grace to help them to Chorepiscopi Bishops of their own but most did choose rather to enlarge their own Possessions or Powers and set Subject Presbyters only over the People And that these new Bishopricks must be by the old Bishops consent is apparently a point of Order to avoid inconveniences if not of Usurpation For what power had the old Bishop to keep any Church of Christ without a Bishop of their own when it was for there good That he hath some countenance from Leo for the New Church-Form without Bishops I wonder not when Leo was one of the hottest that betimes maintained the Roman Primacy if not Universal Soveraignty And as the Care against placing Bishops in small places ne vilescat nomen Episcopi came in late so 1. It intimateth that it was otherwise done at least by some before 2. And it is but the Prelatical grandure which Constantine had pufft up which is then alledged as the Reason of this Restraint His Argument is That which was judged unlawful by the Canons of approved Councils and Decrees of Godly Bishops was never lawfully regularly and ordinarily practised But c. I deny the Major Kneeling at Prayer or Sacrament on the Lords day the Marriage of Priests the Reading of the Heathens Writings and abundance such-like were forbidden by such approved Councils especially a multitude of things depending on the new Imperial shape of the Churches which are now lawful and were lawful and ordinarily practised before Paul Kneeled and Prayed on the Lord's day Acts 20. c. Therefore the placing of Bishops in Country Parishes was not unlawful before because the Councils of Bishops afterward forbad it nor was it ever unlawful by Gods Law Methinks a Bishop that subscribeth to the 39 Articles of the Church of England which mentioneth General Councils erring even in matters of Faith should never have asserted that they cannot erre in matter of Government nor retract and alter that which was well practised before them His next Argument is this If there were any Parish Bishops then they were the Chorepiscopi But the Chorepiscopi were not such Ans 1. I deny the Major There were then many City Bishops that were but Parish Bishops or had but one Church as shall be further proved 2. Yet as to a great number it is granted that their Diocesses had many Churches at the time of Concil Eliber Sardic c. which he mentioneth But it followeth not that therefore it was so with any in the time of Ignatius or with many in Cyprian's time 3. If it were all granted de facto it will not follow that de jure it was well done and that the old Form was not sinfully changed 4. The Chorepiscopi themselves might have many Congregations under them like our Chapels and yet be Parish Bishops And it 's most probable that at first they had no more than one of our Country Parishes though afterwards they had many Churches under them as City Bishops had His next Argument is Churches endued with Power Ecclesiastical sufficient for the Government of themselves having also a Bishop and Presbytery had the power of Ordination But Country Parishes had not the Power of Ordination Ergo c. Ans 1. Government is Inferiour or Superiour They might have sufficient Inferiour power of Government though they had none of the Superiour power such as belongeth to Archbishops to whom Appeals were made As a Corporation that hath a Mayor and Assistants hath sufficient Inferiour power but not Regal nor such as Judges Lord Lieutenants c. have And if it were proved as some hold that only General or unfixed Ministers like the Apostles and Evangelists or Archbishops that were over many Churches had the power of Ordination and not the Inferiour Bishops of single Churches it would not follow that these Inferiour Bishops had not the power of Governing their own Churches with assisting Presbyters And if he will prove for us that every fixed Bishop hath the power of Ordination who hath but the Inferiour power of Governing his single Church by Admonitions Excommunications and Absolutions he will but do our work for us 2. I deny his Minor Propos If by Country Parishes he mean the Bishops of Country Parishes they had the Power of Ordination And all that he saith against it is only to prove that de facto they had not the Exercise of it in the times he mentioneth and that de jure humano it was not allowed them by Canons But 3. We grant so much of the Conclusion as that de facto few Country Parishes had a Bishop and Presbytery Because there were but few Country Parishes in the World till the third Century that were really Christian Churches or fixed Societies of Christians that had ordinary Church-communion together in the Sacrament or had an Altar But our Case is About single Churches now called Parish Churches and not about Country
Churches For they might be but single Parish Churches though they were in Cities only and the Country Members joyned with them in the Cities And his own Confession is page 35. that besides Rome and Alexandria that had many Churches in the City there is not the like evidence for multitude of Parishes in other Cities imediately after the Apostles times I suppose by his Citations he meaneth till the third Century And if this be granted us of all the great Cities of the World that they cannot be proved to have many Churches we have no great reason to look for many in the Country Villages His next Argument is Churches containing within their Circuit not only Cities with their Suburbs but also whole Countries subject to them were Diocesses But the Churches subject to the ancient Bishops in the Primitive Church contained c. Therefore they were Diocesses Ans Either this is his Description of a Diocess or we have none from him that I can find And let who will Dispute about the Names of Diocess and Parish for I will not And if by a Diocess he meaneth a Church consisting of all the Christians in City and Country associated for Personal holy Communion having One Altar and One Bishop this is that which we call a single Church or some a Parish-Church and if he call it a Diocess he may please himself But if he mean that in these Cities and whole Countries were several such Churches that had each an Altar and were fixed Societies for personal holy Communion not having any proper Bishop of their own but one Bishop in Common with whose Cathedral Church they did not and could not Communicate through Number or distance I deny his Minor proposed in this sense as to the two first Centuries though not as to the following Ages But if by Cities Suburbs and whole Countries subject he mean all the unconverted Infidels of that space for doubtless he calls not the soil or place the Church I deny the very subject There were no such Churches Infidels and Heathens make not Churches Though Hereticks made somewhat like them sicut vespa faciunt â—avos as Tertullian speaketh If the Diocesan Churches Disputed for be Churches of Pagans and Infidels we know no such things But if he mean that all the Heathens in that Circuit are the Bishops Charge in order to Conversion I answer 1. That maketh them no parts of the Church Therefore the Church is of never the larger extent for the soil or Infidel Inhabitants 2. The Apostles and other General Preachers like the Jesuits in the Indies may divide their Labourers by Provinces for the Peoples Convetsion before there be any Churches at all 3. This distribution is a meer prudential Ordering of an accident or circumstance and therefore not the Divine Institution of a Church Form or Species 4. Neither Scripture nor prudence so distributeth Circuits or Provinces to Preachers in order to conversion of Infidels as that other Preachers may not come and Preach there as freely as one that claimeth it as his Province For 1. Christ sent out his Apostles by two and two at first 2. Paul had Barnabas or some other Evangelist or General Preacher usually with him And Peter and Paul are both said to be at Rome at Antioch and other places And many Apostles were long together at Jerusalem even many years after Christ's Resurrection Christ that bid them go into all the World never commanded that one should not come where another was nor have power to Preach to Infidels in that Diocess And what is the Episcopal power over Infidels which is claimed It is not a power to Ordain or to Excommunicate them It can be no other than a power to Preach to them and Baptize them when converted And this is confessed to belong to Presbyters If the Bishops would divide the World into Diocesses and be the only Preachers in those Diocesses it would be no wonder if the World be unconverted It is not Bishops that are sent by the Papists themselves to convert the Indians But perhaps you may say that the Bishops rule those Presbyters that do it I answer 1. It 's an imperfect kind of Government which a Bishop in England can exercise over Presbyters that daily Preach as Mr. Eliat his helpers to the Natives in a Wilderness many thousand Miles from them 2. But if they do rule the Preachers that maketh not the Soil nor the Heathens to be any parts of their Church but the Preachers only Therefore a Diocess with them and a Church must be different things His first Reason therefore page 36. from the Circuit is vain His second page 37. that the City Bishops had a right from the beginning over many Churches that had no other Bishops and did not after usurp it he proveth not at all For the words of Men three or four hundred years after Christ alledging ancient custome are no proof When the 25 Can. Trull cited by himself maketh thirty years possession enough against all that would question their Title And abundance of things had Custome and Antiquity alledged for them so long after that were known Innovations His third Reason is from the Chorepiscopi as the Bishops suffragan which sheweth no more but that the City Bishops whether justly or by usurpation were at last really Archbishops or Rulers of Bishops But of this before His fourth Reason from Succession will be good when he that affirmeth that no Church was governed by the Parish Discipline hath proved that all many yea or any Bishops from the Apostles days had many Churches under them that had no Bishops of their own Till then he saith nothing As to his instance of the Scythians having but one Bishop the Reason was because it was but little of their Country at first that were made Christians or that were at all in the Roman Empire So that the Bishop was setled at Tomis in the borders of the Empire in the Maritine part of the Euxine Sea that thence he might have an influence on the rest of the Scythians over whom the Romans had no power and where there were many Cities indeed but few Christians as may be seen in Theodoret Tripart Nicephor and many others Of his other three or four instances I shall after speak Chap. 3. lib. 2. He pretends to prove that the seven Asian Churches were Diocesan and not Parochial and never defineth a Diocess and Parish which is lost labour His first Argument is Churches whose Circuit contained Cities and Countries adjoining were Diocesses But c. This is before answered Our Question is Whether they were as our Diocesan Churches such as had in these Cities and Countries many Altars and Churches without Bishops under them Trees and Houses and Fields and Heathen People make not Churches nor yet scattered Christians that were Members only of the City Church His proof of the Minor is 1. These Churches comprized all the Churches of Asia Ans If he mean that all the rest
of the Churches of Asia had no Bishops but Parish Presbyters under these seven Bishops he should prove it and confute Dr. Hammond that is so contrary to him had he then lived Till then we take it as a contemptible incredible assertion that Asia had but seven Bishops and yet a multitude of Churches If he mean only that these seven were Archbishops his impertinency is too palbable Particularly he saith The Church of Ephesus Smyrna c. Contained a great City and the Country belonging to it c. Ans We talk of Churches under Churches and he talketh only of Cities and Countries Again I say Let him take his Diocess of Infidels Houses and Ground we know no such Churches Page 46. He saith Cenchrea was subject to the Church of Corinth and never had a Bishop of their own But not a syllable of proof It is not a Family Church which we speak of therefore he need not here have mentioned that But a Church associated for ordinary Communion in God's publick worship which cannot be celebrated without a Pastor Let him prove that Cenchrea was such a Church and yet had no Bishop In § 6. p. 49. He would prove that the Circuit of a Church was in the Intention of the Apostles or first Founders the same from the beginning befor◠the division of Churches as after Which I shall in due place disprove His reasons are 1. Because the whole Church since the Apostles days hath so understood the intention of the Apostles Ans 1. This is not proved 2. I shall anone prove the contrary that the Apostles had no intention that Churches should be defined by the limits of the place and Country nor did they themselves ever appoint any such bounds to any one Church and say so far it shall extend Nor did they ever take any but Christians in any Circuits for Members of the Church And I shall prove that all Churches were but such as I described single Churches with their Bishops at the first and that some Villages had Bishops four or five hundred years after And his own Reason that Churches followed the Civil Form proveth the mutability of their bounds seeing the Civil Forms were mutable His next Reason is because that division of Churches which was 300 or 400 Years after Christ with their Limits and Circuits were ordinarily the same which had been from the beginning as divers Councils testifie Ans Those Councils mean no more than that it had been an old or setled Custome as many Learned men have proved And if they could be proved to mean that from the Apostolical plantations the bounds of all the Diocess were set I marvel that any man could believe them But they say no such thing as were it not tedious to the Reader an examination of each particular would shew Else no new Churches and Bishops must be setled in the World but those that the Apostles converted in any Cities between or near them For the unconverted Cities in the inter-spaces were as much those Bishops Diocesses as the Villages of equal distance And then the making of new Cities would have made one a Bishop of many Cities contrary to the Canons His third Reason is that the Distribution of the Churches usually followed the division of the Common wealth Ans 1. If so as is said they must be various and mutable All the World was not divided just as the Roman Empire was And the Imperial divisions had great changes 2. I think it lost labour to dispute with him that holdeth this assimilating the Church to the Civil Form was of Divine Apostolical Institution If any can think so let him give us his proof that the Church Constitution must vary as Monarchical Aristocratical and Democratical States do As Empires and free Cities do And that from the King to the Constable we must have a correspondent Officer And that the Papacy as Capital in the Roman Empire was of Gods Institution And that an Emperour King or popular State may change the Form of the Churches as oft as they may the Form of their subordinate Governments Are not these small Reasons to prove that when the Apostles planted Bishops in all single Churches they intended that those Bishops should be the sole Bishops of many hundred Churches when they should be raised in the Circuit of ground which now is called their Diocesses But more of this in due place But next he appealeth to mens consciences Whether it be not unlikely that there was but one Congregation belonging to these famous Cities towards the end of the Apostles days Of which more afterward In Chap. 4. p. 69. He argueth The Presbyteries ordained by the Apostles were appointed for Diocesses and not to Parishes Therefore the Churches endued with the power of Ecclesiastical Government were not Parishes but Diocesses Ans Our Question is Whether they were single Churches as before defined or only One Diocesan Church made up of many such single Churches 1. If by Presbyteries be meant many Presbyters a College or Consessus I deny the Consequence because every Church that had Government had not such a Presbytery But one Bishop or Pastor did serve for some of the lesser Churches and yet that one had Governing power 2. I deny the Major It was single Churches that had then many Elders set over them 3. Reader it seemeth to me no small disparagement to the Diocesan Cause that the grand Patrons of it so extreamly differ among themselves Dr. Hammond holdeth that in all the Scripture times no one Church had any Presbyters at all save only one single Bishop This Bishop Downame seemeth to hold that every Governed Church had a Presbytery And no one and every one extreamly differ Yet either of them would have censure him that had gain-sayed them His proof of the Antecedent is this They who were appointed to whole Cities and Countries to labour so far as they were able the conversion of all that belonged to God were appointed to Diocesses not to Parishes But c. Ans Is not here frustration instead of edification to the Reader for want of defining a Diocess and a Parish I thought we had talkt of a Diocesan Church and here is a Diocess described which may be a single Church or no Church at all as the Bishop pleaseth Here is not so much as any Christians much less Congregations of them mentioned as the Bishops Flock But many an Apostle Evangelist and Converting Preacher hath been set over Cities and Countries to labour mens Conversion as far as they were able before they had converted any or at least enow to make a Church and after that before they had converted more than one Assembly The Jesuits in the Indies thus laboured in several Provinces before they were Bishops of those Provinces or called them Provincial Churches But now we perceive what he meaneth by a Diocess even a space of Ground containing Inhabitants to be converted if we can I will shorten my Answer to the
rest of his Reasonings for such Diocesan Churches I will put a few Questions more pertinent than his Queries p. 67. about the state of such Diocesan Churches Q. 1. Whether the Apostles were not by this description Bishops of all the World as their Diocesses And whether therefore it follow that there were no Bishops under them in particular Churches Q. 2. Whether Apostles and Evangelists did not go from City to City sometime staying some Months or Years at one and then passing to another And whether this made all the interjacent Countries their Diocesses changing their Bishops as oft as they thus changed their Habitations Q. 3. Whether more than one such Apostle or Evangelist were not both at once and successively in the same place to labour the conversion of all they could And whether therefore there were many Bishops to a Diocess Q. 4. Where we shall find the proof that the Apostles or Evangelists set the bounds of Diocesses And whether this description of his own do make Diocesses bounded by circuit or space of Ground or by the Abilities of the Bishop to endeavour conversion Q. 5. When the Apostles forbad any other to labour mens conversion in their Cities or Countries where they or others had been before them And did not one plant and another water and usually more than one at once Q. 6. Whether Mat. 28. 19 20. Discipling or Preaching to convert men and then baptizing them be not the way of gathering Churches and therefore proveth that before conversion they are no Churches and are not Christians only members of the Church And are those Diocesan Churches that are no Churches Q. 7. If one be setled in a single Congregation in the City with a purpose to endeavour the conversion of the Country is not a Diocesan Church there the same as a single Congregation though the Diocess be larger Q. 8. If when Congregations multiplyed Bishops were not multiplyed but one would keep many Churches under himself alone doth it prove that this was well done because it was done and that God consented to this change His next Reason is because Churches were not then divided into Parishes Which in due place I shall prove to be a sufficient Reason against him Churches were Societies constituted of Pastors and their Christian Congregations as afore defined And his inference is vain that Presbyteries were not settled in Parishes because the Churches were not yet divided into Parishes For they were Parishes that is single Churches without dividing The space of Ground called Parishes was not then marked out Nor was a Diocesan Church like ours that hath no subordinate Bishops divided into Parishes for there were no such Diocesan Churches to be so divided But the Universal Church and the Apostolical Provinces were made up or constituted of Parishes I mean of particular Churches as greater numbers are of unites and as Villages are of Houses But to say that Churches were not divided into Parishes in the sence in question is all one as to say Churches were not divided into Churches Our Controversie is like this Whether all the Families in the Town should have but One common Master And he that affirmeth it should argue thus Masters were not at first appointed to Families but to Villages For Villages were not at first divided into Families when there were none but single Houses erected True but Families were Families before there were Villages to be divided As Villages were not made before Houses and then divided into Houses nor Cities before Streets and afterwards divided into Streets nor Kingdoms before Cities and Corporations and then divided into Corporations or inferiour Societies Nor Academies before Colleges and then divided into Colleges so neither were Provincial or Diocesan Churches made before single Churches and after divided into them but were made by the coalition of many single Churches which should not have been changed for that use in specie by altering the species of their Pastors and depriving them of their Proper Bishops In his 5th Chap. He pretendeth to confute the Asseâ—tion that for the first 200 years the City Churches were but single Congregations Here we use to except only Alexandria and Rome in all the World And we confidently extend the time to 150 years and very probably to 200 and moreover say that till the fourth Century most or very many Churches were no other if not long after in many Kingdoms All his talk p. 80. against shallow giddy Heads that see no further than their Nose end because it was denied that Pastors were set in single Congregations to convert also the Infidels about I have nothing to do with For I assert that as all Ministers are bound to endeavour the conversion of such if they have opportunity not wanting power so those are most bound to it that have best opportunity which is the Neighbour Bishops But till men are converted they are no parts of the Church no nor of that particular Church eo nomine because converted by that Bishop as shall be proved without some further consent and ground The rest about the largeness of the Church of Jerusalem c. shall be considered in due place In his Chap. 6. p. 104. I desire it may be noted that he saith I do not deny but that at the first and namely in the time of the Apostle Paul the most of the Churches so soon after their conversion did not each of them exceed the proportion of a populous Congregation And p. 114. that Metropolitans he thinks were intended by the Apostles or at least suadente naturâ necessitate flagitante as Beza saith And I suppose a Diocesan Church will find no better ground than a Metropolitan viz. Humane Prudence or I think intended In chap. 7. He pretendeth to prove that in the Apostles times Parishes began to be distinguished under one only Bishop c. But what 's the proof Rome and Alexandria are all the Instances But 1. his proof that Evaristus divided Parishes about An. 100 is worth nothing as having no sufficient evidence but fabulous reports 2. He allegeth Eusebius l. 2. â— 15. saying of St. Mark that he is said first to have constituted the Churches of Alexandria But this is no proof 1. Because Eusebius's following words out of Philo do make it most probable that by the Churches of Alexandria he meant the Churches in and about Alexandria which proveth not many in the City it self 2. If he had planted many Churches in the City it is no proof that he varied from the practice of the other Apostles who as Act. 14. 23. placed Elders that is saith Dr. Hammond Bishops in every Church Or that the Elders of each Church had not the true Pastoral or Episcopal power of Governing the Flock which is all that we plead for And if it had been proved that Mark had been over them it followeth not that he was not over them as an Archbishop but as a meer Bishop only 3. Grotius and Dr.
As the heavenly Angels are the Guardians of the Churches so these Stars are those Angels in whose Person I speak to the Churches themselves that are signified by the Candlesticks Or As the Angels are the Guardians of the Churches so by that title I signifie the whole Ministry that guide them and by the Candlesticks the Churches and I write to the whole For as every Message begins with To the Angel so it endeth with To the Churches Obj. The Bishop was to deliver it to the Churches Ans This is precarious 1. The Apostle wrote it that both Pastors and People might immediately read it and did not intrust it as an unwritten tradition to one to be delivered to the rest 2. All the Pastors were to deliver or teach it to the People and not one Bishop only This therefore is no cogent Argument 10. As for the Disputers for Episcopacy at the Isle of Wight with King Charles they manage Saravia's Argument fetcht from the Continuance of the Ordinary part of the Apostles Office as he did before them and many others so well that for my part I cannot confute them but remain in doubt and therefore have nothing to say against them But that 's nothing to our Case whether every particular Organized Church should have a Bishop or the full Pastoral Office in it 11. As to Joh. Forbes his Irenic he maintaineth but such an Episcopacy as we offered to his Majesty in Bishop Usher's Reduction He pleadeth for such a Bishop as is the Moderator of a Presbytery p. 242 243. and as must be subject to censure himself p. 145. and that shall do nothing of weight without the Presbyteries consent p. 145. and as is still bound to the Work of a Presbyters Office p. 146. And that an Orthodox Church that hath no Bishop or Moderator hath but a certain Oeconomical defect but is still a true Church and hath the power that other Churches have that have Bishops p. 158. And that jure divino Presbyters have the Power of Ordaining as well as of Preaching and Baptizing though they must use it under the Bishops inspection in those places that have Bishops page 164. And he is more full for the Power of Presbyters Ordaining and the validity of it than any man that I now remember 12. The two Books of the Bohemian Government of the Waldensian Churches Written by Lascitius and Commenius contain that very Form of Government which I think the soundest of any that I have yet seen 13. The Learned and Judicious Grotius before he turned to Cassander's and Erasmus's temperament in Religion in his book de Imper. sum pot circa sacra in almost all things speaketh the same which I approve and plead for though he be for some Episcopacy 1. As to the Pastoral power it self in whomsoever he affirmeth it to be but Nuntiative Declarative Suasory and per consensum and not any Imperium Like the power of a Physitian a Counsellor and an Embassadour Chap. 4. But then by Imperium he meaneth that which is coactive by the Sword And he acknowledgeth the power of the Ministry by the Word upon Consenters to be of Divine Institution so that they sin against God who do reject it And if the Pastors of the Church did meddle with no other power we should the sooner be agreed For my part I take the very power of the Keys to be no other than a power of applying God's Word to the Consciences of the Penitent and Impenitent and the Church and a power of judging who is fit or unfit for Church-communion according to God's Word which judgment we can no otherwise execute but by the same Word and by forbearing or exercising our own Ministerial actions to the person As a Physitian may refuse to Medicate the unruly In chap. 6. He speaketh justly of the Princes power as in the former And so he doth chap. 7. of the use and power of Synods or Councils Chap. 8. He well vindicateth the Magistrate and denyeth to the Church or Bishops the Legislative power circa sacra and sheweth that Canons are not proper Laws Chap. 9. He sheweth the Jurisdiction properly so called belongeth to the Magistrate and not to the Pastors as such Though of old they might be also Magistrates He sheweth that the use of the Keys is called Jurisdiction but by the same figure by which Preaching is called Legislation which is true as to the Declaration who is bound or loose in foro caeli but Pastors more properly judge who is to be taken into Church-communion or excluded The prescript of Penance he saith is no Jurisdiction but as the Councel of a Physitian or Lawyer or Philosopher That the denying of the Sacraments is not properly Jurisdiction he thus excellently explaineth p. 229. As he that Baptizeth or as the old custome was puts the Eucharist into ones mouth or hand doth exercise an act of Ministry and not of Jurisdiction so also he that abstaineth from the same acts For the reason of the visible signs and of the audible is the same By what right therefore a Pastor denounceth by-words to one that is manifestly flagitious that he is an utter alien to the Grace of God by the same right also he doth not Baptize him because it is the sign of remission of sin or if he be Baptized giveth him not the Eucharist as being the sign of Communion with Christ For the sign is not to be given to him that the thing signified doth not agree to nor are pearls to be given to swine But as the Deacon was wont to cry in the Church Holy things are for the Holy Yea it were not only against Truth but against charity to make him partaksr of the Lords Supper who discerneth not the Lords Body but eateth and drinketh judgment to himself In these things while the Pastor doth only suspend his own act and doth not exercise any Dominion over the acts of others it is apparent that this belongeth to the vse of Liberty and not to the exercise of Jurisdiction Such like is the case of a Physician refusing to give an Hydropick water when he desireth it or in a grave person who resuseth to salute a profligate fellow and in those that avoid the company of the Leprous Only it must be remembred that this avoidance is by a Society governed therein by an Officer of Divine Institution Next he proceeds to the Churches duty and sheweth 1. That as Cyprian saith The Laity that is obedient to God's commands ought to separate themselves from a sinful Pastor or Prelate that is that is grosly bad 2. That they ought to avoid familiarity with scandalous Christians As a Schollar may forsake a bad Teacher and as an honest Man may leave the friendship of the flagitious As for the names of Deposition and Excommunication he saith That we must interpret the name by the thing and not the thing by the name And that the Church deposeth a Pastor when
might dissemble to escape Persecution themselves and greater Persecutions were near and not the Gnosticks nor Jews but Nero beheaded Paul and the Jews themselves were banished Rome 5. And that Simon Magus was indeed so famous a Fellow as to be taken for the supream God when Church Writers speak so uncertainly of his conflicts with Peter as of a doubtful story and the evidence is so obscure and the Roman Histories say so little of him He might as well have thought the Apostle would have made all that ado about James Naylor if he had been then alive 6. And that there were not many other Hereticks as well as the Gnosticks that troubled the Churches if Epiphanius knew how to name them and describe them rightly or Irenaeus before him or John in Rev. 2. and 3. before them 7. And that Simon Magus and his Heresie was a Mystery of Iniquity not revealed when Paul wrote the second Epistle to the Thessalonians 8. And that many had not then followed him and fallen away to Heresie 9. Or that by the Apostasie that must first come is meant the Apostles separation from the Jews and Moses's Law As if he had said we will first separate and that shall bring persecution on you but till we do that it is with-held 10. Or that the said separation was not done by degrees some before this and some after 11. Or that the difference between the Jews persecution of the Christians before the Apostles Apostasie and after it was indeed so great as to be the Crisis of the Antichrists Revelation 12. And that poor Simon should be the Man that sitteth in the Temple of God and opposed and exalted himself above all that is called God when as the Scripture never once nameth him after his deprecation of the Apostles curse or threatning though Nicolaitanes are named and Alexander Hymenaeus and Philetus named and other Adversaries and all the terrible things foretold which are here supposed to be done by Simon and his Doctrine What were all the Sacred Writers afraid to name him when they recited all the Evils that he must do and are supposed to make it a great part of all the Epistles and the History in Acts 15. and when he had been so sharply rebuked and humbled before Act. 8. 13. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that with-holdeth till he be taken out of the way is not meant of any person power or state but the aforesaid separation of the Apostles 14. That verse 8. that the breath of Christ's own mouth signifieth St. Peter's words that cast down Simon when he fell and hurt him and that the brightness of his coming or the appearing of his own presence is nothing but the foresaid Destruction of Jerusalem 15. And so many of the Gnosticks and Hereticks that troubled all the Churches of Asia and other Countries were got together into Jerusalem as that they might be said to be consumed and destroyed there who so long after troubled the Churches 16. And when I can believe that the Revelation is made up of such a sence and that most or much of it was fulfilled before it was revealed and written and all the rest fulfilled long ago about Constantine's days except one Parenthesis or a few Verses in the 20th Chapter And that the Resurrection and Thousand Years reign of the Martyrs is that 1000 Years from Constantine's beginning in which the Bishops had Wealth and Honour and sate on Thrones and judged the People in Courts as our Lay-Chancellors now do and that this Glory Wealth and Grandure of Prelates is the Churches Resurrection Glory and Felicity And that these happy thousand Years continued 700 Years after the rising of Mahomet and included those 8th 9th 10th and 11th Ages which Erasmus and all learned men even Bellarmine himself so dolefully bewail And that when Boys and Whores and Sorcerers and Murderers and Hereticks and Schismaticks ruled the Church they were happy that had a part in this first Resurrection to all this Glory yea that these are Holy too Rev. 20. 6. And that the second death shall have no power on them that is while they are drowning the true Churches of Christ in the Floods of all abomination and bringing in all corruption and laying the grounds of all division subduing Kings and murdering Christians by thousands till the Year 1300. Blessed and holy and happy are they because though they persecute the Godly they are free from being persecuted themselves which is the second death Yea that the Church was freed from persecution in the Ages when the poor Waldenses and Albigenses were murdered in greater numbers than ever the Heathens murdered the Christians heretofore When I can believe abundance of such things as these I will believe Dr. Hammond's first Dissertation His second Dissertation which is to vindicate the Epistles of Ignatius I little regard as not concerning me I leave it to Dr. Pierson who they say is about it to answer Dallaeus his numerous Arguments against him with Dionysius For my part I wish Dr. Pierson may prevail For there is no Witness among all the Ancients whom I more trust to at least ad hominem as a plain undoubted destroyer of our Prelacy than Ignatius who is the confidence of the Prelatical Champions I am possest with admiration as much at their glorying in Ignatius as the Patron of Diocesans who is so much against them as I am at their glorying in Rich. Hooker as a Defender of Monarchy and the Prelates Loyalty Of Ignatiuâ— I shall say more anon His third Dâ—â—â—ert about Scripture passages more concerneth us Cap. 1. which tells us of Christs Episcopacy concerneth not our Cause Cap. 2. Whether the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Regeneration be the New Church State and the Apostles Episcopal Thrones be there meant as setled in several Provinces which cannot be proved ever to have been is little to our business Nor yet whether he will prove that it is not Prelacy but Secular Coactive power and gâ—andure that is denyed to the Apostles and that it was those that grudged at the Precedency desired for James and John which Christ intended to reprehend because it was not an injurious Secular power but a labour that was to be in the Prelates of the Church It sufficeth me that so much is here confessed And it cannot be denied For that Precedency and Power which Christ alloweth in the Rulers of the Nations is it which he denyeth to his Disciples But it is not Tyranny proud Domination and Oppression but just Secular Government which he alloweth in the Rulers of the Nations Ergo it is this and not the former which he denyeth to his Disciples And let all the Prelates here remember that the Qâ—estion Whether they be Above their Brethren by Dr. H's Confession is Whether they may take more care and pains for Mens Salvation When one of us poor Ministers were not able night and day to Catechise instruct and oversee a Congregation of
two or three thousand Souls without much help or many sad unavoidable Omissions the Qâ—estion shall be whether the Bishop may not undertake to Teach and oversee many hundreds or a thousand Parishes and Catechise Pray with and Exhort a thousand times more than any Parish Minister doth or is able to do And to do all this without ever coming into those Parishes or ever seeing the Faces or hearing the names of one of a multitude of the People or ever speaking one word to them but summoning thâ—m by Apparitors to a Lay-Chancellors Court to be Excommunicated first and after imprisoned while they live if they do not what the Chancellor bids them O what is mans understanding when a Carnal interest hath there clothed it self with a Sacred name Cap. 3. He telleth us of the Power of the Keys commited to the Apostles and by them to the Bishops as their Successors But whether all the Bishops Ordained by them and living with them and some dying before them it 's like were their Successors and whether all true Pastors were not such Bishops as had the Power of the Keys and whether by those Keys be meant the Government of the Flocks or also of the Governors themselves and of what extent the Churches under each Bishop was and to what end and use are the things in Question which he here saith nothing to Cap. 4. He proveth by strong affirmation that the Apostles were by Christ's last Commission Mat. 28. 19 20. to be the Bishops of their several assigned certain Provinces But confidence goeth not for proof with us He tells us of the name of Episcopacy Acts 1. 29. We never questioned whether the Apostles had the Oversight of the Church but we hold 1. That the World was the first Object of their Office from whence they were to gather Churches 2. That the Place Course or Circuit of their Travels and Ministry was not of any Divine Institution but left to their prudent choice by the Common Rules of Nature doing all things in Order and to Edifying and sometime directed in their motions by the present inspiration of the Holy-Ghost 3. That more than one Apostle was oft in the same Cities and Countries none claiming it as his peculiar Province nor denying the right of others to be there And where one was this Year another was the next 4. That when an Apostle planted a Church in any City and settled Bishops over the People they themselves were called by many of the Ancients the first Bishops of those Cities in which sence one Man had many Bishopricks 5. That the Apostles were Itinerant unfixed Bishops and not fixed Bishops such as they themselves confined to any one limited Church or Province Nor can it be proved out of all Antiquity that any one of all the Apostles was confined to any one limited Province much less what that Province was but only that their Ability Opportunity Time and Prudence limited every Man and directed him as the End required 6. And that if the Apostles had fixed themselves in particular limited Provinces they had disobeyed their Commission which was to go Preach the Gospel to all the World And no Man did ever yet so dote as to pretend that they divided the whole World into twelve Provinces and there fixed themselves And such twelve Provinces as they had been capable of overseeing would have been but a little of the World And it was but a little part comparatively that they Preacht the Gospel to Most Kingdoms of the World they never saw And those which they came into were so great and many that they Preached but to a few of the People Yet this was not their culpable Omission because they were limited by Natural Impotency and so by Impossibilities of doing more But had it been by a Voluntary setling themselves in twelve Provinces to the neglect of all the rest the Case had been otherwise But whilst they did their best for the whole World themselves and Ordained others to do the rest they performed their Office There needeth no more to be said as to those Ancients that name the Apostles Bishops Nor is their Episcopacy if proved any thing to our Case as shall be manifested Cap. 5. He thought he had proved that Power in the Church is given by the Apostles to the Bishops only Whereas with Spalatensis and most Christians we hold it given to Christ's Ministers as such and therefore to them all though in an Eminency the Apostles only had it And 1. Whereas he denyeth the Power of the 70 because they were not Apostles but Disciples We Answer 1. That Evangelists and other Ministers that were not Apostles had the Power of the Keys 2. That to deny that the 70 were at least Temporary Apostles limited to the Jews and had the power of Preaching and working Miracles would be to deny the letter of the Text. And the Apostles themselves could not Govern Churches till they were gathered 2. And yet if neither they nor John Baptist in Baptizing did exercise any power of the Keys which he can never prove it is nothing to our Case 3. When will he prove that the Evangelists and the Itinerant Assistants of the Apostles had not the power of the Keys When themselves commonly say that the higher Orders contain the powers of the lower And are the Bishops higher than the Evangelists 4. Nay when will he prove that ever any Presbyter was Ordained by the Apostles or by any others as they appointed without the power of the Keys It would weary one that loveth not confusion and lost lalabour to read long Discourses of the Power of the Keys or Government which distinguish not the Government of the Laity or Flocks from the Government of the Ministers themselves and that abuse the Church by feigning an Office of Presbyters that are not Presbyters and proving that Church-Governors are not Church-Governors For what is the Office of the Presbyter or Pastor essentially but a Stated Power and obligation to Teach and Govern the People and Worship as their mouth and guide Cap. 6. He seemeth by denying the Evangelists the power of the Keys and of Church-teaching and making them meer Preachers to the Insidels to favour the Independants Opinion who think the Laymen sent forth are to do that work But 1. Mat. 28. 19 20. Christ maketh such Officers as must Preach and Baptize and gather Churches among the Infidels before they govern them to be them that he will be with to the end of the World And the same men had the Power of teaching the Churches when they were gathered as is there expressed 2. Call them by what name you will such Itenirants were usual in the Apostles daies as Silas Apollo and many more 3. It was not the twelve Apostles only that Converted the World but such other Ministers that were called thus to labour by them or by the Spirit immediately Joseph of Arimathea is said by many to have preached here and in other
as we desire If any more be necessary he granteth it us § 11. where having feigned and not proved that the people of all the Province of Macedonia were said by Paul to be at Philippi he confesseth that then every City had a Bishop and none of those that we now call Presbyters And it is more this Bastard sort of Presbyters Office that we deny than the Bishops And granting this he grants us all even that then there was no such half Officers nor Bishops that had the rule of any Presbyters which he further proveth § 19 20 21. And by the way § 16 17. he giveth us two more Observations 1. That the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave precedency to some Churches Where I would learn whether the Holy Ghost still observed the order in converting men to begin at the highest Metropolis and descend by order to the lowest and so to the Villages Or whether our Doctor do not here contradict what he said before of the Apostles every where disposing of the Churches according to the Civil Metropolitical Order I doubt his memory here failed him 2. Philippi and Thessalonica being both in Macedonia and these Epistles being each written to all the Province we hence learn that the Epistle to the Thessalonians and that to the Philippians were written to the same men Whether each Epistle Rev. 2. 3. to the seven Churches of Asia was written to all Asia and so all the faults charged on all that are charged on any one I leave to your arbitrary belief For none of these are proved whatever proof is boasted of Cap. 11. he further gratifieth us in expounding 1 Tim. 3. in the same manner One Bishop with Deacons then serving for a whole Diocess that is for one Assembly not having such a thing as a half Presbyter subject to any Bishop Cap. 12. he is as liberal in expounding Tit. 1. By Elders in every City is meant a single Bishop that had no half Presbyter under him and whose Diocess had but one Assembly We are not so unreasonable as to quarrel with this liberality Cap. 13. And about Heb. 13. we are as much gratified in the Exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which more afterwards And Cap. 14 and 15. he saith the same of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pastors and Teachers that they both are meant of none but Bishops And that Presbyters now adays are permitted and tyed to teach the people and instruct them from the Scriptures this apparently arose hence that Bishops in ordaining Presbyters gave them that power but not to be exercised till licensed by the Bishops Letters Of this detestable Opinion worse than the Italians in the Council of Trent that would have derived the Episcopal Power from the Pope I have said somewhat before and intend more in due place The Bishops do only ministerially give them possession Christ is the only Instituter of the Office by himself and his Spirit in his Apostles Can the Bishops any more chuse to deliver this possession by Ordination than to preach the Gospel Could they have made Presbyters that had no power to teach the people Is the Bishops liberality the original of the Office How much then is Christ beholden to Bishops that when a thousand Parishes are in some one of their Diocesses they will give leave to any Presbyter to teach any of the people and that when eighteen hundred of us were silenced in one day Aug. 24. 1662. that all the rest were not served so too Cap. 16. he exerciseth the same naked affirming Authority of the words Ministers of the word Luke 1. 2. and Stewards all are but Bishops And he asketh whether ever man heard of more Stewards than one in one house or of several bearers of one Key And he foresaw that we would tell him that Gods Catholick Church is one House of God and that at least all the Apostles were Stewards and Key-Bearers in that one Church and that by his Doctrine none but one of them should be Steward of Gods Mysteries or have the Keys And therefore he saith that Though the Apostles are called Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. that is to be reckoned as pertaining to the many divided Families that is the many particular Churches distinct parts of the Universal Church which the Apostâ—â—s divided among themselves Answ Unless his etiam here be a self-contradicting cheat it will hence follow 1. That the Apostles are not Stewards of Gods Mysteries in gathering Churches but only to the Churches gathered 2. That in Baptizing and giving the Holy Ghost to such as yet entered not into a Particular Church they exâ—ercised not any of their said Stewardship or Power 3. That thay have no Power of the Keyes at all over any that are not Members of a Particular Church such as the Eunuch Act. 8. And many Merchants Embassadors Travellers and many thousands that want Pastors or opportunity or hearts yea and all Christians in the first Instant as meerly Baptized Persons seeing Baptisme entereth them only into the Universal Church and not into any particular as such 4. And that till the Apostles gathered particular Churches and distributed them they had no Stewardship nor use at least of the Keyes And what if it can never be provedthat ever the Apostles distributed the universal Church into Apostolical Provinces but only pro re nata distributed themselves in the World were they never Stewards then nor Key-bearers Verily if I believed such a distribution of the World into twelve or more Provinces by them I should question the power that altered that Constitution and set us up but four or five Patriarches And were the same Apostles no Stewards or Key-bearers out of their feigned several Provinces If we must be cilenced unless we subscribe to the Dictates of such self conceited Confident men who shall ever Preach that is not born under the same Planet with them Cap. 17. he proceedeth still to maintain our Cause that even in Justin Martyrs writings and others of that Age by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are meant the Bishops of the several Churches who had not one Presbyter under them but Deacons only and therefore had but single Congregations but did themselves alone with the Deacon perform all the publick Offices in the Church And that no equal Presbyter was placed with them offendeth us no more than that our Parish Ministers now are presented and instituted alone yea and have power to take Curates under them as their helpers Cap. 18. He proveth truly that the Names Sacerdos and Sacerdotium are usually by old Writers spoken of sole Bishops and Episcopacy By which we are the more confirmed in our Opinion that he that is not Episcopus gregis a Bishop over the Flock is not Sacerdos true Pastor but hath only a limb of the Ministerial Office being a thing of presumptuous Prelates institution Cap. 19. He surther strengtheneth us by
maintaining that the word Presbyter in the places of the New Testament cited by him doth mean only a Bishop that is a Pastor of one only Congregation that had no Presbyter under him but Deacons and that no mention is made by the Apostles of other Presbyters § 6. And he gratifieth us with Epiphanius his Reasons § 4. because as yet there was not a multitude of Believers And that the Elders that Paul speaketh to Timothy of ordaining and rebuking and those that were worthy of double honour were only Bishops that had no subject Presbyters Whether they were set over the Churches as Moses was over Israel with a design that they should make subordinate Officers under them I shall enquire in due place Cap. 20. He goeth over most of the other Texts in the New Testament that mention Elders shewing that they mean such Bishops and that even at Hierusalem the Elders Acts 15. were not our new half Priests but the Bishops of all the Churches of Judaea and so of others here again repeated by him But it sticketh with me that these Bishops having no subject Presbyters are found so oft in the Metropolitane City and so oft in travel and so oft many hundred Miles from home that I doubt it was but a few Churches in the world that kept the Lords day and assembled for publick Worship or had any Sacraments frequently but lived as the Atheists and impious contemners of Church-Communion now do or else that with the Fanaticks we must hold that Lay-men or Deacons did play the Priests in all Church Offices Cap. 21. He vindicateth that one remaining Text Jam. 5. 14. which mentioneth Presbyters visiting the sick as meant only of Bishops and not of mungrel Priests And so being secured that these were never found in the Scripture times and consequently no Bishop except Archbishops that had more worshipping Churches than one we must look who presumed to institute another Office And here § 3. he perswadeth us to be so civil to Ignatius as thankfully to acknowledge him the first Patron of our Office-dignity intimating that there is no earlier proof of the invention of this mungrel Office than the Epistles of Ignatius Cap. 22. He tells us that the word Presbyter is also taken for Bishops by Polycarp Papias Irenaeus Tertullian and Clemens Alexand. so that our cause will be carried beyond Scripture times But again finding so many Bishops with Polycarp I doubt he maketh Bishops too unwearied Travellers and too great non-Residents and Gods Publick Worship too often interrupted by their absence Cap. 23 24 25 26. He speaketh of Deacons the word and Office which we have now no business with but to note that cap. 26. § 8. he is again at Epiphanius allowing a single Bishop without Presbyters but not without Deacons because he cannot be a Bishop without Deacons which I believe not nor do our Prelates but without subject Presbyters he may better than with them And § 10. he excellently argueth from the Epistle to Timothy that seeing Paul instructeth him in all things belonging to the Church of God 1 Tim. 3. 15. and yet never mentioneth these Medioxumos Presbyteros mungrel or middle Priests it is plain that the reason is because none such were instituted when the Apostle wrote To which I add nor afterward by the Apostles as far as can be proved and therefore never should have been Cap. 27. He speaketh of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. and 2. and 1 Tim. 5. shewing that these Women were in Orders Of which I have no mind to contend so that by the Name it be not inferred that they are she-Bishops and that they argue not as a Preacher did since we were silenced I can name the Man and place from St. John's Epistle to the Elect Lady to prove that there were Lord-Bishops in the Apostles daies viz. an Elect Lady supposeth an Elect Lord But there are no Elect Lords but Elect Lord-Bishops Ergo We have not yet seen all Dr. Hammond's confutation of our Diocesan Prelacie In his fifth Dissertation we have more Cap. 1. He speaketh of Clemens Rom. and whereas we think that the confusion among Historians came partly from the little notice that came down from those times of such particulars and partly from the identity of the Office of Linus Cletus and Clemens being all Bishops at once of a great Church the Half-Presbyters being not yet ordained he gratifyeth us by proving that not only at Rome but also in Antioch Ephesus Corinth and Jerusalem there were more Churches than one with their several Bishops Even one of the Jews and one of the Gentiles how the local Diocese were then divided is hard to tell and where it was that one Apostle had Power of the Keys and where not I shall improve this Concession in due place Cap. 2. Of Clements Epistle he first takes notice of the Inscription to the Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Corinth The same Phrase as Philip. ◠1 2. And by this Church he proveth by confident affirming that all the Churches of Achaia are meant And that the same is to be said of Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians he unresistibly proveth by saying that Quisquis eas vel leviter degustaverit tuo scilicet gustu hoc omnino pronunciandum esse nobiscum statuet Nec igitur de hac Clementis ambigi poterit And so all that Controversie is ended But though without Scripture proof imagination might handsomely feign that the many Churches of Achaia are called singularly the Church of Corinth as one because of the Unity of the Metropolitane yet 1. I would have heard somewhat like reason for and some instances of the use of such a speech as this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Rome to the Church of God dwelling or sojourning at Corinth And why and where and by what good writers all Achaia is called Corinth or all Macedonia Philippi or all the Cities about it indeed as the County of Worcester the County of York of Warwick c. are usual Titles so may the Church of York Worcester Warwick be in the Diocesans sense But whoever said of all the County or Diocess To the County Diocess dwelling at York Worcester Warwick As if all the Countrey and Towns belonging to that Circuit were called Warwick c. 2. Doth not his own proof evidently confute him 2 Cor. 1. 1. To the Church of God which is at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia Are the last words Tautological doth with signifie no addition at all If by the Church which is at Corinth be meant all the Churches and Christians in Achaia what sense is there in the addition of with all the Saints which are in Achaia O what kind of proof will satisfie some Learned Men 3. Was it all the Churches of Achaia that the incestuous person 1 Cor. 5. dwelt with and that are chidden for suffering him
in their Communion and that are directed when they meet together to cast him out and not to eat with him 4. Would it not be Calumny according to all rational Laws to accuse all the Churches of Achaia of all those Crimes which the Church at Corinth is accused of without a better proof than this 5. Was it all the Churches of Achaia which 1 Cor. 14. are said to meet all in one place and to have so many Prophets and Interpreters in that one Assembly I am not at leisure to say more of this But who denieth that the same Epistle which was directed first to the Corinthians was secondarily directed to the rest of Achia and to be Communicated to them And yet not the Churches of Achaia be all said to be or dwell at Corinth When 2 Cor. 11. 10. Paul speaketh of the Regions of Achaia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he saith that sheweth that the matter belonged to the whole Church of Achaia But how long have they all been challenged to name one Text of Scripture that speaketh singularly of the Church of a Province or Countrey consisting of many particular Churches Yet addeth he In re manifesta non pluribus opus est Cap. 3. He only mentioneth the occasion of Clements Epistle where without any Proof he extendeth the Sedition then raised by them to the disturbance of the Civil Government and Peace And if he had proved as he endeavoureth that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is meant the Civil Rulers which is utterly uncertain yet the commendation of their Obedience formerly to the Civil Power as part of the Character of their orderliness and peaceableness doth not prove that Rebellion against them was part of their following disorder Cap. 4. Is to tell us 1. That Clemens puts Obedience to Rulers and due honouring of Presbyters as a Law of God which is not to be doubted of 2. That Bishops were sent by the Apostles as the Apostles by Christ but were joyned only with Deacons to attend them Mark here Reader that he doth not only acknowledge that de facto the Order of Mungrel or Half-Priests was not yet Existent but also that none such were sent by the Apostles and so not Instituted and that Clemens himself taketh notice of no such even in his times But how the Dr. will prove that no great Churches and particularly this of Corinth had but one Bishop you shall see with little satisfaction 3. He noteth that these Bishops thus sent were constituted every where Ecclesias nondum natas sed ad partum bonis Dei auspâ—cus festinantes brachiis atque ulnis suis susceptum administratum to receive in their Arms and Arms the Churches not yet born but by Gods Blessing hastning to the Birth whereas of his own Head he had before said that the Bishops were sent by the Apostles when Clement saith no such thing but only that they were Constituted sending being the word used of Itenerant Preachers gathering and visiting Churches and Constituting with Ordaining the usual word of Bishops and Presbyters who as such are fixed to particular Churches so now he more boldly forgeteth that Bishops were yea every where to receive Churches that were yet no Churches Where he contradicteth both Scripture and common use of the word Bishop and abuseth Clement 1. Let any Man that can shew us thatin the New Testament the word Bishop is ever used of any Pastor that was not related to a Church and as signifying that Relation and that Bishop and Flock are yet as much Relatives as King and Kingdom 2 Let him shew that can that the word was used otherwise by Christians for many a hundred years after Christ Though I grant that Ministers in general were and may be ordained sine titulo to Preach and gather Churches and help others yet never Bishops the word signifying an Over-seer of the Flock or Church to which he is related 3. If it were certain that the futurity of believing mentioned by Clemens had relation to the Constitution of Bishops and not to the Apostles Preaching only yet Clemens saith not that there were yet no Believers or no Churches where they were constituted Bishops Where there were but a few Believers the Apostles placed Bishops and Deacons over those few who should receive others into the same Society till it was full and no further who should after believe It is an abuse of Clemens to say it was to Churches yet not born when he hath no such word As if it could not be for future Believers unless at present there were no Believers And it is an abuse of him to seign him to assert that the Apostles did every where as soon as they had once Converted one Man presently make that new Baptized Novice a Bishop before they Converted any more saving perhaps one or two to be his Deacons Or that they used to make Deacons or Bishops either to Churches future that were yet no Churches When as the Scripture telleth the contrary most expresly that the Church at Jerusalem was before the Deacons Act. 7. That they ordained Elders in every Church Act. 14. 23. and not in no Church as he implyeth And Tit. 1. 5. every City is equivalent to every Church for it was not in every Infidel City that had no Christians Which beyond all modest contradiction is proved by the Rules given to Timothy and Titus for the Ordination of Bishops and Deacons Who were to be approved chosen persons that had ruled their own Houses well not Novices apt to teach well reported of those without which supposeth some to be within Tim. 3. 14 15. These things I write unto thee that thou mayest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God a Pillar and Basis of the truth The first that were converted did not always prove the fittest to be Bishops perhaps they might be Women or weakly guiâ—ted To feign that the Apostles did that every where which none can prove that ever they did once to make a Bishop and Deacons of the two or three first Novice-converts before there were any more Converted and to make Bishops and Deacons before there were any Christians to constitute Churches meerly for future Churches this is not Clemens act whoever else will own it 4. Lastly he noteth here that this was done by the Revelation of the Spirit whereby they examined and tryed who was worthy of that Dignity And 1. What use for examination who was worthy where there was no other to stand in Competition and where the first Convert still was taken Election is è multis And if he be compelled to grant that there were more Christians over whom the Bishop was set it is a Contradiction to say that a Bishop and his Flock though small is no Church 2. It is hard to believe that the multitude of ignorant Lads and wicked Men that are now set over Churches are Constituted by this Apostolical choice and
Office of half-Presbyters began to be invented according to his own Computation That pag. 21. passim his supposition of the 24 Bishops of Judaea sitting about the Throne of James Bishop of Jerusalem and his other supposition of their being so ordinarily there And of the Bishops of Provinces in other Nations being so frequently many score if not hundred Miles off their people in the Metropolitane Cities when the people had no other Priest to Officiate doth tend to an Atheistical conceit that the Ordinary use of Sacred Assemblies and Communion is no very needful thing when in the best times by the best men in whole Countreys at once they were so much forborn Pag. 26. Again you have his full and plain Assertion That there were not in the space within compass of which all the Books of the new Testament were written any Presbyters in our modern Notion of them created in the Church though soon after certainly in Ignatius time which was above 50 years after the Rev. they were Pag. 60. He supposeth that whoever should settle Churches under a Heathen King among Heathens must accordinly make the Churches gathered subordinate to one another as the Cities in which they are gathered were though Heathen subordinate to one another of which more in due place Pag. 76 77. He saith that As Congregations and Parishes are Synonimous in their Style so I yield that Believers in great Cities were not at first divided into Parishes while the number of Christians in a City was so small that they might well assemble in the same place and so needed no Partitions or Divisions But what disadvantage is this to us who affirm that one Bishop not a Colledge of Presbyters presided in that one Congregation and that the Believers in the Regions and Villages about did belong to the care of that single Bishop or City Church A Bishop and his Deacon were sufficient at the first to sow their Plantations For what is a Diocess but a Church in a City with the Suburbs and Territories or Region belonging to it And this certainly might be and remain under the Government of a single Bishop Of any Church so bounded there may be a Bishop and that whole Church shall be his Diocess and so he a Diocesan Bishop though as yet this Church be not subdivided into more several Assemblies So that you see now what a Diocess is And that you may know that we contend not about Names while they call the Bishop of one Congreation a Diocesane we say nothing against him A Diocesan in our sense is such as we live under that have made one Church of many hundred or a thousand But Reader be not abused by words when it is visible Countreys that we talk of As every Market-Town or Corporation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City in the old sense so the Diocess of Lincoln which I live in at this reckoning hath three or fourscore Diocesses in it and the Diocess of Norwich about 50 Diocesses in it c. That is such Cities with the interjacent Villages Pag. 78. He saith When they add these Angels were Congregational not Diocesan they were every of them Angels of a Church in a City having authority over the Regions adjacent and pertaining to that City and so as CHURCH and CONGREGATION ARE ALL ONE AS IN ORDINARY USE IN ALL LANGUAGES THEY ARE Thus were Congregational and Diocesan also What follows of the paucity of Believers in the greatest Cities and their meeting in one place is willingly granted by us I must desire the Reader to remember all this when we come to use it in due place And you may modestly smile to observe how by this and the foregoing words the Dr. forgetfully hath cast out all the English Diocesans While he maketh it needful that the Cities be Ecclesiastically subordinate as they are Civilly and maketh it the very definition of a Diocesan Bishop to be a Bishop of a City with the Country or Suburbs belonging to it But in England no lesser Cities ordinarily at least nor Corporation-Towns are at all Subject to the great Cities Nor are any Considerable part of the Countrey Subject to them nor do the Liberties of Cities or Corporations reach far from the Walls or Towns So that by this Rule the Bishop of London York Norwich and Bristow would have indeed large Cities with narrow liberties But the rest would have Diocesses little bigger than we could allow to conscionable Faithful Pastors But he yet addeth more p. 79. he will do more for our cause than the Presbyterians themselves who in their disputes against the Independents-say that Jerusalem had more Christians belonging to the Church than could conveniently meet in one place But saith the Dr. This is contrary to the Evidence of the Text which saith expresty v. 44. that all the Believers were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meeting in one and the same place The like may be said of the other places Act. 4. 4. and 5. 14. For certainly as yet though the number of believers increased yet they were not distributed into several Congregations Will you yet have more p. 80 81. When the London Ministers say that the Believers of one City made but one Church in the Apostles days he answereth This observation I acknowledge to have perfect truth in it and not to be confutable in any part And therefore instead of rejecting I shall imbrace it and from thence conclude that there is no manner of incongruity in assigning of one Bishop to one Church and so one Bishop in the Church of Jerusalem because it is a Church not Churches BEING FORECED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WHERE THERE WERE MORE CHURCHES THERE WERE MORE BISHOPS I am almost in doubt by this whether the Dr. were not against the English Prelacy and he and I were not of a mind especially remembring that he said nothing against my disputations of Church Government written against himself when I lived near him Observe Reader 1. That even now he confessed that a Church and Congregation is all one 2. And here he confesseth that where there were more Churches there were more Bishops and his words Because it is a Church not Churches seem to import that de jure he supposeth it is no Church without a Bishop and that there should be no fewer Bishops than Churches And then I ask 1. Where and when do all the Christians in this Diocess of above an hundred miles long Congregate who meet but in above a thousand several Temples and never know one of a thousand of the Diocess 2. Doth not this grant to the Brownists that the Parish Churches are no Churches but onely parts of the Diocesane Church 3. And then if it be proved that the Diocesane Church form is but of humane invention what Church in England will they leave us that is of divine institution This is the unhappiness of overdoing to undo all and of aspiring too high to fall down into nothing And doth he not speak
much to the same purpose p. 87. One City with the Territories adjoyning to it being ruled by one single Bishop was to be called a singular Church And therefore that which is said to be done in every Church Act. 14. 23. is said to be done in every City Tit. 1. 5. Tâ—e sum of which observation is only this that one City with the Territories adjoyning to it never makes above one Church in the Scripture Style And yet he largely proveth the contrary that there was one Church and Bishop of Jewish Christians and one of Gentiles whereas a Province or Countrey or Nations consists of many Cities and so of many Episcopal Sees or Churches The like he hath again p. 90 § 53. But whereas p. 88. â—e would Prove that a Province or Nation of many Churches may be called one Church because the Churches in all the World are so called in our Creed and in the Scripture I answer That he can never prove that many Churches are ever in Scripture called one save only the Universal Church which is but one being Headed by one Head even Christ The Universal Church as he said before of a Church compared to Persons is One Collective body as a Political Society related to Christ or constituted of Christ and all Christians And a particular Church is one as constituted of the Ministerial Pastors and People But find any Text of Scripture that calleth the Churches of a Nation or Province one Church in all the new Testament if you can In pag. 103. he giveth Reasons for his singularity in interpreting so many Texts of Scripture and sheweth that as the Fathers differ from each other as Tirinus sheweth so we may also differ from them and I know not of any Expositor that ever wrote that hath more need of this Apology than Grotius and he And I mislike not his Reasons But then how unsavoury is it for the same person to expect that we should in reverence to one expository word in Irenaeus and another in Epiphanius forsake the common sense of the Fathers where they do agree or that we must bow to every ancient Canon But I would not have him thought more singular than he is lest when I have answered him the Prelatists forsake him and say that they are still unanswered therefore I crave the Readers special observation of his words p. 104 105. I might truly say that for those minute considerations and conjectures wheren this Doctor diffâ—rs from some others who have written before him as to the manner of interpreting some few Texts he hath the Suffrages of many of the learnedst men of this Church at this day and as far as he knows OF ALL that embrace the same cause with him Of which I only say that if he do but minutely differ from others and not at all from the most I hope my confutation of him will not be impertinent as to the rest But if he lay the very stress of his cause upon novel Expositions of almost every Text which mentioneth Bishops Presbyters Pastors and quite cross the way of almost all save Petavius that ever went before him then think whether that cause stand on so firm ground as some perswade which needeth such new foundations or ways of support at this Age in the judgement of such learned men as these Pag. 119 120 121. He proveth that Diocesane Bishops are the only Elders of the Church which James adviseth the sick to send for supposing the City Churches even of Jerusalem to be yet no bigger than that one Bishop and a Deacon who yet was not this Visiter of the sick might do all the Ministerial work Where I confess he quite outgoeth me in extenuating the Churches in S. James's time If the Church of Jerusalem had seven Deacons I will not belive him pardon the incivility that they had but one Presbyter And pardon me a greater boldness in saying if he had tryed but as much as I have done what it is to do all the Pastoral work for one Parish of 2 or 3000 Persons in publick and private he could not possibly have been of this Opinion Nor do I think it likely that when it is a singular Person that James bids send for the Elders of the Church but that it implyeth that the Church where he was had more Elders than one I confess that if it had been spoken either to Persons plurally or of Churches plurally the phrase might well have signified the single Elders of the several Churches But to say to each sick man singularly Let him send for the Elders of the Church singularly in common use of speech signifieth that there were many Elders for that man to send for in the Church And whereas he asketh whether a sick man must send for the Colledge of Presbyters I answer that a sick man may well send for the Presbyters or Ministers either one after another as there is occasion or more than one at once if need require for his Resolution If we say to a sick man in London send for the Physicians of the City and let them advise you c. it signifieth that the City hath more Physicians than one and that he may advise with one or more at once oâ— per vices as he findeth Cause and no man would speak so to him if London had but one Physician and Norwich another and York another c. And when p. 121. he supposeth the Objection that they have a mean opinion of visiting the sick because they say it is not the Bishops work which he well maketh it to be methinks this should suit with no English Ears who will quickly understand that they speak de facto of our Bishops to whom a sick man may send an hundred or fifty or twenty Miles to desire him to come presently and pray with him if his disease be a Phrensie which depriveth him of his Wits and all about him be as mad And the Bishop with us may be said to visit the sick of his Diocess as a man may be said to weed a Field that plucketh up a weed or two where he goeth or to build a City because he knockt up a Naâ—l or two in his own House Pag. 120. It is observable which he saith Indeed if it were not the Bishops work to visit the sick how could it be â—y the Bishop when other parts of his Office became his full Employment commited to the Presbyter For 1. he could not commit that to others if he first had it not in himself And 2. This was the only Reason of ordaining inferior Officers in the Church that part of the Bishops taâ—k might be performed by them Ans Either he believed that the Office of a Subject Presbyter or Order as they call it was instituted by God and setled in the Church as necessary by his Spirit and Law or not If he do then Qu. 1. Whether the work of these Presbyters after the institution be not the work of their own
for Chronology and History A few leaves of whose over-large Collections Dr. Hammond hath Answered as you have heard and given his reason for going no further because Blond extendeth the Ministerial Parity but to 140. But to us it is not so inconsiderable to see by what degres the Prelacy rose and to see it proved so copiously that even in after Ages the species extent and of Churches and the Order or Species of Presbyters were not altered notwithstanding accidental alterations And therefore I shall undertake to bring proofenough of what I now plead for from times much lower than 140 such as I think the impartal will rest satisfied in though interest and preconceived Idea's are seldom satisfied or conqueredly a Confutation CHAP. VI. That it is not of Gods institution nor is pleasing to him that there be no Churches and Bishops but in Cities or that a City with its territories or Country adjacent be the bounds of each Church SOme late most esteemed defenders of Diocesanes especially Dr. Hammond lay so great a stress upon the supposition that the Apostles setled the Churches in the Metropolitane and Diocesane order and that they did partly in imitation of the Jewish policy and partly as a thing necessary by the nature of the thing that even in Heathen Kingdomes when Churches are gathered in any Cities they must have a difference of Church power over each other as they find the Cities to have a civil power as you heard before from Dr. H. that I think it meet here breifly to prove 1. That it was not of the Apostles purpose to have Churches and Bishops placed only in Cities and not in Villages 2. Nor that Church power should thus follow the civil 3. Nor that a City with its territories should be the measure of the habitation of each Churches members The licet in some cases I deny not but the oportet is the question yea and the licet in other cases The two first are proved together by these reasons following 1. Christ himself our grand examplar did not only preach and convert Christians in Cities but in Country villages where he held assemblies and preacht and prayed yea in mountains and in Ships And though he planted no particular Churches with fixed Bishops there yet that was because he did so no where He performed all offices in the Country which he did in the Cities except that which was appropriated to Jerusalem by the Law and the institution of his last supper which could be done but in one place 2. There is no Law of God direct or indirect which maketh it a duty to settle Churches and Bishops in Cities only and forbiddeth the setling them in Country villages This is most evident to him that will search the Scripture and but try the pretended proofs of the late Prelatists for the vanity of their pretensions will easily appear They have not so fair a pretense in the New Testament for asserting such a Law as the Pop hath for his supermacy in Peter feed my sheep And where there is no Law there is no obligation on us unto duty and no sin in omission If they say that the Apostles did plant Churches only in Cities comprehending their territories I answer 1. They prove that they planted them in Cities but the silence of the Scriptures proveth not the Negative that they planted none in Villages 2. Nor have they a word of proof that each Church contained all Christians in the Cities with all the interjacent Villages 3. Much less that they must contain all such when all the Countries were converted and the Christians were enow for many Churches 4. Nor can they ever prove that the Apostles planting Churches only in Cities was intended as a Law to restrain men from planting them any where else Any more than their not converting the Villages or the generality of the Cities will prove that they must not be converted by any other Or than that their setting up no Christian Magistrates or converting no Princes will prove that there must be no such thing Whoever extended the obligation of Apostolical example to such Negatives as to do nothing which they did not 5. The reason is most apparent why they preached first in Cities because there is no such fishing as in the Sea They had there the frequentest fullest audirories And so they planted their first Churches there because they had most converts there And it is known that Judea a barren mountainous Coutrey of it self had been so harressed with Wars that there was little safety and quiet expected in Countrey Villages and the Roman Empire had been free from the same plague by such short intervals that as many people as could got into the Cities for all that know by experience what War is do know the misery of poor Country people who are at every wicked Soldiers mercy It was therefore among poor scattered labourers a hard thing to get a considerable auditory which maketh Mr. Eliots and his helpers work go on so heavily among the scattered Americans who have no Cities or great Towns because they can rarely speak to any considerable numbers Now to gather from hence either that Villages must have no Churches or no Bishops is an impiety next to a concluding that they must not be assembled taught or worship God 3. The reasons are vain and null which are pretended for such a modelling of Churches to the form of the civil Government and thus confining them to Cities For 1. There is no need that one Bishop be the Governour of another at all 2. And therefore no need that the Bishop of a Metropolis govern the Bishop of a lesser City or he the Bishop of a Village 1. God hath not given one Bishop power over another as meer Bishops As Cyprian saith in his Carth. Council none of us are Bishops of Bishops but Colleagues Dr. Hammond himself saith that the Bishops are the Apostles Successors and the Apostles were equal in power and Independent Annot. in 1 Tim. 3. c. p 732. Jesus Christ dispensing them all the particular Churches of the whole world by himself and administring them severally not by any one Oeconomus but by the several Bishops as inferiour heads of unity to the severalbodies so constituted by the several Apostles in their plantations each of them having 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a several distinct commission from Christ immediately and subordinate to none but the supreme donor or plenipotentiary Indeed if it be not Bishops but Archbishops or Bishops of Bishops which are the Apostles Successors in order over the Bishops as they are supposed to be over the Priests then such an order of Arch-Bishops is of divine right But not as Metropolitanes or for the Cities sake but as general Officers to take care of many Churches succeeding the Apostles 2. And that Apostolical succession is not the foundation of the Metropolitan or City power is plain 1. Because if the Bishop or Arch-Bishop be the immediate successors of
may end a Church by Wood and stone though the Country still have never so many Christians and when the City is gone the Church is gone 10. Yea it will be in the power of every king even of Heathens whether Christ shall have any Church or Bishop in his kingdoms or not Because he can un-city or dispriviledge all the Cities in his kingdom at his pleasure and consequently unchurch all the Churches 11. And by their way Christ hath setled as various Church forms as there be forms of Government in the world For all Dominions are not divided into Provinces under Prisidents c as the Roman Empire was In many Countries the Metropolis hath no superiority over the other City or the Country and so that will be of divine institution in one Country which will be a sin in others 12. Yea by this Rule many vast Countries must have no Bishops or Churches at all because they have no Cities as is known among the Americans and others must have but one Church and Bishop in a whole Country of many hundred Miles 13. And by their Rule all the Bishops of England are unbishoped and their Diocesan Churches are unchurched For 1. Some of them in Wales and Man have no Cities now called such 2. Others of them have many Cities not only Coventry and Lichfield Bath and Wells now called Cities but abundance of Corporations really Cities 3. And the Cities in England Scotland and Ireland have no Civil Government over all the Countries Corporations Villages of the Diocefe at all nor are they Seats of Presidents or Lieutenants that have such Rule so that our Dioceses are not modelled to the form of the Civil Government What subjection doth Hartfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire c. owe to the Town of Lincolne 14. By their model it is not Bishops and Metropolitans alone that are of divine right For if the Church Government must be modelled to the Civill the Imperial Churches must have had Officers to answer all the Proconsuls and Presects the Lieutenants the Vicars the Consular Presidents the Corrâ—ctors c. For who can prove that one sort or two oaly must by imitated and not others 15. They must by their rule set up in England an inconsistent or self destroying form For in many if not most Counties our Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants and Sherifs and most Justices dwell in Countrey mannors and Villages and not in Cities And so either Cities must not be the Seats of Bishops and Churches or else the Seat of Civil Government must not be the Seat of the Ecclesiastical If they say that Assizes and Sessions are kept in the County Towns I answer 1. So Church assemblies called Synods or Councils may be held in them and yet not be the Bishops Seat For they are not the Judges or Justices Seat because of Assizes and quarterly Sessions 2. The observation is not universally true Yea no Assizes or Sessions at all are therefore held in any Town because it is the County Town but because it is the convenientest place for meeting The choice of which is left to the Judges and Justices who sometimes choose the County-Town and sometimes another as they please As Bridgnorth in Shropshire Aleshury not Buckingham ordinarily in Buckinghamshire and so of others 3. And thâ—se County Towns are few of them either Cities or Bishops Seats As Buckingham Hartford Bedford Cambridge Huntington Warwick Darby Nottingham Sherwsbury Ipswich Colchester Lancaster Flint Denbigh Montgomery Merioneth Radnor Cardigan Carnarvon Pembrook Carmarthen Breeknock and divers others 16. This model of theirs is in most parts of the world or many quite contrary to the Interest of the Church and therefore forbidden by God in Nature and Scripture by that rule Let the end be preferred and the means which best serve it Let all things be done to edification For in most of the world the Rulers are enemies to Christianity and disposed to persecute the Pastors of the Church therefore they will least endure Ecclesiastical Courts and Bishops in their Imperial Cities and under their noses as we say Obj. The Romans did endure it Ans For all the ten persecutions the Romans gave ordinarily more liberty of Religion than most of the world doth at this day Bishops and Pastors are glad to keep out of the way of Infidel and Heathen Rulers And I think verily our most Zealous English Prelates would be loath if they had their language to go set up a Church and Bishops seat at Madrid Vienna Jngolsted yea at Florence Milan Ravenna Venice Lisbone Warsaw c. And if they must needs be in those Countries they would rather chose a more private and less offensive seat 17. I think that few Churches or Bishops in the world except the Italian if they are of the opinion now opposed by me The Greek Church is not For though for honor sake they retain the name of the ancient Seats yet they ordinarily dwell in Countrey Villages And so doth the Patriarck of Antioch himself often or at least Antioch is now no City of which he hath the name And Socrates and after him other Historians tell us that of old this practise varied as a thing indifferent in several Countries according to their several customes which had no Law of God for them and therefore were not accounted necessary 18. Our English Bishops have been for the most part of another mind till Dr. Hammond and others turned this way of late Not only Jeâ—el Bilson and many others have asserted that Patriarks Metropolitans and Primates and such like are of human right and mutable but few if any were found heretofore to contradict them And at this day many Bishops ordinarily dwell in their Country houses As the Bishop of Lincolne did at Bugden the Bishop of Coventree and Lichfield formerly at Eccleshall Castle the Bishop of Chester now at Wigan and so of others And I think that is the Bishops Seat where usually his dwelling is and not where a Lay-Chancellor keepes a Court or where a Dean and Chapter dwell who are no Bishops 19. There have as Dr. Hammond hath well proved been of old several Churches in one City one of Jews and one of Gentiles with their several Bishops and Clergy Therefore one City with its territories is not jure Divino the measure or boundaries of one only Church 20. If the Church Government must be modelled to the Civil then in every Monarchie or Empire there must be one Universal Pastor to rule all the rest as there is one King And in every Aristocracy there must be a Synod of Prelates in Church Supremacy and in every Democracy who or what But then the Papacy will be proved not only lawful but of Divine institution as the Head or Church Soveraign of the Roman Empire though not of all the world at Rome first and at Constantinople after And indeed I know no word of reason that can be given to draw an impartial man of Judgment to doubt
be a worthy Pastor 2. And to get the best they can For cohabitation or proximity or vicinity is necessary to Church ends both to publick and private communion and mutual help But the Minister that converth them may dwell far off that Therefore indeed the Reasons why all in a City and vicinity were wont to be of the same Church if there were room was not because that Minister converted them but because they were fit for such Communion by cohabitation 9. And were it otherwise the Bishop and his Presbyters preaching to the same people the Presbyter might convert more and become joint Bishop 10. And certainly it would unbishop all the English Bishops almost that I am acquainted with who nether converted their Dioceses from Infidelity nor baptized them nor convert many that ever we hearof from a wicked life to serious holiness which the Presbyters have done by very many and so must there be made the Bishops if they would CHAP. X. That a particular Church of the first or lowest order must consist of Neighbour Christians associated for Personal Communion in local presence in holy worship and conversation and not of strangres so remote as have only an Internal Heart-Communion or an External Communion by the mediation of others LEt it be here noted that none dally with the Name Church as an equivocal that 1. I speak of no meer Community of Christians nor of any accidentall assembly which have no Pastors or no intent of sacred ends Call them what you will But of a proper Christian society constituted of the Pars gubernans and the Pars gubernata the Pastor and Flock 2. That I speak not of a Family Church which consisteth of the Master and the Family 3. Nor yet of the Universal Political Church as visible or as mysticall which consisteth of Christ the head and all visible or sincere believers 4. Nor of any Christian Churches confined by Agreement for Concord of Churches being many 5. Nor of any such Churches accidentaly united in one kingdom under one king or Civil Governor whether Christian or Infidel 6. Nor of many Churches headed by humane appointment with one Metropolitane Primate or Patriack being a Pastor thus exalted by men above the rest 7. Nor yet of many Churches under one Arch-Bishop or general Apostolical Visitor or Pastor claiming this general oversight by Divine right whether rightly or wrongfully I now take no notice 8. But the Church which I treat of is only the political society of Christians of the first ranck and so of a Bishop of the lowest ranck or a meer Bishop that is no Arch-Bishop Not of an Oratory or Chappel of ease where part of a true Church often meet but of a true entire Church of the first magnitude or rank And I take it for granted 1. That such Churches there should be 2. and that every true Church should have its Bishop as Doctor Hummond and many others grant taking the Church in this political notion or if that be not granted I will proove it further anon And that these lowest true political or Organized Churches must be Neighbours united for Personal Communion as aforesaid I prove 1. First from all the Scripture instances The Churches at Jerusalem Antioch Ephesus Corinth c. were all such as is fuller to be opened in the 2d Part. 2. From the instances of all the Churches of the first and second age of which also more is after to be said 3. From the dutyes of Church members which are as followeth 1. To assemble together for Gods publick service Act. 4. Heb. 10. 25. 1. Cor. 14. c. And how can they do this that are utterly out of reach and never know or see each other 2. To have the same Pastors that are among them and over them and preach to them the word of God and go before them by the example of an holy life 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 7 17 24. 1 Tim. 3. 6 7 c. And how can they hear the Pastors that never Preach to them or be Guided by those that never see them or follow their example whom they never knew or come for counsel to them that are out of their reach and knowledg 3. To send to their Pastors when they are sick to pray with them and advise them which they cannot do to them that are out of their reach Jam. 5. 4. To provoke one another to Love and to good works and to consider one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that end A word that signifieth knowledge and more even Observation of that which we see or know In which and v. 25. saith Dr. Hammond Let us weigh and consider all advantages we can have upon one another to provoke and excite one another to Charity and all actions of piety such as are joyning in the publick service And not suffer our selves to proceed so far towards defections as to give over the publick assemblies the forsaking of which is not is not only deserting the publick profession of Chriâ—t but also of the meanes of growth in grace but stir up one another to the performance of this All which suppose propinquity and and consist not with the distance of uncapable strangers Heb. 3. 13. To exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any be hardened by the deceâ—tfulness of sin Which we cannot do by men of another Countrey with whom we have no converse All is plainly expressed 1 Thes 5. 11. 12 13. Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another even as also ye do And we beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish â—ou and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake and to be at peace among your selves But how can they comfort themselves together that never came together or see each other There can no peace but Negative be among them that are not among each other and have no converse They cannot edifie utter strangers How can I know the Bishop of the Diocese who never saw him nor ever had opportunity to see him tho I live about an hundred miles neerer him being at London than some parts of his Diocese are I know those that Labour among us in this Parish but the Bishop never laboured among us nor was here that ever I heard of nor do I know one in the Parish that useth not to Travaile that ever saw him and few that by heaâ—say know his name Rom. 15. 7. 14. Receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the Glory of God 6. That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God of which saith Dr Hammond That ye may joyn unanimously Jews and Gentiles into one and assembling together worship and serve the Lord wherefore in all humility of condescension and kindness embrace and succour one another help them up when they are fallen instead of despising and driving them from your communion v. 14.
then his Office is more sacred If the Bishops or both alike then that Bishops work may no more be done per alium then the Presbyters Moreover I know no Bishops but would willingly be more Respected and Honoured than the Presbyters and if they desire it should be only by way of fear they neither think or wish like Ministers of Christ nor like sober men But if by way of love who knoweth not what advantage the present Pastor hath above the absent caeteris paribus to get the peoples love and Paul would have it to be so 1 Thes 5. 12 13. It is those that Labour among them and admonish them whom they must esteem highly in Love not for their titles and dignities but for their work sake And who knoweth not that he that Loveth a man for Preaching the word of salvation to him is likelier to come to him whose doctrine daily edifieth him and comforteth him than to him whom one of a hundred of his Diocese never heard a Sermon or a good word from in all their lives If it be for the work sake that they must or will be Loved is not he liker to be most Loved who is still with them and prayeth and praiseth God with them and comforteth and confirmeth them and resolveth their doubts and quieteth their troubled Consciences and visiteth them in sickness and taketh care of the poor and visiteth them from house to house than he that once or never came among them and is unknnown And if the people be Rebellious and wicked it is the present Pastor who shall be most hated and opposed which if it be for Christ is a good and comfortable thing and hath a special promise Mat. 5 10. 11 12. And that Pastor who is most beloved of the good people and most hated by the bad is he that will do most good for mens salvation and will have most comfort in his Soul and at last the greatest reward from God and that is caeteris paribus the present Pastor And it were worth the noting if blind men would see that this is our great reason of the common calamities of the Churches that when the best of the people love their present faithfull Pastors and the worst hate them most and love best the Absent Bishops that trouble them as they do the dead Saints for whom they keep holy â—â—ajes these wicked people fly to the Bishop and seek to make the present Pastors suspected or odious to him as Schismaticks or such as are against the Bishops mind and honour and because these Villains Love the absent Bishop better then the present Pastors therefore the Bishop that knoweth them not but by hearsay taketh such for the honestest men in the Parish and so taketh their words against the Ministers and to the utmost of my experience I speak it ordinarily that Minister shall pass with the Bishop for a Schismatick a Puritan a seditious Fellow or a stark knave let him be more Learned than Hierom more industrious than Augustin more holy than Macarius or at least as suspected of these crimes whom the flattering malignant will so represent to him especially if he be a sensual Gentleman that cannot endure to have his lusts and licentiousnes reproved or controlled by a Minister of Christ And when these lies and slanders have encouraged the ungodly accusers by their successe while they engage the Bishop against the present Pastors and cause him to turn their troubler hinderer or persecutor then is the Prelate and the Pastor become as enemies whose interests are grown inconsistent and then they come to have their several Parties and the debauched take one side and the sober and religious the other and what followeth upon this he is mad in this age who is ignorant after so great experience But I shall add more of this subject in the Chapter following CHAP. XII The just opening and understanding of the true nature of the Pastoral office and Church Government would end these controversies about Episcopacy THe name of Church Government so far deceiveth undistinguishing gross crinconsiderate wits as that they take the controversie to be but whether we shall have order or anarchie Church Government or none As if neither the Magistrates Government of the Sword were any thing nor yet the Pastors Government by the word But I would fain know of these men what more it is that they would have and what is the Church Government which they so much contend for 1. Is it an Universal Legislation It is high and damnable Treason against Christ for any mortal men to claime it Universal Legislation is the prerogative of the Universal King There is no Universal King but Christ who else is Governour of all the world or all the Churches in the world And Christ hath in nature and Scripture given the world already an Universal Law If he hath done it well take not on you to amend it If you say he hath done it ill either take not on you to be Christians or else call your self the Christ that is Anti-Christ if you will take Christs place and take upon you to amend his work If you dream of an Universal Pope or General Council as having this power you will but make true Anti-Christs of them and foolishly confound a humane constitution with a Divine and the Roman Empire with all the world For you are ignorant in Church History if you see not plainly that Popes Patriarks and Primates stand all on the same foundation And that both they and Councils falsly called General were but Imperial or confined to one Princes Dominion called or ruled usually by the Emperours who had no power in other Princes Territories No Councils conteining any considerable members but such as were in that one Empire or formerly had been of it and so kept the custome which then they had received except that the Romans placed one Bishop on the borders of Scythia or Tartary and one on the borders of Persia in hope that he might have influence further into the Countries and rarely one or two such might be at a Council called General so that certainly there is no Universal Law-giver or Judge but Christ This therefore is not the Church Government of Bishops which men contend for 2. What is it then is it an Universal Exposition of the Scripture or of Christs Laws why an exposition truly Universal is for Regulation as the Law it self And none ever had such power even in civil Government but the Law-givers themselves Else the Expositor of the Lawes should be King and not the maker seeing it is his sence that the subject must be ruled by But if it be a particular decisive exposition which you meane such as a Judge in deciding particular controversies I shall say more to that anon 3. If it be any Coactive or Coercive power of Church Government that you meant by mulcts or Corporal penalties no Bishops as such have any thing to do with it not only
Bilson but the generality of the Prelatists disclaime it and confess that it belongeth only to the King and Magistrates and that they receive it from the King if ever they exercise any sâ—â—h 4. What is it then is it to be the Kings Ecclesiastical Council to prepare such Canons as he shall enact Of Canons I shall say more anon But though Pastors may be the fittest to Council Kings yet that giveth them no power nor doth aptitude make an office nor is the King tyed to them but may advise whith whom he please And experienced present Pastors are usually fitter to give advice in the matters of Religion than they And even Civil impartial Noblemen have usually proved wiser sobâ—rer and more peaceable and happy Church Councellours than the interessed partial Clergy I am not of Erastus mind that all Church Government belongeth to the Magistrates I have lately published my judgment of that matter in certain Propositions to Ludov. Molinaeus But I grant to him and all sober impartial Divines do grant that all forceing Government by the Sword belongeth to Magistrates and Parents only and not to any Bishops as such It followeth therefore that no Bishops power extendeth to any other effect but only to work on the Consciences of Volunteers unless as the Magistrates or Parents may constraine them by penalties to submit to it Suppose therefore a while that the Magistrates force were withdrawn from your discipline and left it to itself you would then know better by experience wherein its strength consisted That man would then Rule the people most who did most effectually convince their reason aud prevaile with Conscience and further nothing would be done Are not our Bishops well aware of this Do they not themselves confess how little their Government would signifie above the Government of present Presbyters unless they could give clear convincing Reasons to the people which absent strangers are unlike to do What do you think your peculiar power would signifie in one year above a Presbyrers if the Magistrate left all at liberty in their Church obedience to their Pastors would not the present Pastors carry almost all with the best and soberest of the flocks Especially where Bishops make it their office to forbid the Pastors to do theirs and to keep them from Preaching the word of life Their holding fast the secular conjunct power and using it so much doth shew what they trust to they say themselves what would the Keys signifie without the Sword and the Pishops Government prevail where none are punished for despising it if the Bishop excommunicate a faithfull Preacher neither he nor his flock will much regardit but goe on in the service of the Lord. And perhaps some will excommunicate the Bishop and be even with him O! that the Magistrates would a few Years try what the Keys can do in England of themselves and valeant quantum valere possunt Not that I would wish him to leave off his own duty to punish sin but let it not be mixed with Church Offices so as that all that shall be imputed to the Bishops Keys which is effected only by the Magistrates Sword I deny not but the Magistrate may moderately drive men to hear Gods word and to do the immediate duties of their places But not to profess that they are Christians when they are not or that they consent to Church Communion when they do not Nor to take those Privileges which belong not to them No man hath right to Church Communion who had rather be excommunicated then repent of sin Therefore if Gods word and an excommunication will not bring him to profess Repentance he should not be either Rackt or Imprisoned to force him to say he doth repent when it is certain that he doth not indeed repent who will not profess it by easier means Nor hath that man right to absolutiaon and Church Communion who only prefereth it before a Goale The effects of the Church Keyes are talked of but are indeed unknown where secular force doth deterr men into lyeing professions of repentance and drive unwilling persons in to the Communion of the Church No unwilling person should have the Seal of pardon put into his hands Obj. But we cannot say they are unwilling who consent though moved by the penalty of the Law and Sword Ans Yes he is to be called unwilling who hath not the willingness which Christ maketh necessary He that is not willing to have Church Communion for it self and for Christ and his salvation is not willing of it at all indeed nor in Gods account For it is only freedome from a Prison that he is willing of and of Church Communion as a means to that and not as a means to the end that God appointed it As he that consenteth to be Baptized only to heal the Kings evil or to save his life is not to be Baptized nor taken for a Christian nor is it Baptism indeed but touching only which he consenteth to so is it in this case Obj. But how know you but them in hath righter ends together with these punishment brings many a man to reason and true repentance Ans You suppose your selves that the word and Keys will not prevail with him of themselves and therefore it is that you desire force your own Consciences tell you that it is but to avoid punishment that you suppose him to profess repentance Otherwise when your threats have brought him to repentance try what is the cause by remitting the penalty on his body and after freely leaving him to himself Obj. But some are like Children that will hear reason when their stubbornness is taken down Therefore it may also have better motives for ought you know Ans 1. Men that are dealt with in the matters of Salvation are not to be thus used as Fools and Children about common things but as men that must live and die as they choose 2. And God hath left us no such means to bring men into a right Choice in things of this nature Otherwise you might set Infidels on the Rack till they consent to be Baptized or send them to Prison and then say how know you but this as the Rod doth Children hath brought them to their witts But the Church of Christ never took this course nor never thus understood his will 3. The case is plain to men that will understand When God hath made mens free consent the Condition of their Salvation and the Profession of a free consent to be the Condition of Church Communion and what wise man would have lower that will not make the Church a swine stie It followeth that the Pastors must have the evidence of such a Profession of free and voluntary consent or else they must not receive such persons Now such a one that hath been long tried by the word and by the penalty of Excomunication it self and refuseth to profess Repentance but only professeth it when no other means will escape a Prison doth
not give the Pastor an evidence in the Court of Reason acceptable to signifie a voluntary Repentance or consent and therefore what ever possibly may be known to God he is not to be taken into the Church For we must judge by evidence and that is by such free profession of Repentance as Christ hath taught us to expect and therefore we can only Judge that person to be one that had rather say he repenteth than be imprisoned but not as one that indeed repenteth or desireth Church Communion as such and for true ends Obj. But if he be in the Church though without Repentance he may there he brought to Repentance afterward Ans Possibilities are no Rule for us to go by in such cases so you may say if one be Baptized before he profess to believe or repent he may be brought to it after by hearing in the Church But this is but to make Lawes for the Church instead of Christs when we have cast out his Lawes and to confound the world and the Church by our foolish adverse reason He that is in the Church notoriously against or without his will stands there but as a testimony of the Bishops perfidiousness And he that will not come in by any reasoning or intreating without the violence of the Sword is in all process of humane Judgments to be esteemed unwilling The ancient Churches would indeed importune men to Baptism but they never baptized any at age that did not intreat to be baptized and voluntarily make profession of faith and repentance And Papists and Protestants commonly affirm that none should be constrained to be baptized or to make profession of Christianity But the Papists come after and tell us that vet when one is baptized he may be compelled by force to all his duty and so may be constrained to stay in the Church or to return if he forsake it Their Reasons are 1. Because now he is obliged by his own consent 2. Because he hath put himself under the Government of the Church and therefore must be Governed by it Ans But 1. to consent to be a Christian Ruled by Christ and to consent to be constrained by force to continue this consent are two things Prove the latter if you can to be included in our Baptism Contrarily as we freely and not forcedly consent it is supposed that we are accordingly to continue it as we began it 2. And to put our selves under the Government of the Church is not to put our selves under the sword the Church punishment reacheth no further then excomunication and where a man is fully excomunicated he is cast out of the Church again and when he is out of it he is not under its Government Indeed he is under the Magistrates Government But if that will prove that he may be punished for not repenting and returning to the Church when Excomunicate it will prove too that he might be punished before Baptism for not repenting and being baptized For though there be some aggravations of his sin that Apostatizeth to it yet that differeth the case but as to the degree It is for the quality of the crime itself that the Magistrate is to punish as Murder Theft Adultery Blasphemy c. Whether it be in the unbaptized or baptized or excomunicate But it is for Impenitency only in some crime that the Church doth excommunicate And if the Magistrate must imprison or kill men properly for Impeniâ—encie it must be as it aggravateth the crime itself and it may be as well the unbaptized as the baptized for he is the Governour of both It is therefore a meer fiction of Papists Church Tyrants that there is such a difference between the unbaptized and the excommunicate as that the first must not have Church priviledges till they disire them and the later may have them if they be but commpelled to keep them or return to them by the sword And so schismaticaly different are they from the Catholick Church for many hundered years after Christ as directly to contradict them For all the Canons as well as the History tell us that all the antient Churches when they had excommunicated a sinner would not receive him till he had penitently begged readmission Yea they used to cast down themselves on the earth as even great Theodostus did before Ambrose when but suspended and to beg pardon and readmission with tears nay for great faults this was not received till many months or years continued penitence shewed their desires to be sincere and now Prelates must have a Blasphemer or a common Drunkard compelled by the sword to say that he repenteth that he may the next day have the honour and priviledge of a Christian Communicant whether he will or not O kind-natured-cruell-Church And when Gyriâ— of Alexandria began to use the sword and when the Circumcellian Donatists tempted Augistine to change his opinion about using force in matters of Religion yea and when Ithacius and his partakers offended Martin and Ambrose by stirring up Maximuâ— against the Priscillianists none of all this was to force these Hereticks by the sword to Communicate in the Church before they had showed a voluntary repentance nor to make them Church members against their wills even that Ithacius whom Hooker himself acknowledgeth so bad was not so foolish But only they would have forced them from thier own waies and punished them as seduâ—eis of the people and as disturbers of the Churches purity and peace Though yet it is too evident that the pride and passion of the Prelates that were orthodox did quickly and sterely flame out to the constagration of the Churches when they found that the Christian Emperours were ready to serve their passions with the sword It is then past denial that all the power of Bishops or any Pastors is but the â—â—â—â—dgement of the word of God upon the Conferences of men that believe them and voluntarily receive that word only with this advantage that they do not this as private men but as Officers appointed so to mannage this word And therefore he that disobeyeth the word of God truly delivered and applied by them committeth a double sin one as he disobeyeth Gods word as such in the matter in hand and the other as he disobeyeth that particular word of God which commandeth him to hear and obey his Pastors But if men will so sin we have nothing but that word of God which they despise to cure them by For instance 1. In our admonitions and reproofs of the greatest sinners we can do no more but shew them Gods Law which they have broken and which threatneth damnation to them and to perswade them by Scripture arguments to repent that they may escape 2. In excommunication it self we have nothing to do but to shew them the same word and shew them how God hath threatned to punish them and to shew them and the Church that word which commandeth us to have no Communion with them but to avoid them
2. The 2d Reason that ordination is an Act of Superiority 1. Is granted because the person to be ordained is yet no Minister of Christ and therefore is Inferior to the Presbyters that ordain him till he have received his office 2. But that afterward the ordainer must be of an higher order as well as greater antiquity in office than him that is ordained by him I deny For than Bishops could not ordain Bishops nor Arch-Bishops ordain Arch-Bishops and who shall ordain the Patriarcks or if you be for him the Pope Have they all superiours to do it 3. The third Reason from History I shall confute in due place only here retorting it thus In Scripture times no fixed Diocesan ever did ordain therefore none such should now ordain 2. But next let us distinguish 1. Between ordaining to the Ministry in the Universal Church without affixing to a particular Charge and the fixing of a Pastor in that particular Church And 2. Between ordaining a Bishop or Plenary Pastor and a half Pastor called now a Presbyter 1. As Baptism as such doth joyn a man to no particular Church but only to the Universal but yet they that have opportunity should secondarily by a faither act of consent also joyn themselves to the particular Church where they live but if they live where they have no such opportunity they must do it after as soon as such opportunity cometh Even so ordination to the sacred Ministry as such doth fix a man to no particular Church but make him a Minister of Christ to the world for mens convertion and to the Universal Church for Christians edification as he shall have any particular opportunity for exercise which the Church of England expresseth by the words when thou shalt be thereunto Lawfully called meaning a call ad exercitium to the exercise of the office received But yet where there are not many unchurched Infidels to be converted but all profess Christianity it is not fit such shall be ordained sine titulo as they speak lest it occasion irregularity and poverty in the Clergy but be at once affixed to a particular Church which fixed Ministers are in Scripture usually called Bishops Presbyters and Pastors with relation to their particular flock or Church besides their primary relation to the World and to the universal Church from which the extraordinary Officers were called Apostles and Evangelists and the ordinary ones Ministers of Christ in general Though I deny not but even the unfixed may be called Bishops Elders and Pastors as being virtually such and in an Office which wanteth nothing but a particular Call to that fixation and exercise Now 1. To call a Minister already made such to a particular Church and so to make a Bishop or Pastor or Presbyter of him doth not necesarily require a Diocesan For 1. The people that are at liberty may do it and ordinarily have done as Blondel hath fully proved And in our times if a free people only choose a man already ordained and take him for their Pastor no man taketh this for a nullity no not the Prelatists themselves 2. And a Pastor Magistrate or Prince may do it without a Bishop as none deny 3. And a Minister may frequently on just occasion be removed from place to place and needeth not a Bishop for every change at least as to the being of his office 2. And as to the first ordination of a Minister as such if there must be a Diocesan to do it this is gathered either from the nature of the thing or from divine institution 1. As to the nature of the thing it sheweth no such necessity but rather contradicteth it for 1. As to Efficiency if a Bishop or Arch-Bishop or Primate or Patriark may be made without the agency of any one of a higher order then so may a Presbyter For the reason is the same 2. And as to the object 1. The first object of the sacred Ministry as such is the Infidel world to whom they are to Preach the Gospel and offer Christ and Salvation and beseech them in Christs stead to be reconciled to God to call them from darkness to light and the power of Satan unto God And to think that none but Apostles should do this and that all the world must be left to the Devil when the Apostles were dead is an unchristian thought To those that must do this Christ promised his presence to the end of the world Now. 1. The Infidel world is no more under the power of a Diocesan than of a Presbyter If it be it is either 1. As he is a Prelate 2. Or as a Diocesan 1. Not as a Prelate in general For if the world be the object of the Ministers office it can be no more of the Prelates as such 2. Not as a Diocesan For the Infidel world Egypt Tartary Japan China Persia c. is no part of any Bishops Diocese 2. And as to the work of a Preacher to the Infidels it is the very fame whether it be done by a Bishop or a Presbyter There is nothing to do for them but preach and baptize and neither of those is a work proper to a Bishop If it be said that it is not because of the object or the work are proper to a Bishop but because the sending forth a man for that work is proper to him I answer that when I have proved past contradiction that he fendeth a man to do as high a work as he could there do himself and to the very same it sheweth that ex natura rei there needeth no higher order than the Ministers to send him No more than there needeth a higher progenitor than a man to beget a man 2. And as his office is related to the Church-Universal all the same argumentation will hold good For the Church-Universal is the object of the Ministers office as well as of the Prelates and no more than his own Diocese is the special charge of a Diocesan as such and the work to which the Minister is ordained in general to the whole Church can no otherwise be proved less than the Prelates unless by proving a Divine institution which they will grant 2. And as for a Divine institution as to the ordaining power I will say but this much which may take with cordate men till I come to speak more largely of the point 1. That Doctor Hammond and as far as he knew all that owned the same cause with him doth grant that the Apostles nor any other in Scripture times did not so much as institute the office of a Presbyter as distinct from a Bishop much less ever ordain any one to such an office And that in all their Instructions to Timothy and Titus about ordination of Bishops or elders and Deacons they have not a syllable about any ordination or qualification of such subject Presbyters but only about ordaining Bishops Therefore if Bishops be the successors of the Apostles in ordination they cannot do
with the Conscience either of the Minister to be silent or of the people not to hear him or of the Magistrates to silence him by force Now to do this either he must prove to them from the word of God by argument that each of these are thus far obliged by God or else that God hath made him as Diocesan the Judge and they are bound to do it because he bids them do it For the first as is said it belongeth to every Minister even with office-authority to tell both Magistrates Minister and people their duty in the name of Christ Thus God hath commanded Adulterers Hereticks c. To forsake their sins or forbear the Ministery and commanded me to publish this in his name even to particular persons But thou art an Adulterer Heretick c. go c. Or God commandeth me to tell the people that it is their duty to avoid a Heretick and the Magistrate that it is his duty to silence him by force Therefore I require this of you in his name 2. But if the Diocesan claim a Superiour Nuntiative power as one more to be believed than the Minister this is 1. But to the doing of the same work which a Minister may do 2. And he must prove that Superiour credibility 3. But Ministerial conviction is efficacious according to the evidence that is brought to do the work If the hearer believe not that the Major is Gods word that an Heretick e. g. must give over Preaching Or if he deny the Minor but thou art an Heretick it is not a Bishops word that will convince him but a Minister that is better at proving it may do more Obj. but we will command him to be silent Ans And he will deride you and command you to be silent again Obj. Then we will convince the Magistrate of his duty to silence him by force Ans 1. That was not the way for 300 years after Christ And what was Episcopacy for till then 2. What if the Magistrates believe you not will you convince him by Scripture or by your Authority over the Magistrate It by Scripture a wiser Presbyter can do that better or as well If by authority of that anon Obj. But at least we will convince the people that it is their duty to forsake that Preacher Ans Again I say if you will do it by Scripture a Minister can do it as well And thus many Ministers now do silence the Diocesans and Conformists that is they perswade the people not to hear them or own them But if by authority it must come to this at last that you are made by God the Judges and this must be believed And remember still you silence no further than you perswade the Conscience to believe that God hath given you this authority And 1. I ask whether it be ever likely that you will silence any Hereticks false Teacher or Schismatick this way by making him take you for one authorized by God to forbid him to Preach For it must be in one of these three cases or all that you have this power 1. Either to silence him as a Heretick that is no Heretick or not proved such 2. Or to silence him as a Heretick that notoriously and provedly is a Heretick 3. Or to silence him as a Heretick in a doubtful case to others but judged Heresie c. by you 1. In the first case neither the injured person nor any that know that you injure him will or must obey you Else a malignant Prelate might silence all the holiest and worthiest Ministers of Christ and it would be at such mens mercy whether Christ should have Churches or the people should be Christians or be saved I am one of the 1800 that have been silenced by better authority than the Prelates alone and yet I think I am bound in Conscience to exercise the Ministry which I received whatever I suffer to the utmost of my opportunity And if the Sword streightened my opportunity no more than my Conscience of the Diocesans Prohibition I should be but very little hindered 2. In the 2d case of notorious Heresie all good Christians are bound by God to avoid such a man though you never silenced him yea though you licensed him yea though you commanded them to hear him And so Magistrates are bound to do their duty in restraining him Can you deny this Must the peoples Souls be poysoned and damned till the Bishop please to take away the poyson and to save them must the Magistrate let Hereticks alone till it please the Diocesan to judge them 2. And in this case no sober Christian will deny that a Presbyter ought to call upon people and Magistrates to do their duty as well as the Diocesans Yea and to command men in Christs name to avoid a notorious or proved heretick Obj. But a Presbyter cannot examine the case and so get proof Ans He may examine it as far as Reason with Ministerial authority will perswade the guilty or the witnesses to be examined And his care of the Church and the peoples Souls obligeth him so to do And a Prelate cannot bring men by sorce to examination or witnessing 3. But let his guilt be never so notorious to others is it like that the person himself will be silent through Conscience of obedience to a Prelate Consider 1. that if he will not obey a Minister that sheweth him the word of God it is unlikely that he will obey a Prelate that saith I have authority to silence you 2. A Heretick doth not know that he is a Heretick nor any erroneous person know that it is an errour which he believeth For it is a contradiction to err in judgment and to know it to be any errour And then 1. He knoweth that his office is durante vita and that he is bound not to cease it without cause 2. He knoweth that you have no power to silence Orthodox Preachers as Hereticks but those that are Hereticks indeed 3. He taketh himself for Orthodox and you for the Heretick 4. And all his followers are of his mind How then will you silence a Heretick without the Sword If you convince him of his errour you shall not need to silence him for he will leave his errour rather than his Ministry But if you convince him not of his errour you will hardly convince him that because of that errour he must be silent nor convince his followers that they must not hear him 3. All the question therefore that remaineth is whether in unknown doubtful cases you are the Judges of Heresie Errour Schisin and of mens unworthiness to Preach And here 1. I need not tell you that by this way you can never silence either the Arrians or any that deny your authority Of which sort you know are most that you silence in this age and Nation No nora Donatist a Novatian or any one that is for the office of Bishops but taketh you for no Bishop as being unduely
effect in order to concord or order they do it by the Magistrates power and not by the Keys without the Magistrate they would be so contemned a sort of men that instead of silencing us by their keyes one of us now silenced could do more to silence them were that according to our Judgment I mean it were easier to perswade ten people from Hearing one of them specially of late than for them to perswade one from hearing us in many places And what the Magistrate doth he can do by others if he please as well as now he doth by them 3. The Churches that have no Bishops have incomparably lesse Heresie Schism Wickedness and more concord then we have here The Church of Scotland is an eminent instance which hath known but little by experience what Schism or Heresies are And so are the Protestant Churches of France of Geneva of Helvetia and other places 4. Were but the true Episcopacy forementioned restored we should yet less know any shew of need for our Diocesane Magistrate Ministers and they would suffice to do what on earth may be expected Obj. Were not Bishops the meanes of the Churches concord in all ages Ans True Bishops such as afore described did their parts but when such as our Diocesans sprang up the Church was presently broken into pieces and by odious contentions and divisions became a sandal and scorne to unbelievers To read but the Acts of Counsels and the History of the Church and there find the horrid contentions of Prelates against each others the parties which they made their running up and down the world to Princes and Rulers and Synods to bear down one another it will do as much to grieve and amaze the Soul of a Sober Christan almost as an History in the world that he can peruse Obj But they silenced Hereticks and deposed them and so kept Doctrine sound and safe Ans Before they had the Sword of the Magistrate to second them they silenced none For how could they do it They only judged them to be cast out of their Communion and deposed which they could no way execute but by avoiding them and perswading the people to disown them and avoid them For they neither did nor could hinder them from gathering Churches and Preaching to their followers And there the rejected ones did reject their Rejecters and excommunicate their excommunicaters and in the eyes of their followers were the better men and only Orthodox So that their silencing was but changeing their Congregations And so numerous were the sects that followed such Teachers that they sometimes seemed more than the Orthodox Epiphanius found enow in his time to fill a large Volume And the Donatists alone were so numerous in Africa as to pretend to be the Catholick Church and by their numbers and insolency deterred Augustine into a change of his opinion and to call for that help from the Princes Sword which before he had denyed Never had the Church in any place so many Sects and Heresies as since the times that Prelacy grew up and in those Countries and where it wasmost exercised Andindeed the ignorance and pride of Prelates was not the least cause For some of them and no small number became the Authors of Heresies themselves such as Paulus Samosatenus the Apâ—linarii the great Patriarcks Dioscorus Nestorious Macedonius and alas how great a number more and others of them did by their dominering insolency rise up with so much pride and wrath against those that humoured them not especially if indeed they erred as that they forced some into Schisms and by silenceing the dissenters did but drive themâ—â—â—t up for themselves in separated assemblies And they so disaffected the zealous people as drove them away from the Orthodox Churches to the Sects and Hereticks as the English Prelates do at this day so that multitudes of the most strict and temperate Christians followed the Novations the Donatists and much worser sects And when the Prelates grew up to a secular terrour and twisted with the Civil power and were backed by the Sword 1. They made the more sober and mortified Christians the more dislike them as may appear by what Eusebius Socrates and others write of them and the Characters that are given of Cyril and Theophilus Alexander and such others And by Martins separation from Ithacius and Idacius and their Synods and by the increase of the Priscilianists by their pride and violence mentioned by Sulp. Severus and others 2. And it was not by the Keys indeed but by the Sword which backt them that they did all that they did be it good or evil in silencings and in keeping up their order 3. And they did but teach the Hereticks to strengthen themselves by the same means So that the Priscilianists once got countenance from Gratians Courtiers against the Bishops And Ambrose was persecuted or endangered by Valentinian as Athanasius at last was by Constantine himself and Chrysostome deposed and many others by such means Yea till at last the Bishops found that evil is more commonly befriended by corrupted nature than good and that Goodness is usually lowest where wealth and honours make men highest and that few Princes were the best of men and therefore that if one befriended the truth many were like to be against it and till the Arrians by the help of Emperours and Vandal and Gothish Kings had almost turned all the Church into Arrians and had got the General Councels on their sides and had cruelly persecuted the Orthodox Bishops and taught them what it was to trust to the Sword for the clensing and concord of the Churches And when the controversie of Images came up one Emperour was for them and another against them By which means and by the contending of the Eastern and Western Patriarcks and Prelates who should be the greatest the Churches have been torne to pieces and so continue lamentably to this day as in the History was before declared And it was the Prelatical Tyranny of the Romanists that since raised so many parties against them and then had no way to Cuâ—b them but by prosâ—câ—ting them by the Sword and flames as in the case of the Waldenses Albigenses and Protestants appeareth And as the Murders of many hundred thousands in Piedmont France Germany Ireland England c Besides their Inquisitions shew Thus Solitudinem fecerunt unitatem pacem â—â—carâ—nt When they have hanged burnt and slain the people and Priests they have quieted and silenced them and when they have made a solitude and depopulation by killing those that disserâ—d from them they have brought all to concord and been all of a mind And let none be offended that I mention the Papists in describing Prelacy For I do it not to raise an Odium on them but I refer it to the consideration of sober men 1. Whether as Herbarists give us the picture and description of herbes not in their spring but in their full grown stalk blossom and fruits
and as he that will know the nature and difference of fruits or animals must stay till they are come to their full growth and ripeness and not take them green and young so he that will judge either of Schism or of Church-tyranny Lust do 2. And whether the Quakers Ranters Familists and Munster monsters be not Schismaticks ripe and at full growth and therefore a young Schismatick is not â—o tell us what Schism is but should himself see what he will be when he is ripe And so whether Popery be not the Diocesane Prelacy full grown and ripe and whether they should not therefore see what they would come to if that which withoâ—deth in the several Kingdoms were taken out of the way as the Pope hath removed it in the Empire If the Diocesans Metropolitanes Patriarks and Pope as to his Primacy in the Empire did not all stand on the same humane foundation then are they not the things that I am speaking of Obj. But the late and present Schismes in England shew that it is the adversaries of Prelacy that are the causes Ans Very true for Prelacy maketh it self adversaries and so maketh some of the Schismaticks There are two sort of Schismatickâ— some Prelatists as the Papists the Novatians the Donatists and most of the old Schismaticks were and some Anti-prelatists And there are two sorts of Anti prelatists Some Catholick being for the Primitive Episcopacy and some Schismaticks And these last the Prelates make and then complain of them It is their state and practice hereafter described that driveth men to distast them and so precipitateth the injudicious into the Contrary extreme It is Prelacy that maketh almost all the Sects that be in England at this day When they see how the Spiritual Keys are secularly used by Laymen in their Courts when they see what Ministers and how many hundred of them are silenced and what Fellows in many places are set up in their stead they think they can never fly far enough from such Prelates To tell the world It is Schismaticks that we silence and they are obedient and Orthodox persons that we set up may signifie something in another land or age but it doth but increase the disaffâ—ction of those that are upon the place and know what kind of men the Prelates commend and who they discommend and silence A very Child when he is eating his â—pple will not cast it away because a Prelate saith it is a Crab nor when he tasteth a Crab will he eate it if a Prelate Swear it is a sweat apple Though he that doth but look on them may possibly believe him I believe they that thought that Prelacy was the only cure of our Schismes do know by this time by experience that by that time the Prelates had again ruled but seven years there were seven and seven against them for one that was so before And we that dwell among them do take those that dislike their course and waies to be the Generality of the most Religious and sober people of the land alwaies excepting the King and Parliament and those that must be still excepted CHAP. XIV The true Original of the warrantable Episcopacy in particular Churches was the notorious disparity of abilities in the Pastors And the original of that tyrannical Prelacy into which it did degenerate was the worldly Spirit in the Pastors and people which with the world came by prosperity into the Church Quaere Whether the thing cease not where the reason of it ceaseth GOd doth not carry on his work upon mens Souls by names and empty titles but by such real demonstrating evidences of his Power Wisdome and Goodness as are apt to work on the Reason of man And therefore he that would make his Apostles the Foundations or chief Pillars and Instruments in and of his Churches would accordingly endow them with proportionable abilities that in the Miracu'ous demonstrations of Power and the convincing demonstrations of Wisdome and the amiable holy demonstrations of goodness they might as far excelothers as they did in authority And nature it self teaceth us to difference men in our esteem and affection as they really differ in worth and loveliness And this Law of Nature is the Primary Law of God And the holy Scriptures plainly second it telling us oft of the diversity of Gods gifts in his Servants which all make for concord but not for equality of esteem and that there are greater and lesser in the Kingdom of God and that Gods gifts in all men must be honoured Math. 12. 1 Cor. 12. Eph. 4. Heb. 5. 10. 11. 12. 6. 1. 2. 3. 4. And God that would have his various gifts variously esteemed did in all ages himself diversifie his Servants gifts All were not Apostles nor all Prophets nor all Evangelists And after their daies all the Ministers or Elders of the Churches were not men of Learning nor of so full acquaintance with the sacred Doctrine nor so grave prudent staied holy charitable or peaceable as some were usually when miraculous gifts did cease and very few Philosophers or men of learning turned Christians Any man may know that had not been told it by Church History that their Elders or Pastors were such as the better sort of our unlearned Christians are who can pray well and worship God sincerely and read the Scripture and in a plain familiar manner can teach the Catechistical points and perswade to duty and reprove vice But as for Sermons in a methodical accurate way as now used and defending the truth and opposing Heresies and stopping the mouths of gainsayers they must needs be far below the Learned But yet here and there a Philosopher was converted and of those that had no such Learning then called secular and the Learning of the Gentiles some few were far better Learned than others in the sacred Scriptures and the customes and Learning of the Jews And it was long before the Christians had Schools and Academies of their own That this was so appeareth 1. In the reason of the thing For no effect can exceed the total cause Therefore they that had not the inspirations prophetical or miraculous guists nor Academies and Schools of secular Learning nor so much as Riches and leisure but Poverty and persecution and worldly trouble and labour were not like to have more Learning than the holy Scriptures taught them 2. And this appeareth by the forecited Canons of Counsels which forbad Pastors ever almost three hundred years after Christ to read the Gentiles books By which the former custome of the Church may easily be perceived And also by abundance of reproaches which are cast upon some Hereticks in the Ancients writings for being too much skilled in Logick and other of the Gentiles Learning 3. And it appeareth by the parity of writers of the second and third Centuries 4. And also by the paucity of famous Divines that are mentioned in the Histories of those times 5. And above all by the
plainness and simplicity of those that are described and of their writings I speak not in any contempt of them for this perhaps we value common learning now too highly But only to tell you the true History of those times No doubt but many poor men among us divers Weavers and some Plowmen of the Church which I was removed from for instance are able to pray and teach as well as most of those who are by Eusebius extolled as the famous Bishops of the second and third age and to write as Methodical pious weighty tractates as any that were then written by men that neither conversed with the Apostles nor had been bred up in Philosophy That I say rot as Clemens Romanus himself or Ignatius or Irenaeus yea or Cyprians Epistles are Yea or as many of the ages following even as holy Macarius Epherm Cyrus Synisius a Philosopher Isidore Pelusiota and many more have written since If this be not believed how many Lay-men could I name who have written more accurately and judiciously and as far as the writings shew as piously as any of these And that not only Learned Lay-men but men that had neither many Languages nor Philosophy And if the books then written were very few and of those very few that were written by any but Bishops or Philosophers and those few so plaine as we see they are the best of them far below the writings of abundance of late Latin and English and French writers that were but Presbyters you may easily judge of what parts the rest of the Presbyters of those times were that never wrote And from hence you may gather the reasons 1. Why so few Volumes are left us written in the two first ages 2. And why the Churches had then so many Presbyters Whatever Doctor Hammond say to the contrary without any proof It was easy to find such Christians as aforedecribed who might competently guide the rest by Doctrine worship discipline and example Though to find Learned men was hard 3. And you may see why so many Hereticks boasted so much of their higher knowledge and Platonical c. speculations as accounting the Orthodox to be ignorant men 4. And you may see why so few were Champions for the truth 5. And why there were so many parties and divisions when the Elders were many and less judicious 6. And you may see how the opinion of Ecclesiastick meer Ruling Elders came up and how to expound Pauls 1 Tim. 5. 17. Especially them that labour in the Word and Doctrine For it was but here and there a Learned or special gifted Christian that was able solemnly and ornately to Preach decide hard cases and controversies confute Hereticks and guide the Churches in difficult cases And the rest did sit about the Bishop as his assistants and Preach and officiate at his direction and oversee the people from man to man being of the same order and office with the Bishop but not of the same parts and therefore not equal in the exercise 7. And therefore lastly hence you may see the reasons of the first fixed particular Church Episcopacy Those few that were Philosophers or eminently qualified being scarce enow to make one for every Church did by their gifts overtop the rest in the due esteem of all the people who were bound to esteem him wisest that was wisest and to yield more to his judgment than to others that knew less And this inequality of gifts usually lasted as long as life and therefore so did the inequality of esteem and reverence And both the people and the inferiour gifted Pastors obeyed the Law of God in nature and readily gave honour to whom honour was due And when one was dead finding another still to excel the rest they accordingly preferred him before the rest even as an excellent Physician would be by the patients and by all the younger and more ignorant Physicians that are not carryed away with pride And this did easily as all things else turne into formality under pretence of order and come to seem a kind of Office But when difference required it I know not but that all this was well done except that they foresaw not the degenerate tyranny that would afterward hence arise This present experience openeth to us to the day What did set up Luther and Melancthon and Illyricus but their eminent parts What else gave Zuinglius and 〈◊〉 the Presidencie at Zurich What else did set up Calvin and Beza at Geneva And Knox and Henderson in Scotland And all our Parishes that have Chappels and Curates shew it here in England Where one man for his worth is thought meerest to have the Benifice and chief cure but others may be chosen by him and placed under him and maintained by him by the Bishops allowance as his curates And indeed it was so long before Academies made a sufficient store of men of sufficiencie for every Presbyters place that for four or five hundred years there were few bred up to competent Learning except either under Heathens or else in a Bishops house or here and there as an Auditor of some one rare Teacher Clemens Alexandrinus as a Disciple of Pantenus and Origene of clemens and some few others came to Learning as auditors in that Alexandrian School But few other places besides Alexandria had any such School of a long time in so much as Nazianzen Basil Greg. Nissen Chrysostome c. were taught at Athens by Lybanius and such other Heathens And Ambrose Augustine and many others were in a manner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self taught so that it was not possible then to have many Learned men ordinarily for one Church or congregation And yet many Presbyters certainly they had Which is the true cause that one Learned man was made an Overseer and Guide to the rest who were his Curates or Assistants gifted like our wiser sort of the Laity but of the same Office and order with him And this Bishop was the usual Preacher and the other did learne of him to Preach and grew up under him as Scholars and he that came to greatest abilities under him was chosen for a Bishop to another Church that wanted but not without his own Bishops consent which made the debate in Councels so frequent whether a Presbyter might remove to another Church or be chosen for a Bishop of another Church And an African Council giveth it as a Reason why that Bishop that had able Presbyters should not refuse to let one go to be a Bishop elsewhere because where there were many fit to be Presbyters there were but few men fit to be made Bishops which implieth that they took it not then for a meer place of order where one man of equal parts was for Unity to rule the rest but for a necessary difference of exercising the same Office because of the different abilities of the Officers Which was not only to keep an order by disparity of places but to educate the Presbyters to greater
shall obey as his Ministers any whomsoever the King shall commit any part of his power about Church matters to and promise them due obedience as such And so you see what is not the Question now to be debated But the Question is Whether the present Church Government in England as distinct from the Kings and Magistrates part be so good or lawful that we should swear or subscribe our approbation of it our obedience to it or that we will never in our place and calling endeavour an alteration of it no though the King command us and that every man in the three Kingdoms that vowed to endeavour such alteration is so clearly and utterly disobliged as that all strangers that never knew him may subscribe or declare that he is disobliged or not obliged to it by that Vow CHAP. II. The first Argument against the English Diocesans That their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church Form of God's Institution and setteth up a Humane Form in its stead ARGUMENT I. WE cannot subscribe or swear to that form of Church Government as good or lawful which in its nature excludeth or destroyeth the very specifical nature of the particular Churches which were instituted by the Holy Ghost and setled in the primitive times and is it self a humane from set up in their stead But such we take the present Diocesane form to be Ergo The Major will be denied by very few that we have now to do with And those few that will deny it must do it on this supposition 1. That the Holy Ghost did institute that particular Church Form which is destroyed but pro tempore And Secondly That he allowed men since to set up one or more of their own in its stead But the disproof of this supposition will fall in more fitly when I have shewed what Church Form was first setled The Minor I thus prove The Species of a particular Church which the Holy Ghost did institute was one Society of Christians united under one or more Bishops for personal Communion in publick worship and holy living The Diocesane English frame is destructive of or inconsistent with this species of a particular Church Ergo The Diocesane English frame is inconsistent with or destructive of the Species of the Holy Ghosts institution In the Major 1. By Bishops I mean Sacred Ministers authorized by Divine appointment to be the stated Guides of the Church by Doctrine Worship and Discipline under Christ the Teacher Priest and Ruler of the Church Whether he have a superior Arch-Bishop I determine not Nor now whether he may ordain Pastors for other Churches What I mean by Personal Communion and whether it be consistent with divers Assemblies I have fully shewed before I mean that the said Churches were no more numerous than our English Parishes nor had more Assemblies Or no more than could have the same personal Communion and that there were never any Churches infimaeâ—vel prime speciei which consisted of many such stated Assemblies I shall therefore now prove 1. That the Churches of the Holy Ghosts institution were no more numerous or were such single Congregations And that they had each such Bishops and Pastors will be proved partly herewith and partly afterward 2. And that such Churches do tota specie differ from the Diocesane Churches and from our present Parish Churches as they define them and are inconsistent with them And the first I shall prove 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Confessions of the Diocesanes 3. From the testimony of Antiquity All proving fully that the ancient Episcopal Churches were but such single Societies or Congregations as I have described and such as our Diocesses of many hundred Churches are different from and inconsistent with CHAP. III. That the primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as afore described THese following particulars set together I think will by the Impartial be taken for full proof 1. In all the New Testament where ever there were more stated societies than one for publick worship as afore described they are called Churches in the Plural Number and never once a Church in the Singular Number except when the Universal Church is mentioned which containeth them all This is visible in Act. 9. 31. and 14. 41. and 16. 5. Rom. 16. 4 and 16. 1 Cor. 7. 17. and 11. 16. and 14. 33 34. unless that mean the several meetings of the same Assembly at several times and 16. 1 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1 18 19 23 24. and 11. 8 28. Gal. 1. 22. 1 Thess 2. 14. 2 Thess 1. 4. Rev. 1. 4 11 20. and 2. 7 11 17 29. and 3. 6 13 22 23. and 22. 16. If any say how prove you that all these were but single Congregations I answer 1. It is granted me by all that these plural terms Churches included many single Congregations 2. I shall prove anon that the most of the particular Churches named in Scripture were but such Congregations 3. And no man can give me any proof that a Society consisting of divers such Congregations is any where called a Church singularly And therefore we are not to believe that the plural term meaneth many such singulars as are no where singularly named 2. Particular Churches are described so in Scripture as fully proveth my aforesaid limitation and description As 1 Cor. 11. 16 18 20 22. When ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you A Church consisted of such as came together When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper And it is the Assemblies that are called Churches when he saith We have no such custom nor the Churches of God So 1 Cor. 14. 4. He that prophesieth edifieth the Church that is the Assembly that heareth him and not many hundred such Assemblies that are out of hearing Vers 5. Except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying Vers 12. Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church Object May not the whole Church be edified per partes Ans Yes but it must be per plures vel diversis vicibus Not at once by the same man if the far greatest part of the Church be absent Obj. But is not the whole man edified naturally or morally by the edification of a part Answ Yes if it be a noble part Because the whole man being naturally One by the unity of the soul or form there is a natural Communion and Communication from part to part But one Corporation in a Kingdom may be edified or enriched without the wealth or edification of the rest And this Text plainly speaketh of Immediate Edification of that Church that heareth and this at once and by one speaker So Vers 19. In the Church I had rather speak one word with my understanding that I may teach others Here the Church is plainly taken for the Assembly Vers 23. If therefore the whole Church be come together
of Presbyter Which he proceedeth to shew that he thinks was done that there might be a store of Bishops prepared for all Countries Pag. 25. he thus far differs from Doctor Hammond but not from the truth as to hold that Plures in eadem Ecclesia velut Ephâ—sina Episcopi fuere There were many Bishops in one Church as in that of Ephesus Which he taketh for a particular Church and not a Province and saith that the simple manners of the Church would then bear this till Ambition had depraved men and Charity and Humility and the imitation of Christ waxed cold then came that which Hierome speaketh of that For a remedy of Schism one was chosen out of the company of Presbyters and set above the rest So Pag. 26. In eadem capita passim ambo conferebantur And p. 27. Hoc si ita est quid aliud restat nisi ut penes eosdem Nam plures una in Ecclesia fuisse tales iisdem ex locis argumentum ducitur tam nomen illud duplex quam conveniens nomini potestas authoritas utraque fuisse dicatur that is If this be so what else remaineth but that both the double name and the agreeable double power and authority be said to have been in the same persons for that there were many of them in one Church may be proved from the same places And Pag. 95 96 97 98 99. he sheweth out of Justin Martyr first That all things in the sacred Assemblies and Sacraments were done by the Bishop alone and that he was the Curator and Moderator both of the Sacraments to be administred and of teaching the people and of the Churches money The Bishop consecrated the Sacraments and by the Deacons administred them to the people He prayeth and preacheth He had the care of the Church-moneys and kept them with it he relieved the Orphans Widows Sick Prisoners Travellers c. And from Tertullian that the Christians received not the Sacrament from the hands of any but the Bishops Were there not then as many Bishops as Church-Assemblies And that they chiefly did baptize And p. 112. he citeth the Can. 7. 8. Concil Gangrensis which anathematizeth those that without the Bishops consent durst give or receive the Church Oblations c. And p. 141. out of Prosper de vita contempl c. 20. that a Bishop must excel in knowledge that he may instruct those that live under him And p. 144 145 147. he citeth Can. 3. Concil Arelat 3. an 813. That every Bishop in his own Parish do perfectly and studiously teach the Presbyters and all the people and not neglect to instruct them And Concil Turonens 3. Can. 4. Let every Bishop diligently study by sacred preaching to inform the flock committed to him what they must do and what they must avoid And Concil Rhemens 2. Can. 14. That Bishops preach the Word of God to all And Concil Cabilonens 3. Can. 1. That Bishops be diligent in reading and search the mysteries of Gods Word that they may shine by the brightness of Doctrine in the Church and cease not to satiate the souls subject to them by nutriment of Gods Words And p. 147. That in the formula by which the Kings of France committed Episcopacy to any it is said You shall study by daily Sermons to edifie or polish the people committed to you according to Canonical Institution And ibid. Can. 19. Concil Constant in Trullo The Church Presidents must every day but especially the Lords day teach all the Clergy and people the things that belong to piety gathering from the Scriptures the sentences and judgments of verity And p. 149. he citeth Concil Lateran sub Innoc. 3. c. 10. allowing Bishops to take helpers in preaching when business or sickness hindred them And p. 150 152 153. he mentioneth it as somewhat rare that at Alexandria Presbyters preached and at Antioch Chrysostom and at Hippo Augustine while Flavianus and Valerius were Bishops I do not cite all this now as to prove the sense of Antiquity but the sense of Petavius who plainly intimateth that the Churches were no larger of a long time than that a Bishop might preach to all the Clergy and People every Lords day and that in Scripture times all or near all the Presbyters were Bishops which is it that we contend for and consequently you may judge what the Churches were And though it still look much farther than Scripture times I will shew you what Petavius thought of the Magnitude of City-Churches even near four hundred years after Christ in Epiphanius's days in his Animadvers on Epiphan ad Haer. 69. p. 276. Singularem tunc temporis Alexandriae morem hunc fuisse vel saltem paucis in Ecclesiis usurpatum c. i. e. That this was a singular custom of Alexandria or at least used in few Churches you may hence conjecture because he so expresly mentioneth this custom as peculiar to the Alexandrian Church to wit that in the same City there should be many Titles to each of which should be assigned a proper Presbyter who should there perform the Church Offices But yet the same was formerly elsewhere instituted that is at Rome where the Presbyters did every one rule his own people being distributed by Titles that is setled Sub-Assemblies To them the Bishops on the Lords days sent Leaven or hallowed Bread in token of Communion See what a shift they were at first put to lest the several Assemblies should seem several Churches For it is not to be imagined that this was done to signifie that common Christian Communion which they had with all other Christian Churches but that nearest Communion which belongeth to those that are embodied under one Pastor or the same Pastor in Common that is one particular Church Even as if these divers Altars or Tables were at a distance in the same Church and the Bishop would signifie the Union of the several Companies in the same Society by sending some of the Bread which he had blessed to them all But Petavius proceedeth Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in urbibus c. I doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more than one Titles within the bounds or Liberties when within the same Walls they would not be contained and meet together and so had Presbyters put on the several Churches But in the smaller and less frequented Cities there was one only Church into which they all did come together Of which sort were the Cities of Cyprus And therefore Epiphanius noteth the custom of Alexandria as a thing strange to his Country-men and unusual Hence was the original of Parishes which word was transferred from the Country Churches to the City Churches And adding the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their Bishops or Curators setled in Rome by Servius Tullius he saith Quibus Christianorum in agris Paroeciae quam simillimae fuerunt Nam illic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To which the Parishes of the
Bishops and distinct from Cathedrals that they could not be there buried before they were built and in Being which saith Selden began in England seven hundred years after Christ here one and there one as a Patron erected it Selden of Tythes pag. 267. Yea in seven hundred he findeth but one of Earl Puch in Beda and in Anno 800. divers appropriate to Crowland and so after And it was the Character of a Parish Church to have Baptisterium Sepulturam pag. 262. So that before a Bishop's Church however called had but one place that had Baptisterium Sepulturam Yea long after that Parishes had very few Members in most places so long was it e'er the People were brought to Christianity And they were then as our Bishops make them now not proper Churches but Chappels of Ease Selden ibid. pag. 267. tells you that Ralph Nevil Bishop of Chichester and Chancellor of England requested of the King that the Church of Saint Peter in Chichester might be pulled down and laid to another Parish because it was poor having but two Parishioners Sure it was never built for two Persons But it 's like many were Heathens Or if not so then in the Years 700 and 800 they were so Though Master Thomas Jones hath well proved that the Brittish Churches were far extended before Gregory sent Austine and that our Bishops and Religion are derived from them Even at Tours in France in the days of Saint Martin notwithstanding all his Miracles the Christians were not so many as the Heathens at least till one publick Miracle towards his later time convinced some CHAP. VI. The same further confirmed by the Ancients I. EUsebius Demonstrat Evangel pag. 138. saith When he considered the Power of Christ's Word how it perswaded innumerable Congregations of Men and by those Ignoble and Rustick Disciples of Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numerosissimae Ecclesiae were constituted not in certain unknown and obscure places but erected in the most famous Cities Rome Alexandria and Antioch through all Egypt and Lycia through Europe and Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Villages and Countries or Regions and all sorts of Nations By this it appeareth that Villages had Churches then II. Though of later date consider the History of Patrick's Plantation of Churches in Ireland who is said himself in his own time to have three hundred sixty five Churches and as many Bishops and three thousand Presbyters as Ninius reporteth Not only Thorndike taketh notice of this but a better Author Usher de Eccles Brit. Primord pa. 950. And Selden in his Comment on Eutychius Origines Alex. pag. 86. from Antoninus and Vincentius thus mentioneth it Certe tantum in orbe terrarum tunc temporis Episcoporum segetem mirari forsan desinet quisquis crediderit quod de B. Patricio Hibernensi Antoninus Vincentius tradunt Eum scilicet solum Ecclesias fundasse 365. totidemque Episcopos ordinasse praeter Presbyterorum 3000. Qua de re consulas plura apud praestantissimum virum Jacobum Usserium c. So that here was to every Church a Bishop and near ten Presbyters No Man will doubt but the Bishops themselves were taken out of the better sort of the Laity and the Presbyters of the second sort and all below many private Christians now among us And were there three hundred sixty five Cities think you in Ireland Yea or Corporations either It 's easie to conjecture what Churches these were III. All History Fathers and Councils consent that every City was to have a Bishop and Presbytery to govern and teach the Christians of that City and the Country people near it which is but a Parish or Presbyterian Church For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth in the old common use any big Town yea little Towns that were distinct from Country Farms and scattering Villages so that all our Corporations and Market Towns are Oppida and such Cities as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified Therefore even by this Rule we should have a Bishop to every such Town 1. Crete was called Hecatompolis as having an hundred Cities as Homer saith it had And what kind of Cities were those Which were to have an hundred Churches and Bishops in a small Island 2. Theocritus Idyl 13. de laudibus Ptolem. vers 82. saith that he had under his Government thirty three thousand three hundred and thirty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cities And if so they must be as small as our Boroughs if not some Villages certainly he had not above twice the number of Cities eminently so called that Stephanus Byzantinus could find in the whole World in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. He that will peruse and compare the Texts in the New Testament that use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above sixscore times and see Grotius on Luk. 7. 11. c. shall soon see that the word is there used for such Towns as I am mentioning if not less IV. Sozomen lib. 5. cap. 3. tells us that Majuma which was Navale Gazae being as part of its Suburbs or the adjoyning part but twenty Stadia distant was because it had many Christians honoured by Constantine with the name of a City and had a Bishop of their own And Julian in malice took from them the honour of being a City but they kept their Bishop for all that It had the same Magistrate with Gaza and the same Military Governors and the same Republick but was diversified only by their Church-State For saith he each had their own Bishop and their own Clergy and the Altars belonging to each Bishoprick were distinct And therefore afterward the Bishop of Gaza laboured to subject the Clergy of Majuma to himself saying that it was unmeet that one City should have two Bishops But a Council called for that purpose did confirm the Church-Right of Majuma V. Gregory Neocaesariensis called Thaumaturgus was by force made Bishop of that City where all the Christians were but seventeen at his Ordination such was the Bishop's Church And when he had preached and done Miracles there till his Persecution there is no mention of any Presbyter he had with him but of his Deacon Musonius that fled with him Though when he died he left but seventeen unconverted And when he had converted some at Comana a small Town near him he did not set a Presbyter over it and make it part of his own Diocess but appointed Alexander the Collier to be their Bishop and that over a Church who were no more than met and debated the Case of his Election and Reception See Greg. Nyssen in Orat. in Greg. Thaumat Basil de Spirit Sancto cap. 19. Breviar Roman die 15 Novemb. Menolog Graec. VI. Concil Nic. Oecum 1. Can. 13. decreeth that every one that before death desireth the Sacrament was to have it from the Bishop One Ed. in Crab saith Generaliter omni cuilibet in exitu posito poscenti sibi Communionis gratiam tribui Episcopus
signare nec publice quidem in Missa quemquam poenitentem reconciliare nec formâ—tas cuilibet Epistolas mittere By which it appeareth how big that Man's Diocess must be who besides all his other work must be present to sign every baptized person and reconcile every Penitent in every Congregation And it 's worth the noting what kind of works they be that the Bishop's Office is maintained for XXXVII From the great Church of Rome at its first Tide time let us look to the great Church of Constantinople even in the days of a better Bishop Chrysostom Besides that they had long but one Temple of which anon Chrysostom saith in 1 Thes 5. 12. Orat. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Et primum debet imperare praeesse volentibus lubentibus qui ei gratiam habent quod imperet p. 1472. p. 1473. Sacerdos in hoc suum contulit negotium Nulla est ei alia vita quam ut versetur in Ecclesia Qui Christum diligit cujusmodicunque sit Sacerdos eum diliget quod per eum sit veneranda assecutus Sacramenta And Doctor Hammond saith this Text speaketh only of Bishops 1 Thes 5. 12. Et ibid. Pro te precatur dono quod per Baptismum datur tibi inservit visitat hortatur monet media nocte si vocaveris venit And how many Parishes can a Bishop thus serve And how many score miles will they send and he go to visit the Sick at midnight And Chrysost in 1 Cor. 14. p. 653. saith Conveniebant olim omnes psallebant communiter Hoc nunc quoque facimus They had no separating Choristers sed tunc in omnibus erat una anima cor unum Nunc autem nec una quidem anima illam concordiam videris consensum sed ubique magnum est Bellum Pacem nunc quoque precatur pro omnibus is qui praeest Ecclesiae ut qui in domum ingreditur paternam sed hujus pacis nomen quidem est frequens res autem nusquam Tunc etiam domus erant Ecclesiae though called Conventicles Nunc autem Ecclesia est domus vel potius quavis domo deterior When Churches grew to be Dioceses they grew worse than when they were in houses But he that here is said praeesse Ecclesiae is he also that pronounceth Peace to them XXXVIII Gregory Nyssen speaking of the gathering of true Churches by preaching saith in Ecclesiast Hom. 1. p. mihi 93. He is the true Preacher who gathereth the dispersed into one Assembly and bringeth those together into one Congregation or Convention who by various Errors are variously seduced XXXIX He that readeth impartially Beda's Ecclesiastical History shall find that in England between six and seven hundred years after Christ they were but single Churches that had Bishops For indeed the famousest and holiest of them in the Kingdom of Northumberland were but Scots Presbyters and such as were sent by them without any Episcopal Ordination Aidan Finan c. And though they did Apostolically preach in many places to convert the Heathen Inhabitants yet their Churches of Christians were small yet presently the Roman Grandeur and Ceremoniousness here prevailed and so by degrees did their Church-form Yet saith Cambden Brit. ed. Frank. p. 100. When the Bishops at Rome had assigned several particular Churches to several Presbyters and had divided Parishes to them Honorius Arch-Bishop of Canterbury about the Year 636. first begun to distribute England into Parishes as is read in the Canterbury History But it 's plain in Beda if he did then begin it he went but a little way with that division The same Cambden also tells us that the Bishoprick of York devoured seven Bishopricks and the Bishoprick of Lincoln more c. Some Seats were but removed but many Bishopricks were dissolved and turned into one which yet were erected when Christians were fewer saith Isaackson Chronolog There was one at Wilton the See at Ramesbury one at Crediton one at St. Patrick's at Bodmin in Cornwall and after at St. Germains one at Selsey Island one at Dunwich one at Helmham and after at Thetford one at Sidnacester or Lindis one at Osney one at Hexham c. And at this day Landaff St. Asaph's Bangor St. David's are no Cities where we have Bishops Seats as notices of the old way XL. Isidorus Peleusiota lib. 1. Epist 149. to Bishop Tribonianus distinctly nameth the Bishop's Charge and the calamity if he be bad that will befall himself first and then the whole Church Himself for undertaking and not performing and the whole Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod hujusmodi viro Sacerdotium indigne mandavit The whole Church then was no bigger than to chuse the Bishop and be under his present inspection as he intimateth And Epist 315. to Bishop Leontius If thou tookest on thee the care of the Church against thy Will and art constrained by the Suffrages and the Contentions and Hands of the People God will be thy helper But if by Money c. Lib. 3. Ep. 216. p. 342. He reckoneth up such and so much work as necessary for a Bishop as no man living can do for above one ordinary Parish And frequently he describeth the City and Congregation at Pelusium as the place where the wicked Bishop and his wicked Priests together destroyed the interest of true Religion XLI I conclude this with the words of Eusebius with the Collection of Papirius Massonus a Writer of the Popes Lives Fabianus ab iis electus est ad Episcopatum urbis Ac forte evenit ut in locum ubi convenerant Columba e sublimi volans capiti ejus insideret Id pro foelici signo accipientes magno consensu alacritate animorum ipsum elegerunt Haec Eusebius Hist l. 6. Ex quo loco collegimus Electionem Episcopi Romani non ad paucos sed ad omnes olim pertinuisse Pap. Masson in vita Fabiani fol. 18 col 2. And if all the whole People of the great Church of Rome were then no more than could meet in one Room to chuse their Bishop what were the rest of the Churches in the World and how many Congregations did they contain CHAP. VII More Proofs of the aforesaid Limits of Churches THe thing that we are proving is that every Bishop should have but one Church supposing him to be no Arch-Bishop and that this Church should be such and so great only as that there may be personal Communion in publick Worship and holy Conversation between the Members and not so great as that the Members have only a Heart-Communion and by Delegates or Synods of Officers As to our Historical Evidence of the matter of fact it runs thus 1. That in the first state of the Churches it cannot be proved that any one Church in all the World consisted of more stated Communicating Assemblies than one or of more Christians than our Parishes But though through Persecution they might be forced as an Independant Church
The Chorepiscopi which were at first placed in Country Churches where were many Christians do shew what extent the Churches were then of That these were really Bishops at first whatever the aforesaid Parenthesis in Leo or Damasus say most Writers for Episcopacy Papists and Protestants do now grant and therefore I may spare the labour of proving it And whereas it is said that they were but the Bishop's Deputies I answer even as Bishops are the Arch-Bishops Deputies that is they were under them but were really Bishops themselves For if a Bishop may depute one that is no Bishop to be his Deputy either a Presbyter also may depute one that is no Presbyter to administer the Sacraments or not If yea then Lay-men shall come in and all be levelled For a Deacon also may depute his Office If not then either a Bishop cannot do it or else the Presbyter's Office is much holier than the Bishop's And that these Chorepiscopi Country-Bishops were not such Rarities as to invalidate my Proof but very common besides what is before said is evident by the Subscriptions of many Councils where great store of Chorepiscopi are found And besides the names in our common Collections of the Councils how it was in the Egyptian and Neighbour Churches at least if not how it was at Nice you may see in the Arabick Subscriptions published by Selden in his Comment on Eutych Orig. Alex. pag. 93 94 95 c. Num. 29 31 55 64 68 119 122 128 131 179 193 215 237 241 278. There are seventeen named And the Canons made to curb and suppress them shew that they were ordinary before as Concil Laodic Can. 57. But they should rather have increased them that Bishops might have multiplied as Churches or Christians increased which was decreed here in England in the cap. 9. of the Council at Hertford per Theodor. Cantuar. referente Beda lib. 4. Hist Eccles cap. 5. II. The very name Ecclesia which was first used before Parochiâ— or Dioecesis and still continued to this day doth shew what the form of a Church then was especially if you withal consider that the name was communicated to the Temples or sacred Meeting-Places which are also ordinarily called Ecclesiae which no Man doubteth was in a secondary sense as derived from the People who were the Ecclesia in the primary sense And so even in our Tongue the word Church is used for both to this day as iâ— is in many other Languages Now it is certain that a part especially a small part a hundredth or a thousandth part of the Church is not the Church unless equivocally Why then should the Temple be so called from the Church when no Church at all but a Particle only of a Church doth meet there For that the word Church in our Question is not taken for any Community or Company of Christians but for a governed Society consisting of the governing and governed part I have before shewed But 1. A Church in its first and proper Notion being Coetus Evecatus An Assembly or Convention or Congregation as distinguished from the Universal Church which is so called because it is called out of the World to Christ the Head and with him shall make one glorious Society how are those twenty or an hundred Miles off any more a part of the Assembly where I live than those at the Antipodes may be If you fly to one Governor I answer 1. So the Pope claimeth a Government at the Antipodes 2. A Governor of many Assemblies may make them one Society as to Government but not one Assembly 2. And certainly when Temples were first named Churches it was not because those met there that were no Churches but only Members of Churches Nor is this Parish Church called a Church because some meet here that belong to the Church at Boston Lincoln or Grantham But to this day we cannot disuse our selves from saying the Church of Barnet the Church of St. Albans of Hatâ—ield c. yea in the same City we denominate the several Temples still several Churches Hesychius explaineth Ecclesia by no other words than these three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all signifie the Meetings of the People and not Men that never see each other only because one Man ruleth them Mr. Mede in his Exercitat of Temples proveth largely that the places of Meeting are ordinarily by the Ancients called Churches even in several Centuries Euseb lib. 8. cap. 1. saith in every City they built spacious and ample Churches And Theophil Antiochen Autol. saith Sic Deus dedit mundo qui peccatorum tempestatibus naufragiis jactatur Synagogas quas Ecclesias sanctas nominamus in quibus veritatis doctrina fervet ad quas confugiunt veritatis studiosi quotquot salvari Deique judicium iram evitare volunt So Tertullian de Idololat cap. 7. pag. 171. Tota die ad hanc partem zelus fidei ingenuum Christianum ab Idolis in Ecclesiam venire de adversaria Officina in domum Dei venire c. The very Name there of a Church and the naming of a single Temple thence doth signifie our supposition III. To this I may add the Name and Primitive Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it signifieth a Vicinity and Parochus Vicinus a Cohabitant or Neighbour as well as inquilinus and is used in all the ancient Church-Writers as noting both a Sojourner as Christians are in the World and a Neighbour so constantly in this later sense not excluding the former Else Men of several parts of the World might have been said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because inquilini had it not also and specially signified Vicinity To avoid tediousness of Citations I refer the unsatisfied Reader but to Gers Bucer against Downam and the Basil Lexicon of Henr. Pet. in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though the custom of calling a Church by the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continued when the Church was altered in magnitude to a large Diocess yet that is so far from proving that this was the first and old signification as that the word rather plainly leadeth us up to the thing and sense which first it signified And therefore to this day Etymology teacheth us more wit than in English to call a Diocess a Parish but only a Vicinity of Christians And when the a Vicinity is the English of the Word why should Strangers that we shall never see or have to do with any more than those in the uttermost part of the Land be called our Parishioners or Neighbours IV. Another clear Evidence of the truth in question is the Paucity of Churches or consecrated Meeting-Places for many hundred Years after Christ both before they were called Temples and after Not that occasional Meeting-places were few Houses Fields c. but appropriated consecrated places called Churches where there were Altars or ordinary Church-Communion in the Lord's Supper Or rather it is doubtful whether the name of
Altars with the form were introduced till two hundred Years after Christ which maketh some the more question the Antiquity of Ignatius and Clem. Const and Can. Apost I yield to Baronius ad An. 57. that the Christians had Churches that is places consecrated for Church-Assemblies under those peaceable Emperors that went before Dioclesian For Eusebius besides others expresly telleth us so Spaciosas amplas construxerunt Ecclesias But I desire the Reader to mark his words Lib. 8. cap. 1. A man might then have seen the Bishops of all Churches in great reverence and favour among all sorts of Men and with all Magistrates Who can worthily describe those innumerable heaps and flocking multitudes through all Cities and famous Assemblies frequenting the places dedicated to Prayer Because of which Circumstances they not contented with the old and ancient Buildings which could not receive them have through all Cities builded them from the Foundation wide and ample Churches Here note 1. That here is no mention of any more Churches than one in each City Cities and Assemblies are numbered together 2. That these Buildings are called Churches 3. That these Churches were built greater than the old ones anew from the Foundation because the old ones were too narrow to contain the People But not superadded to the old ones 4. That the Bishops are called The Bishops of all Churches in relation to the same kind of Churches as are here described So that then a Bishop's Church met in one enlarged place Yet all these were no Temples but such as the silenced Ministers have of late built in some parts of London for the Christians were in continual danger of the demolishing of them which fell out in Dioclesian's time But till this Calm which Eusebius here describeth for about two hundred and fifty Years after Christ the Christians oft met in Vaults and secret places where they might be hid and not in open Churches unless now and then in a Calm between Platina in vit Xisti tells us that even at Rome it self about the Year 120. there were few found that durst profess the Name of Christ And see what he saith In Vita Clement 1. Anaclet Mantuan lib. 1. fastor de Clem. Anacl Evarist Alex. Xist Calist Urban c. In whose times Killing Banishing and Persecuting caused Scatterings hidings and as Pliny tells us many Apostasies See what Gers Bucer saith pag. 221 222 223. of all the Ages now in question about this matter As Tertullian saith Apol. c. 3. adeo in hominibus innocuis nomen innocuum erat odio Did the Rabble but see or hear the Christians they were raged against them and cried to the Judges Tollite impios Saith Polydor. Virgil. de invent rer l. 5. c. 6. Romae non reperio quod sciam aliud antiquius templum aedificatum aut dicatum vel ad usum Sacrorum fuisse conversum quam Thermas Novati in vico patricio quas Pius Pontifex Praxidis eximiae sanctitatis foeminae rogatu divae Pudentianae ejus Sorori consecravit qui fuit annus circiter 150. But the name Templum here is not used by Polydore as by the Ancients for a large and comely Fabrick For saith Tertullian after that Apol. c. 37. Christians leave Temples to the Heathens And saith Pope Nicholas in Epist de depositione Zachariae Rodoaldi Episc recited in his Life by Papir Massonus Fol. 132. Col. 2. Deinde propter frigidiorem locum in Ecclesia Salvatoris quae ab Authore vocatur Constantiniana quae prima in toto terrarum orbe constructa est You see that by this Pope's own Testimony there was no Church in the whole World built before this one at Rome by Constantine The meaning is no large sumptuous place called a Temple but only commodious meaner Rooms or Buildings And the same Pap. Masson in Vita Bonifacii fol. 55. noteth that Hierom even in his time so late Basilicas Christianorum tres tantum commemorasse When upon the great increase of Christians but one odd Idol Temple even in Alexandria was begged of the Emperor for the Christians Ruffin lib. 2. cap. 22. and divers others tell us what tumult and stir it caused And when Euseb de Vita Constant lib. 3. c. 49 50. tells us of his building of Churches except Constantinople it is but one in a City even the great Cities Nicomedia in Bythinia and Antioch And Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 12. saith that even in Constantinople which he made so great and beautiful that it was no whit inferior to Rome and by a Law engraven on a Pillar commanded that it be called Second Rome he built from the Foundation but two Churches Pacis Apostolorum I could find in my heart were it not tedious here to translate all Isidor Pelusâ—ota's Epist 246. lib. 2. in which he openeth the difference between Templum and Ecclesia and inveigheth against that Bishop as no Bishop who cried up the Temple as the Church while he persecuted and vexed the Godly who are the Church indeed and against them that are for sumptuous Temples and unholy scandalous Churches and tells us he had rather have been in the times when Temples were less adorned and the Churches more adorned with Heavenly Graces than in those unhappy times when Temples were too much adorned and Churches naked and empty of Spiritual Graces So that when there was but one Temple in a City except two or three and when that was called the Church because it contained the Church it 's evident what the Churches then were V. The ancient Agapae shew how great the Churches then were when as all the Church did feast together and these continued in Tertullian's time in some places at least And several Church-Canons mention them after that And Chrysost saith Homil. de Oportet haeres esse p. mihi 20 21. that in the Primitive times there was a custom that after Sermon and Sacrament they all feasted together in the Church which he highly praiseth But it was not many hundred Churches that feasted in one Room And after he saith The Church is like Noah's Ark but Men come in Wolves and go out Lambs c. shewing that by the Church he meant the Assembly And after All have the same Honour and the same Access till all have communicated and partaked of the same Spiritual Meat The Priests standing expect them all even the poorest Man of all By this he sheweth what Church he meant and how great the Church was Et Serm. 21. pag. 313. Redundat injuria in locum illum Ecclesiam enim totam contemnis Propterea enim Ecclesia dicitur quia communiter omnes accipit This doth not only shew what Church he meaneth but fully confirmeth what I said before that The whole Church was in that place and that the place is therefore called the Church because it commonly receiveth all But note that this was not preach'd at Constantinople but yet at the great Patriarchal Church of Antioch And I
may add as to the former Evidences To. 5. Serm. 52. pag. 705. when he had shewed that in the Church there must be no division he expoundeth it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui seipsum ab hoc conventu sejunxerit So that the Assembly was the Church and not a thousandth part of the Church only See more of the Churches feasting together in Baronius ad an 57. pag. ed. Plant. 543. to spare me more labour about this VI. Another Evidence of the Limits of the ancient Churches is that which I oft mentioned in the particular Testimonies that every where all the People either chose or expresly consented to their Bishops and they were ordained over them in their sight And this no more could do than could meet in one place and one part of a Church hath no more right to it than all the rest The Consequence is evident And for them that say that it was only the Parishioners of the Cathedral Church that voted I answer Now Cathedrals have no Parishes and heretofore the Cathedral Parish was the whole Church The Testimonies fully prove that it was All the Church or People that were the Bishop's Flock And for some hundreds of Years there were no Parishes in his Diocess but one and therefore no such distinction Pamelius's heap of Testimonies and many more for the matter of fact I have already cited And however some talk now to justifie the contrary course of our times it is so clear and full in Antiquity that the People chose their Bishops at first principally and after secondarily after the Clergy having a Negative Voice with them and their Consent and Testimony ever necessary even for eight hundred Years at least that it would be a needless thing to cite any more Testimonies of it to any versed in the Ancients Papists and Protestants are agreed de facto that so it was See Cyprian lib. 4. Epist 2. of Cornelius lib. 1. Epist 2. of Sabinus and lib. 1. Epist 4. Euseb Hist lib. 6. cap. 29. tells us that Fabian by the People was chosen to succeed Anterus And Cyprian saith it was Traditione Apostolica vid. Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 14. lib. 2. cap. 6. lib. 7. cap. 35. Sozomen lib. 6. cap. 24. lib. 8. cap. 2. of Chrysostom lib. 6. cap. 13. vid. Augustin Epist 110. Theodoret Hist lib. 1. cap. 9. in Epist Concil Nicaeni ad Alexandr The Bloodshed at the Choice of Damasus was one of the first occasions of laying by that custom at Rome And yet though they met not so tumultuously they must consent Leo's Testimony I gave you before with many more Theodor. lib. 5. cap. 9. of Nectarius sheweth that Bishops were then chosen Plebe praesente universa fraternitate as Cyprian speaketh of Sabinus So the Concil Parisien even an 559. But for more plentiful proof of this see M. A. Spalatens de Rep. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 22. n. 10. lib 6. cap. 7. lib. 3. cap. 3 n. 12. c. Blondel de Jure plebis more copiously and de Epis Presbyt Bilson perpet Govern cap. 15. lib. of Christian Subjection oft And it is to be noted that when the People's Confusion had made them seem uncapable any longer to chuse 1. This was long of the Prelates themselves who by that time had so far enlarged their Churches that the People were neither capable of doing their ancient Work and Duty nor yet of being ruled by the Clergy aright 2. And when the People were restrained from the Choice by Meetings and Vote the Magistrates in their stead did undertake the Power 3. And when it fell out of the People's hands into Great Mens the Proud and Covetous who could best seek and make Friends did get the Bishopricks whereupon the Churches were presently changed corrupted and undone 4. And the sense of this moved the few good Bishops that were left to make Canons against this Power and Choice of Princes and great Men decreeing that all Bishops obtruded by them on the Churches should be as none but be avoided and all avoided that did not avoid them And the Roman and Patriarchal party cunningly joyned with these honest Reformers to get the Choice out of the Magistrate's hands that they might get it into their own and so Christ's Church was abused among ambitious Usurpers The Decrees against Magistrates Choice of Bishops you may see Can. Apost 31. Decret 17. q. 7. c. siquis Episc Sept. Synod c. 3. Decret 16. q. 7. Oct. Synod c. 12. Act. 1. c. 22. Decret 16. q. 7. Nicol. 1. Epist 10. Epist 64. with more which you may find cited by Spalatens lib. 6. cap. 7. pag. 675 676 677. And it is to be noted that though still the Clergy had a Negative or first Choice yet when they procured Charles the Great who was to rise by the Papal help to resign and renounce the Magistrates Election he restored the Church to its Ancient Liberties as far as enlarged Dioceses and ambitious Clergy-men would permit it His words are these Sacrorum Canonum non ignari ut in Dei nomine Sancta Ecclesia suo liberius potiretur honore assensum ordini Ecclesiastico praebuimus ut scilicet Episcopi per Electionem CLERI POPULI secundum statuta Canonum de PROPRIA DIOECESI remota personarum munerum acceptione ob vitae meritum sapientiae donum eligantur ut exemplo verbis sibi subjectis usquequaque prodesse valeant Vid. Baron To. 11. n. 26. Decret Dist 63. c Sacrorum Where note that 1. he includeth the People of the whole Diocess 2. And doth this as according to the sacred Canons So that for Men to dream that only the Parishioners of a Cathedral Church which had no proper Parish or the Citizens only were to chuse is to feign that which is contrary to notorious Evidence of Law and Fact as well as of the reason of the thing For where all are the Bishops Flock and chuse as his Flock there all the Flock must chuse and a parcel can claim no privilege above all the rest VII The next Evidence is this In the first Age it is very fairly proved by Doctor Hammond that there were by the Apostles more Bishops and Churches than one in many Cities themselves And if one City had more than one Church and Bishop then much more many distant places in Towns and Countries That one City had more than one he sheweth by the distinction of Jews and Gentiles Churches As Peter was appointed chiefly for the Jews and Paul chiefly for the Gentiles so he sheweth it very probable that at Rome Antioch and other places they had several Churches And thus he reconcileth the great differences about Linus Clemens and Cletus or Anacletus And especially on this reason that they had not the same Language And indeed when in great Cities there are Christians of divers Languages it is necessary that they be of divers Congregations
unless you will have them Hear as the Papists will have them Pray they know not what And though some might say that though they be of divers Assemblies yet they might have onely One Bishop to Rule them I answer 1. Dr. Hammond is more ingenuous and acknowledges that the diversities of congregations and languages inferred a diversity of Churches and Bishops with their distinct Clergy 2. And all Antiquity made Preaching or Teaching his flock as essential to the Bishops office as Governing them of which next But he could not teach several Churches whose language he understood not VIII Antiquity made the three parts of the Bishops office Teaching Worshipping and Governing to be of the same extent as to the subject society under him It was one and the same Church which he was ordinarily to Teach to guide in worship prayers praise sacrament and to Rule by discipline supposing still that we speak of a meer Bishop and not an Archbishop I should weary the Reader to cite numerous testimonies for so notorious a thing But it is known that the said Bishop neither is nor can be the Ordinary Teacher and Guide in worship to a Diocese of a multitude of Churches but to one or few at most And he that peruseth ancient writers shall find that the Bishop was not only to be a raâ—e or extraordinary Teacher of his whole flock but the Ordinary one not only to send others but to do it himself till the enlargement of Dioceses changed the custome IX Another evidence is this In the first two Centuries Deacons and Bishops were ever officers in the same Church But Deacons were never then officers in more Churches or stated assemblies that had Sacramental Communion than one therefore Bishops were not officers in more No proof can be given of any Deacons that had the care in their places of many Churches Parishes or Societies of Christians And when Dioceses were enlarged it is notable that the Presbyter that was the oculus Episcopi in the Diocese is called the Archdeacon Because originally he was but indeed a Deacon the chief Deacon who was with the Bishop in one and the same Church It being then inauditum for a Deacon to belong to many X. Another evidence is The Great number of Bishops who out of a narrow space of ground did usually assemble in the ancient Synods I told you before out of Crab of Sylvesters number at Rome Binius also hath the like words Sylvester collegit in gremio sedis suae 284 Episcopos and that 139 of them were ex urbe Roma vel non longe ab illa A hundred thirty nine Bishops in Rome and not far from it had not such Dioceses as now Cyprian saith lib. 1. Ep. 3. that Privatus was condemned in Synodo Lambesitana by 90 Bishops which was before Christianity was countenanced by Emperours and were under persecution yea long before Cyprian wrote that Epistle For the examining of every ordinary cause of an accused Presbyter sex Episcopi ex vicinis locis six Bishops from the neighbour places not from 40 or fourscore miles distance were to hear and determine and three Bishops for the cause of every Deacon Concil Afric Can. 20. so that no doubt but their Bishops were as near as our Market Towns at least even when so few of the people were Christians as that all that space afforded but one great Congregation The sixth provincial Council at Carthage had 217 Bishops whereas the General Council at Trent had long but 40. A Council of Donatists Hereticks not so numerous sure as the Catholicks at Carthage mentioned by Augustine Epist 68. about an 308 had 270 Bishops And when there were so great a number of Heretick Bishops how many were there of the Catholicks and Donatists and all other sects set together This one heresie had enow to become persecutours of the Catholicks beating them with clubs putting out the peoples eyes by casting vineger mixt with lime into them dragging them in the dirt And yet they were the smaller number and complained of persecution and some Circumcellions killed themselves to make the Catholicks odious as persecutors Occisos auferunt luci vivis auferunt lucem Quod nobis faciunt sibi non imputant quod sibi faciunt nobis imputantinquiunt Clerici Hippon ib. ad Januarium Certainly here were Churches no bigger then than our smaller Parishes And Augustine cont Gaudentium saith there were innumerable Bishops in Africa that were Orthodox And it was but a corner of Africa that were Christians and in the Roman Empire here meant Victor Uticensis in persecut Vandal sheweth that in that part of Africa 660 Bishops fled besides the great number murdered imprisoned and many tolerated The like may be said of Patricks Irish Bishops before mentioned and many others who plainly were Parochial Bishops XI Another evidence is The way of Strangers communicating then by way of Communicatory Letters or Certificates from the Church whence they came which were to be shewed to the Bishop of the Church where they desired to communicate But was it many hundred Churches that they must thus satisfie or must they travail to the Bishop with their Certificate before they must communicate in any one Church within 20. 30. 40. or 50. miles of him Doubtless an impartial Reader will think that it was but a Bishop of the same City-Church which he desired Communion with to whom the Certificate was to be shewn See what Albaspinaeus saith of these Letters ex Concil Laodic c. 41. Concil Antioch c. 1. Concil Agath can 52. Concil Eliber c. 58. in his observat p. 254 255. XII Another evidence is the ancient phrase describing a Schism by Altare aliud erigere to set up another Altar or to set up Altar against Altar And to separate from that Altar was to separate from that Church which implyeth that there was but one Altar in a Church and multiplying Altars was multiplying Churches XIII Another evidence was the late division of Parishes The idle story of Evaristus dividing Parishes at Rome Gers Bucer hath fully confuted It is most certain that except at Alexandria and Rome it was long before they were divided Sir Rog. Twisden Histor Vindicat. c. 3. p. 9 10. saith that it was under Theodore A. B. C. that Parochial Churches began mark Began to be erected here in England and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation c. out of a MS. in Trinity Hall Cambridge And it was 668 as Beda tells us before Theodore was Ordained Bishop The evidence in history of the Lateness of Parish divisions is past doubt And whereas the usual answer is that there may be Dioceses without Parishes I answer It is not the Name Diocese that is the thing in question but the Church-state While there was but one Altar there was but one place of ordinary Church Communion in the Lords Supper And when there were more places with Altars erected they could not be nor were long without
other Churches I have before cited a Canon which gave leave to Presbyters to preach in the countrey villages intimating it was rare heretofore 2. Filesacus saith ibid. p. 562 563. Sed ut quod res est libere eloquar illo aevo anteriore cum Parochiae vox vulgo etiam pro Dioecesi usurpatur that is for all the Bishops Charge credo Presbyteros Parochianos dictos fuisse non aliter ac siquis Dioecesanos pronunciaret hoc est In hac Parochia seu Dioecesi ordinatos titulatos But surely whilst Presbyters rarely preached there were either Churches that had no preaching which cannot be proved or else few Assemblies that had not Bishops Obj. But then you make Lay Elders of the Presbyters Ans They were the abler sort of Christians ordained to the same Ministerial or Sacerdotal Office as all true Ministers are But few of them being Learned men and able to make long Sermons were imployed only as the Bishops assistants as elders are among the Presbyterians who if they would but ordain those Elders and let them have power over the word and Sacraments though only to exercise it under the Bishops or chief Pastors guidance when there was cause they would come nearest to the ancient use XXIII And it seemeth to me an evidence that the Churches then were usually but as narrow as I assert that the Presbyters were to abide with the Bishop and attend him in his City Church For if you suppose them able to Teach or guide a flock themselves as some were such as Augustine Macarius Ephrem Syrus Tertullian c. it is scarce credible to me that the Bishop would suffer such worthy persons to sit among his Auditors when there were many countrey congregations that needed their help For that the Church was so supplied with Preachers as that besides all these Presbyters in the Bishops Church there were enow for all the rest of the countrey Parishes as now is contrary to all the intimations of Church-History And therefore when we read of so many Presbyters with the Bishop before we read of many or scarce any elsewhere surely there were no people that needed them XXIV And yet though great Cities had many with the Bishop I may add that the paucity of Presbyters under the generality of Bishops sheweth that their Dioceses then were but like Parish Churches with their Chappels Or else Aurelius and the other Bishops in the Carthage Council needed not have been in doubt whether those Bishops that had but one or two Presbyters should have one taken from them to make a Bishop of which was yet affirmatively decreed because there may be more found fit to make Presbyters of where it 's hard to find any fit to be Bishops I will speak it in the words of the learned Bishop Bilsons Perpet Govern c. 13. p. 256. In greater Churches they had great numbers of Presbyters In smaller they had often two somewhere one and sometimes none And yet for all this defect of Presbyters the Bishops then did not refrain to impose hands without them The number of Presbyters in many places were two in a Church as Ambrose writeth on 1 Tim. 3. sometimes but one In the third Council Carthag when it was agreed that the Primate of that City might take the Presbyters of every Diocese and Ordain them Bishops for such places as desired them though the Bishop under whom the Presbyter before lived were unwilling to spare him Posthumianus a Bishop demanded what if a Bishop have but one only Presbyter must that one be taken from him Aurelius the Bishop of Carthage answered One Bishop may Ordain many Presbyters but a Presbyter fit for a Bishoprick is not easily found wherefore if a man have but one only Presbyter and fit for the room of a Bishop he ought to yield that one to be Ordained Posthumianus replied Then if another Bishop have a number of Clerks that others store should relieve him Aurelius answered Surely as you helped another Church so he that hath many Clerks shall be driven to spare you one of them to be ordained by you A Diocese such as is intimated here we do not strive against XXIV Another evidence is that when ever we read of persecution turning the Christians out of their Churches you ever find them gathered into one Congregation when they could have leisure and place to meet in and usually a Bishop with them unless he were banished imprisoned or martyred and then some Presbyter supplied the place or unless they were scattered into many little parcels And you find no talk of the persecution of multitudes of Countrey Presbyters afar off but of the Bishop with his City Presbyters and Church To which add that it was One Church still which rejected obtruded Bishops and refused to obey the Emperour who imposed them All this is manifest in Gregory Neocaesar his flight with Musonius and the state of his Church In the Case of Basil and of Lucius the obtruded Bishop at Alexandria and in the Case of Antioch before described and of Rome it self It 's tedious to cite numerous testimonies in a well known case If Alexandria was in such a case or near it I hope you will doubt of no other Churches And that with this you may see what Conventicles the Christians kept when the Emperours forbad them and how resolutely the Bishops preached when the Emperours silenced them I will recite the words of Baronius himself and in him of Dionysius Alexandr apud Euseb lib. 7. c. 10. c. 17. and Cyprian ep 5. c. in Baron ad an 57. p. 542. that those who cry out against Preaching and Conventicles when they are but strong enough to drive others out of the Temples may better understand themselves Siquando c. If at any time so vehement a persecution did arise that the Christians by the Emperours edicts were utterly excluded from the Churches and assemblies notwithstanding little regarding such things they forbore not to come together in One in holy assemblies whithersoever there was opportunity This Dionys Alexand. Bishop witnesseth writing to Germanus when he mentioneth the Edicts of Valerian forbidding the Assemblies But we by Gods assistance have not abstained from our accustomed Assemblies celebrated among our selves Yea I my self did drive on certain brethren to keep the assemblies diligently as if I had converst among them And he writeth the same also to Hierax when he was banished When we were persecuted by all and put to death we celebrated the Feast with joyful minds and any place appointed us for several sorts of sufferings as the woods the desert solitudes the tossed ships the common Innes the horrid prison did seem fit to us in which we might keep our solemn Assemblies with the greatest joy That they held their Assemblies and offered sacrifice usually when it was permitted them in the prisons Cyprian witnesseth But the Acts of the holy Martyrs do fullier signifie it especially those most faithful
ones called Pro-Consular which were taken by the publick Notaries Certainly the Gravel-pits afforded them advantage for the celebrating of their publick Assemblies in the time of persecution especially at Rome where in the digged gravel there remain many subterraneous ample recesses Though when the persecution was vehement they were thence also excluded as the letters P. Cornelii ad Lupic Episc Vien testifie saying Christians may not missas agere keep their meetings for Church worship publickly no not in the vaults or pits So much of the Churches and publick assemblies of the Christians c. saith Baronius Which Polyd. Virgil secondeth c. 6. yea the Bishops durst scarce be seen in the streets so hot were the persecutions as Euseb lib. 6. cap. 31. Therefore as I before noted they had yet no capacious Temples as Illyricus well gathereth Catalog Testi verit p. 112. But they began to have days of peace and liberty under Alexand. Severus Gordian Philip Galienus Flavius Claudius Aurelianus Probus and then they did enlarge their too small rooms to that described by Euseb lib. 8. c. 1. XXVI Another evidence is that Monasteries were built before Chappels and Countrey Parish Churches and far more numerous so that we frequently read of Monasteries under a Bishop with their Abbot or Presbyter when we read little or nothing of Parish Churches in the Countries under him And if these had been as common why are they not as much mentioned in the ancient records of the Church The Egyptian Monks and those in Judaea and those in Britain in Beda and the life of Hierome Fulgentius and abundance such witness this XXVII Another evidence is the Canons that none but a Bishop must publickly reconcile a penitent nor pronounce the blessing in the Church c. Of which before in particular Canons XXVIII Another evidence is that Presbyters or Bishops were not to remove from the Places they were Ordained in But those places of old were single Churches usually in Cities with the suburbs that could come to the same Church as Dr. Field saith Concil Arelat 1. cited by Spelman pag. 40. because we had 3 Brittish Bishops there In quibuscunque locis ordinati fuerint Ministri in ipsis locis perseverent And ipse locus was not a circuit of 40 or 50 or 100 miles long but the Bishops Parish or Vicinity Of the Bishops not removing without a Synod many Councils speak XXIX Another evidence is that the Canons which take down the Chorepiscopi and turn them to periodeutae Visitors or Itinerants and which forbid the making of Bishops in small Cities or villages 1. Were of late date 2. And were in aspiring times and had a reason answerable ne vilescat nomen Episcopi 3. And therefore intimate that it was otherwise before as I have before shewed XXX A Separatist or Schismatick was then known by his withdrawing from his proper Church and so was an Apostate or deserter And he that stayed away certain days was to be excommunicate And they that fall into sins and never present themselves to the Church to shew their penitence even when they fall sick and desire Communion shall not have it till they shew fruits worthy of repentance faith Concil Arelat 1. Can. 22. But 1. in our way when the Church that I am of is an hundred miles long and hath above a thousand Parishes who can tell when a man is at the Church and when he is not unless you make half a years work to examine the matter in a thousand Assemblies 2. And a man may wander and never be in the same Assembly once in three years and yet be still in his own Church because the Docese is the Church 3. Unless the Bishops presence as well as remote relation be necessary And then no man cometh to Church but he that cometh where the Bishop is for ubi Episcopus ibi Ecclesia And the Parish Church is with them no Church unless equivocally as a Community For as Learned Dr. Field saith and they must all say None are to be ordained but to serve in some Church and none have Churches but Bishops all other being but assistants to them in their Churches Lib. 5. c. 27. p. 139. Therefore they call the Parish Priests the Bishops Curates and Dr. Field maketh the Bishops Church or Diocese and a particular Church all one If then one Parish priest of a thousand be an Arrian Antinomian Socinian Papist Seeker c. he that separateth not from that one Priest and Parish meeting separateth not from his Bishops Church nor any particular Church For his Church is a countrey which while he is in he is no Separatist if he joyn with any part of it XXXI But my greatest evidence which I trust to above all the rest is The greatness of the Bishops work which no mortal man can truly and faithfully discharge and do for a Diocese in the opposed sence nor for more than one of our greater Parishes I have recited some of the particulars before and I shall again have occasion to do it more at large I now only name these parts 1. To be the ordinary Baptizer or still present with all that are Baptized to anoint their nostrils c. as aforesaid 2. To be the Confirmer of all the baptized in all the Diocese 3. To be the ordinary preacher to his flock and to expound the Scriptures to them 4. To be the only publick reconciler or absolver of all penitents 5. To be the publick Priest to be the Guide of the people in publick worship and to administer the Lords Supper 6. To take particular account and care of all the peoples souls and admonish teach and exhort them as there is special need 7. To be the Excommunicator of the impenitent or ever one and the chief 8. To Ordain all Ministers and Subministers 9. To oversee and rule the Clergy 10. To receive all Oblations Tithes Gifts and Glebes and be the distributer of them 11. To visit the sick in all his flock 12. To take a particular care of all the poor the sick the strangers the imprisoned c. as their Curator 13. To keep almost daily but constantly weekly Assemblies for all the publick offices 14. To keep Synods among his Colleagues Bishops and Presbyters 15. To try and hear Causes with the Bishops and Synods and with his Presbyters at home about all scandals c. that come before him of which one Town may find him work enough the convincing and gentle reproof and exhortation will take up so much time 16. The looking after and convincing or confuting Hereticks 17. The reconciling disagreeing neighbours 18. The confecting of oyl and holy bread c. to furnish all his Presbyters with 19. The Benediction of Marriages and Solemnizing of Funerals with a multitude of other Ceremonies 20. And besides all this the right government of his own house And if he had Children the education of them 21. The oversight of all the Schools
and educating young men for the Ministery there being then no Universities to do it That the Schools were under his care you may see proved in Filesacus 22. The Consecrating of devoted Virgins to say nothing of Altars and other utensils 23. The oversight of the Monasteries 24. The writing of Canonical Epistles as they called them to Great men to other Churches c. 25. The granting of Communicatory Letters I have named all that come suddenly to my memory but it 's like not all And how many Parishes how many hundred thousand souls can one man do all this for think you I will not tire you with citing out of Isidore Gregory Ambrose Chrysost c. the strict Charges terribly laid on Bishops but only now recite the Preachers words whose Oration Eusebius giveth us at the dedication of a new Church Histor Eccl. l. 10. c. 4. It is Paulinus Bishop of Tyre In which he tells them that it is the work of Bishops Intimae animarum vestrarum theoriae videre introspicere ubi experientia temporis prolixitate unumquemque vestrum exacte inquisivit studioque cura cunctos vos honestate doctrina quae secundum pietatem est instruit It was then thought a Bishops duty to be intimately acquainted with the minds of his flock and exactly enquire after every one of them even menservants and maidservants by name saith Ignatius as cited before All this was then the Bishops work Almost all this except the Ceremonies Dr. Hammond proveth industriously belonged to the Bishop Let him faithfully do it all and let his Diocese then be as big as he please I might have added Concil Arelat 1. c. 16. that people are to be absolved in the same place where they were Excommunicated which intimateth it must be only in the Bishops Church And in Synod Hybernic Patricii in Spelman p. 52. All that was more than necessary to a poor man that had a Collection was to be laid on the Bishops Altar which implyeth that each Church had one Bishop and one Altar And c. 21. non in Ecclesiam ut ibi examinetur causa And c. 25 26 27. no Clergy-man but the Bishop to dispose of Church offerings Clericus Episcopi in Plebe novus ingressor baptizare offerre non licet c. with much more which intimateth what Churches were of old But so much shall suffice for proof of the Minor of the first Argument that our Diocesane Form 1. taketh down the Church Form of Gods Institution and the primitive Churches possession 2. And setteth up a humane form in its stead yea one only Church instead of a thousand or many hundred And therefore I add CHAP. VIII That the Diocesans cause the errour of the Separatists who avoid our Churches as false in their Constitution and would utterly disable us to confute them WHen the Brownists say that our Churches are no true Churches they do not mean that they are not Societies of mens devising but that they are not Societies of Gods Instituting And this they prove upon the principles of the Diocesans thus If your Churches be of Gods Institution de specie it is either the Parish Churches or the Diocesane Churches that are so But neither the Parish-Churches nor the Diocesane Ergo. 1. That the Parish Churches are not such they prove because by the Diocesans own confession they are no Churches at all except equivocally so called It is one of their own principles and we grant it that Episcopus Plebs Constitute a Church as a King and Subjects constitute a Kingdom and as a Schoolmaster and Scholars make a School and as a Master and houshold make a Family And that ubi est Episcopus as Cyprian saith ibi est Ecclesia which is nothing but Plebs pastori adunata And that a people without a Bishop truly so called are but a Church equivocally as Scholars without a Master are a School or as a company of Christians in a ship or house accidentally met and praying together are a Church c. And as Dr. Field before cited saith None but a Bishop hath a Church all others are but his assistants or as commonly called his Curates Therefore when a Prelatist pleadeth that our Parish Churches are true Churches either of Gods or mans institution they do forsake the principles of their party as now maintained or they contradict themselves or they play with equivocations and ambiguities II. And that a Diocesane Church which is one composed of the carcases of multitude of mortified Churches is not jure divino having said so much to prove my self I will not stay to tell you how easily the Separatists may prove it So that for my part as much as I have written and done against them I profess I am not able to confute them on the Diocesane grounds but would be one of them if I had no better Quest How then must they be confuted Ans. Thus or not at all by me A Presbyters office is not to be judged of by the Bishops will or description but by God's the institutor As if the King describe the Lord Mayors office in his Charter If the Recorder or whoever giveth him his oath and installeth him shall misdescribe the office and limit it and say falsly you have no power to do this or that This will not at all diminish his power as long as it is the Charter that they profess to go by He shall have the power which the King giveth and not which the investing Minister describeth If a Parson presented to a Benefice shall be told by the Bishop at his institution the Tithes or Glebe are but half yours this shall not diminish his Title to the whole So when God hath described the Ministers office it shall be what God saith it is and not what the Ordainer saith it is And God maketh the Pastors of each particular body of fixed Communicants united as aforesaid to be really a Bishop or at least the chief of these Pastors or the sole Pastor And therefore the Church to be truly and univocally a Church of Divine institution Though it were never so much granted that Archbishops were over them as the Apostles were overthose Acts 14. 23. And then when the Parish Churches are once proved true Churches whether the Diocesane be so or not is nothing to our controversie with the Separatists But for my part I cannot confute the lawfulness of a Diocese as consisting of many particular Churches with their Bishops as I can a Diocese which hath put them all down CHAP. IX The second Argument from the Deposition of the primitive species of Bishops and the erecting of a humane inconsistent species in their stead A specifick difference proved ARGUMENT II. A Humane inconsistent species of Bishops erected instead of the Divinely-instituted species thereby deposed is unlawful But such is the Diocesan species now opposed Ergo. I have hitherto charged it with the changing of the Church Form Now of the
on I did all that I promised presently with telling them You know that the Parliament take Independency to be a sin and they will say If we allow or tolerate them they here pronounce the sentence of damnation on us under their own hands Dictum factum we had no more of that fundamental I have greater confidence of prevailing with Diocesans by such an argument In taking the Covenant in the Westminster Assembly it would not pass till the parenthesis describing the English species of Prelacy was inserted because many declared that they were not against all Episcopacy but only the present English species Accordingly those that took the Covenant in that sense take not themselves bound to endeavour the extirpation of all Episcopacy but only of that species And they that would have conformed on the terms of the Kings Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs went on this supposition that the species of Prelacy was altered by it Now I put these questions to the Diocesans Quest 1. If a Usurper by power should take down all the Diocesans and their lands Lordships and Courts and turn them into Parish Bishops and say I alter not the species but the degree would they believe him Quest 2. If one that thinketh himself obliged by the Vow or Covenant against this species only should think that he answereth his obligation if he procure no other alteration than is made in the Kings forenamed Declaration would they tell him You alter not the species unless you totally extirpate Episcopacy supposing that he had power to do it Quest 3. Seeing most that we speak with who conform and who take or plead for the Oxford Oath Never to endeavour any alteration of Church Government do tell us that the meaning is only that we will not endeavour to alter the present species which is Episcopacy and not the appurtenances as Chancellors c. I ask If it should please the King to take down all Diocesanes and to set up only a Bishop in every Parish or Independent Church say I change not the species or if I believed that this were a Change of the English species of Church Government I would not do it what answer would they give to this Quest 4. If a Conformist or one that hath taken that Oath shall say I did subscribe and swear only not to endeavour an alteration of the species but not of the degree Therefore I will do all that I can to take down Diocesans and to set up Congregational or Parochial Bishops in their stead will you tell this man that indeed by so doing he endeavoureth not to change the species Quest 5. Seeing many of the greatest opposers of Prelacy do consent to a Congregational or Parochial Bishop will you grant that these are not at all your adversaries as to the species of Church Government but only as to the degree or extent of Dioceses These cases are practical Therefore take heed how you resolve them left you do that which you are unwilling of Quest 6. And I may ask Why is it that many deny that it was a Parliament of Episcopal men that raised the Army against the King only because in the Proposition sent to Nottingham they would have had Episcopacy reduced to what is there intimated and would have had their power shortned Come come deny not the plain truth If magis minus non variant speciem Parliament men yea and the Learnedest part of that Synod who took down Bishops were Episcopal men yea Prelatists as you are for they were but for a Gradual alteration at the beginning of their war till they were carried further by necessity and interest Quest 7. And I ask you also why and with what front do you call us all Presbyterians who offered Bishop Ushers Model to the King and you in 1660. as the terms of Concord Is it against your Consciences meerly to make us odious with you know whom what can it be better if you grant that we are not only for Episcopacy in genere but even for the same species with your selves Yea those that are against Bishop Ushers Model and are only for Congregational or Parish Bishops are it seemeth even for your species And are they not then Episcopal as well as you So much ad hominem now ad rem II. Where the specifying Ends differ there the Species of Relations differ But in the Churches and the Bishops in question the specifying Ends differ Ergo c. I will first manifest the truth of the Minor for the Major is unquestionable of Churches and next of Bishops 1. The ends of a particular Church as described by us are these 1. Communion sensible and external 2. And that local or presential 3. And that personal by all the body of the Church 4. And that in the same Individual acts of Gods publick worship 5. In watching over or helping each other towards Heaven by provoking each other to love and to good works and if a brother offend to tell him of his fault to comfort each other and to live together in holiness love and peace 6. To be related to the same Pastors as those that are their Ordinary Teachers Governours and Guides in publick worship as labouring amongst them and being ensamples to the flock 7. To hold a distant Communion with the neighbour associated concordant Churches and particularly with those nearest them of the first order of Composition of which association this particular Church is a part for Communion of Churches as they are themselves a Society for Communion of Individual Christians in a single Church 2. Now the ends of our Diocesane Churches are not one of all these For 1. Their Communion is internal in Faith and Love such as we have with the Abassines 2. It is distant only and not presential at all For as Diocesane we never see each other it's like in our whole lives 3. It is not personal as external and sensible but only by the intervention of Delegates Messengers Officers or Synods of such 4. It is only in eadem specie of publick worship and sacred actions that we have Communion but not in the same Individual actions of worship And so we may have Communion with the Antipodes while we believe the same Scriptures and Creed and use the same Sacraments c. in specie 5. We have no converse with one another at all as Diocesane though as Parochial we may we never meet together pray together hear together exhort or watch over or help each other If a Brother trespass we tell him not of his fault c. for we never know one of five hundred in the Diocese no more than men of another Countrey 6. We hear not the same Teachers we have not the same Guides to resolve our doubts and to instruct us as we need We have not the same Priests to joyn with in Gods publick worship But he that Teacheth and officiateth in one Church hath no power in another Only we have the same
Bishop to call not the people before him to teach and warn and comfort them but the Parson and Churchwardens or rather the same Lay-Chancellor and his Court and the same Canons for silencing our Ministers Excommunicating many conscionable Nonconformists c. which not only all the Diocese hath but all the Land Not one of many hundreds of the Diocese ever seeth the Bishop in all his life 7. A Diocese is it self a compound of particular Churches associated Though mortified quantum in Diocesanis And therefore cannot be a constitutive part of such a first order of Association as a particular Church may be or is These are the differences in the Ends. Now lay all these together and try whether the differences in so many parts of the Ends of the Society make not a Specifick difference in Societies Whether a company of Christians associated with the same present Pastors for presential personal Communion in Gods publick worship Sacraments Teaching and Guidance and for mutual assistance in holy converse and living c. and cohabiting in a vicinity capable of this converse and Communion be a Society of the same species with A company of Congregations associated or rather never associated to hold a distant Communion in the same species of Belief Prayer Sacraments c. under several appropriate Pastors not living ut Parochiani in any such vicinity as may render them capable of any of the foresaid present assistances or Communion unless in travail men accidentally come together as we may do with men of other lands It is notorious that these Essentiating Ends of the two sorts of Societies are distinct and therefore the Societies are essentially distinct Even as a City Burrough or Corporation are part of a Kingdom and are specifically distinct societies from the Kingdom For the Parts may have a proper subordinate specification which all set together may constitute one more comprehensive species As a Clock and the several wheels and parts of that Clock may differ in specie though not as coordinate species A Kingdom may possibly be no bigger than a City But yet the form of a Kingdom and of a City do differ in the Ends of the Societies So a Family in specie differeth from a City which is compact of many Families so a Troop differeth in specie from a Regiment and a Regiment from an Army a Colledge from an University a bed-chamber which is part of an house from an house though yet it 's possible that a house may be but one room and an University but one Colledge and an Army but one Regiment c. Now let us enquire whether de jure divino there ought to be such a Society as I have described associating for personal present Communion and assistance as aforesaid And this I have fully proved before Chap. 3. Acts 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church 1 Thes 5. 12 13. Know them that labour among and are over you in the Lord and highly esteem them in love for their works sake and be at peace among your selves Heb. 13. 7. 17. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God Act. 20. 28. Take heed to your selves and to all the flock c. v. 31. I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears 20. publickly and house by house 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. The Elders that are among you c. feed the flock not a particle of the flock Mat. 18. 15. If thy brother trespass against thee tell him his fault between thee and him If he hear thee not take two If he hear not them tell the Church If with Selden de Synedr and the Erastians by the Church were meant the Sanhedrim it would tend to the confirmation of what we plead for considering how thin both Council and Synagogues were and in how small places But against that sence see Galaspies Aarons Rod c. Heb. 10. 22. c. Forsake not the assembling of your selves together But exhort one another 1 Cor. 11. When ye come together in the Church 1 Cor. 14 c. See the Text as forecited Chap. 3. It is then manifest that Churches associated for such present Communion of Christians is of Gods appointment which Thorndike in a set Treatise proveth to be the ground of Discipline 2. Next I will shew that the Bishops of such a particular Church and of a compound Diocese are offices specifically different a finibus 1. The Bishop of a particular Church is related to another Correlate specifically distinct from the said Diocesane Therefore his office is specifically distinct The Antecedent is before proved and the Consequence no sober man will question 2. And their works are specifically distinct 1. The work of the one is 1. To be the ordinary publick Teacher of the Church 2. To Congregate the Church 3. To be their Guide in present worship 4. To give them the Lords Supper 5. To watch over and guide them personally in their conversation and so of the rest forenamed 2. The work of the other is 1. To send Curates to be the ordinary Teacher and Guides and Priests to the people even to each Parish one 2. To have a Lay Chancellors Court to trouble them in a secular mode and to judge men to excommunication and absolution 3. To visit some Towns in his Diocese and there to call together the Clergy and Churchwardens once in three years or a year if he please 4. To have an Archdeacon to keep some kind of Courts under him in certain places by himself or his official 5. To grant Licences to Marry 6. And to preach 7. And to eat flesh in Lent 8. To suspend or silence Preachers 9. To lay his hands on Children or others for the Ceremony of Confirmation perhaps on the thousandth or five hundredth part of his Diocese though dejure he should do it to every one 10. To preach as oft as he please in his Cathedral or where he will But as for the aforesaid work of a Bishop of a particular Church he is not to do it nor any one part of it that I know of For whereas the true office of such a Bishop is as Dr. Hammond in his Annotat. well describeth it by a Ministerial participation to subserve Christ to his whole flock in the threefold work of a teacher a Priest and a Ruler he doth no one part of all 1. Instead of Teaching his flock he if he be one of the extraordinary best doth only publickly preach once or twice a week to the thousandth or five hundredth or hundredth part of his flock But so do very few of them but some it may be once in a month or a year And as to the personal care of their Souls he hath not one Parish that he taketh the care of to teach them personally 2. He seldom doth officiate in publick Prayer Praise and Sacrament to any part of his flock And when he doth it is but to
Diocesane form is not But that the Congregational form is I have fully proved Therefore they have not the same Foundation 2. And as to the Relation of the Members of a Diocese to one another there is no mutual consent truly nor seemingly signified by them what ever some few may do who are not the Diocese it is certain that the Diocese as such do neither Explicitely nor Impliedly by word or deed express any such Church consent but rather the clean contrary For 1. Their Dwelling in the Diocese is no more a profession of consent than the Christians dwelling in Constantinople sheweth them to be Mahometans For their Ancestors there lived and they have no other dwelling 2. Their choosing a Parliament who consent is no proof of their consent 1. Because it is not past a sixth or tenth or twentieth part of the Members that choose Parliament men 2. Because they never intend to choose them for any such use as to be the choosers of their Religion or Church and to dispose of their Souls But only to regulate Church matters according to Gods word which when they go against they go beyond and against the peoples consent As in choosing Parliament men we do not trust them to choose husbands and wives and Masters and servants for all the people Nor can we commit that trust for the choice of our Religion or Church to others statedly which Gods Word and Nature have bound us to use our selves Or if such mischoose for us they disoblige us from accepting their choice I am sure the Papists think not that they choose Parliament men to choose a Church for them Nor would the Prelatists think so if the Parliament should prove Presbyterian Independent Anabaptists or Papists 3. The Diocese doth not signifie Consent to a Church relation by the Church-wardens or accused persons coming to the Chancellors or Bishops Courts For 1. It is but a small number comparatively that do so 2. They are compelled and are well known to come full sorely against their wills They are undone if they refuse And submission and patience are not subjection nor consent 3. They most commonly profess to come to these Courts in obedience to the King and as they are empowered by him and strengthened by his sword And not at all as Church-Pastors empowered by Christ For who taketh the Chancellor to be such 4. The appearance of the Clergy at the Bishops Visitation and their Conformity is no proof of the peoples consent For the Ministers are distinct persons and have a distinct interest and are no way empowered to signifie the peoples consent 5. Yea they shew their dissent 1. By being so backward to be made Church-wardens 2. So backward to take their Oaths 3. So backward to present 4. So backward to appear at their Courts 5. Doing it on a civil account as obeying the Kings Officers 6. So few of them ever coming to a Bishop to be instructed resolved yea or for the ceremony of Confirmation So that the people can never be proved to consent to a Diocesane Church State And if they had that is not the same as a consent to a Congregational or Parish Church State 3. The same I need not say over again as to the Diocesane Bishop Chancellor and Archdeacon They consent to the Parish Ministers where they are tolerable by word or daily attendance in Gods worship But I know England so well as that I know that as they never choose their Bishops or Chancellors but the King chooseth them and a Dean and a few Prebends pro forma consent so they are never called to express their consent nor do any considerable part of the Diocese usually consent indeed some never mind such matters others say the King may put in whom he will it is no act of theirs others had rather have a good one than a bad one but had rather yet have none at all especially of late since so many hundred Ministers are silenced And some would have Bishops to silence the Ministers and some are for them on a better account But it 's no considerable part of the Diocese that signifieth Consent And as for the formal demand to the standers by at the Consecration whether any of them have any thing against the Bishop it 's a ceremony fitter for a stage than to come here into an Argument 4. And as for the Bishops and Chancellors relation to the People when it wants the word of God and his consent and the peoples consent and hath but the Kings collation the Deans and Chapters formal consent and the Prelates and Conformist Ministers consent I may well conclude that here is not the same Fundamentum as is of the Parochial and Pastors Church relation IV. And where there is not the same Relate and Correlate there is not the same Relation But a Parochial Church and Pastor and a Diocesane Church and Pastor are not the same Relate and Correlate Ergo. If they be let them become Parochial Bishops and be still the same But what I have said of the difference of Ends and Foundations proveth this a Combination of Christians into one Church primi ordinis for personal Communion is not the same with a Combination of Congregations for Communion mental or by delegates only And so of the Bishops of these several Churches V. If a Congregational Church or Pastor be of the same species with our Diocesane Churches and Prelates then a Church that extendeth through all the Kingdom yea to many Kingdoms yea to the East and West Indies or Antipodes may be of the same species also and so its Pastor And so the Pope and his Church may be of the same as to the magnitude But the consequent is false Ergo so is the antecedent The consequence in the Major is evident because there is eadem ratio For their reason of denominating a Church One is because it hath One Bishop and by their Principles there may be one Bishop to a Province to a Kingdom to an Empire to the World When all the subordinate Bishopricks were taken down to make up this Diocesane Church of Lincoln which I live in the Church was One which before was many And if all the Bishops were taken down except the two Archbishops the two remaining Churches I confess would be of the same species with a Diocese Yea if there were but One Church and Bishop in the Land And why might not all Europe on these terms make one particular Church If you say Because they are not under one King I answer 1. That 's no reason A King is a Civil extrinsick Accidental head of a Church as a Church and not a Constitutive Head But a Bishop is an Intrinsecal Ecclesiastical Constitutive head without whom it is no Church unless equivocally 2. Ten Kings may agree to give way to One Bishop in all their Kingdoms as they have done to the Papcy 3. The Roman Empire was bigger than Europe Why then might not that have been one
administration of the Sacraments and no other Canon 36. Mark No other And the Bishops that endure this are forced to say that these Pulpit prayers are not the Churches prayers but our own But yet they are Publick prayers and therefore I doubt a breach of the Canon-Covenant 7. A Presbyter as such hath no power to preach the Gospel The words of his Ordination do but give him power to preach when he shall be lawfully called yea his Presentation Institution Induction and possession of a Pastoral Charge do not all make up this Lawful call nor may he preach one Sermon after all this till he have a particular Licensing Instrument from the Bishop So that he preacheth not meerly as a Presbyter nor as a possessed Incumbent but as Licensed by the Bishop 8. When he visiteth the sick he hath no Power left him to judge Whether the person be penitent and fit to be Absolved or not But if the wickedest liver will but say or swear that he repenteth of Swearing of Adultery of Perjury though such expressions or circumstances be such as plainly tell a present Minister that he hath nothing like to a serious repentance yet must this Minister be forced even in Absolute words to Absolve him from all his sins When a Popish Confessor would require more I do not in all this lay the fault that this Minister hath not power to keep away any of these persons from Baptism Confirmation the Lords Table Absolution c. but only that he hath no Power to forbear his own action and application and leave them to others that are satisfied to do it Nor not so much as to delay till he give a reason of his doubt to his Lord Bishop 9. When he buryeth the dead he hath no power to judge so far as to the performing or restraining of his own act whether the deceased person must needs be declared and pronounced blessed Three sorts of persons he must deny Christian burial to 1. Those that die unbaptized though they be the Children of the holiest Parents 2. Those that kill themselves though they be the faithfullest persons of godly and blameless lives who do it in melancholy deliration a phrenzy feaver or distraction 3. All that are Excommunicate though by a Lay Chancellor for not paying their fees or though it be because they durst not take the Sacrament from the hands of an ignorant ungodly drunken Priest to whose ministery neither they nor other of the Parish did ever consent or that it be the Learnedest Godly Divine that is excommunicate for dissenting from the Prelatists But all others without any exception that are brought to Church they must bury with a publick Declaration that they are saints viz. That God in mercy hath taken to himself the soul of this our dear brother And without Holiness no man shall see God So great difference in Holiness there is between the Holy Church of Rome and ours that they Canonize one Saint in an age by the Pope and we as many as are buryed by the Priest Though it was the most notorious Thief or Murderer or the most notorious Atheist or Infidel or Heretick who either writeth or preacheth or disputeth that there is no God or no life to come or useth in his ordinary talk to mock at Christ as a deceiver and to scorn the Scriptures as nonsence and contradiction or though it be a Jew who professeth enmity to Christ Much more if it be a common blasphemer perjured person adulterer drunkard a scorner at a godly life c. who never professed repentance but despised the Minister and his counsel to the last breath yet if he be brought to the Church for buryal the Priest must pronounce him saved in the aforesaid words so be it he be not Excommunicate of which sort of late there are too great numbers risen up in so much that the sober Prelatists themselves cry out of the growth and peril of Atheism Infidelity and most horrid filthiness and profaneness The words of the Canon are Can 68. No Minister shall refuse or delay to bury any corps that is brought to the Church or Churchyard convenient warning being given thereof before in such manner and form as is prescribed in the book of Common Prayer And if he shall refuse except the party deceased were denounced Excommunicated Excommunicatione majori for some grievous and notorious crime and no man able to testifie of his repentance he shall be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocese from his Ministry by the space of three months But the New Rubrick in the Liturgy saith The office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized or Excommunicate or have laid violent hands on themselves The Office saith Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the Soul of our dear brother here departed c. And We give thee hearty thanks that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world And yet as self-contradicters and condemners if any man do but say of one that hath been openly against the Prelates or Conformity that he was a godly honest man much more one that was against the King and especially a downright Traitor who so lived and died impenitently they take it for a heinous crime as in the latter case they well may do And yet except those whose quarters they set up upon the gates or deny Christian burial to by the Magistrate the poor Priest must pronounce them all at the Grave to be the Bishops dear brethren and saved as aforesaid 10. They have no Power to give the Sacrament of Communion with Christ and his Church to any the most Learned holy Christian who dare not receive the Sacrament kneeling for fear of bread-worship in appearance c. which though I think is unwarrantably scrupled yet hath so much of Universality and Antiquity as maketh it ill beseeming those same men who cry up the Church Councils Customes and Antiquity to cast out of Communion those that conform to all these for so doing For who knoweth not by Can. 20. of Concil Nic. 1. and the consent of Antiquity that they took it for a custome and tradition and Canon of the Universal Church that none should at all adore God kneeling on any Lords day in the year nor on any week-day between Easter and Whitsunday 11. They have no power to forbear denying the Sacrament of Communion to any how faithful and holy soever who is against the Diocesanes Confirmation and is unwilling that those whom he taketh to be no true Bishops should use that which he taketh as used by them to be no true Ordinance of God but a taking of his name in vain or if on any other account he be unwilling of it For the new Rubrick is There shall none be admitted to the holy Communion until such time as he be Confirmed or be ready and desirous to be Confirmed So that
Let the Bishops that have discharged that function well receive for their Reward twice as much as others have especially those that preach the Gospel to whom it was news and also continue to instruct congregations of Christians in setled Churches 1 Tim. 3. 2. A Bishop must be apt to teach D. H. One that is able and ready to communicate to others the knowledge that himself hath 2 Tim. 4. 1 2. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine See Dr. H. Annot. And can one Bishop be the publick Teacher of a thousand a hundred or many Churches Can he feed them and give them their meat in due season where one of a thousand never heard his voice nor saw his face Is the flock with them or among them Can you say to his Diocese I beseech you know the Bishop that laboureth among you and admonisheth you and esteem him highly in love for his works sake Will they not say you mock them and that they cannot know him whom they never saw nor love him for his work and admonition among them that never was among them that never workt with them that never admonisht them but only that one of many hundred saw him and heard a Visitation Sermon in one City or market Town once in three years or a year at most Must many hundred Congregations that never heard him give him double honour that preacheth sometime to one Congregation a hundred or twenty miles from them and this as their Instructing Elder Judge of the possibility of this 2. The Bishops are also bound to private helps instruction counsel and to watch over all the flock and every particular member of them as a Father must look to every Child and a shepherd to every sheep and a Physician to every Patient Acts 20. 20 28 31. I taught you publickly and from house to house Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears D. H. Instructing both in the Synagogues and in private Schools and in your several houses whither I also came Wherefore ye that are Bishops or Governours of the several Churches look to your selves and the Churches committed to your trust to rule and order all the faithful Christians under you Col. 1. 28. Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as those that must give account D. H. Obey those that are set to Rule over your several Churches the Bishops whose whole care is spent among you as being to give an account of your proficiency in the Gospel I before cited Ignatius telling the Bishop that he must enquire after every one by name even servants and maids And Dr. Jer. Taylor who saith No man can be accountable for them that he knoweth not or cannot know Now is it possible for a Bishop to do this To instruct oversee counsel one of many hundreds of the flock who know him no more than one in another kingdom Is this pastoral teaching of particular Souls to have an Apparitor call one of a thousand when he Conformeth not or offendeth to a Chancellors Court How little know they what the work of a Pastor is that think so 3. Bishops must teach the flock by their own visible example By holy speaking and holy living before their flocks Heb. 13. 7. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversations D. H. Set before your eyes the Bishops observe their manner of living If it were the Pope at Rome we might cast a conjecture by the report of that great liar fame Because it is a place that we hear often from in the Curranto's and Gazets But no Gaâ—et telleth us of the life of our Bishop And how shall those observe their manner of living who know not whether they be alive or dead till a Minister is to be silenced or a new Bishop doth succeed the old You may as well bid us observe how they live in the West-Indies 1 Pet. 1. 5. 3. Neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage or having dominion over your charges but being ensamples to the Flock D. H. Walking Christianly and exemplarily before them What! before them that never saw or heard them Before men of another Countrey that may swear and not repent with Peter We know not the man What! be examples to them that are out of the notice of their words and lives But if really you think that fame is sufficient 1. It must be of persons and things not too far off 2. It must be in a Golden age or another world where good men are not hated and calumniated and where bad men if Great are not extolled and where false reports be not easily believed and reported where a vile person is contemned and those that fear the Lord are honoured Where the faithfullest Pastors are not the object of Great mens jealousie of bad mens malice of dissenters and contentious mens backbitings and reproch and are not made the drunkards song nor the scorn and off-scouring of all things and where he that reproveth or departeth from evil doth not make himself a prey or at least where malignity worldliness and lying are not the predominant humours of the Age. When you have secured us of a true fame we will make the example of a stranger of another land or Diocese as soon as one of this Diocese as strange to us the exemplar of our lives 4. Another part of the Bishops work is to preach to those without that are uncalled as he hath opportunity To labour in the word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5. 17. saith Dr. H. To preach the Gospel to whom it was news which made Dr. Downam and other Prelatists say That the City and Territories are their Diocese even when few of them are converted that they may first convert them and then govern them and Dr. H. to Note out of Clem. Rom. that they are made Bishops over the Infidels that should after believe And doubtless they must do their best to call the unbelieving and impenitent to Christ And how much of this will a Bishop have time to do that hath the work of a Diocese of Christians on his hands 5. It is the work of a Bishop to Baptize or at least to judge of those that are to be Baptized Matth. 28. 19. Go and disciple
call us to seek the alteration which we are required to abjure 10. Lastly by this objection they shew themselves too ignorant of the nature of Church and discipline and Sacrament and Ministery Or else they would better know how far Volunteers are proper objects of Church discipline and have the right to the privileges and Communion of the Church II. The Magistrates Sword will not serve instead of Church discipline 1. Else Christ would not have instituted another office for it 2. Else it might serve also instead of Ministry Preaching and Sacraments 3. The nature of it tendeth not directly to convince men of Errours to lead them into truth to move them by heavenly motions and to bring them to true repentance and godlyness But this will be fuller proved under the next and is confessed by all save the Erastians III. The Magistrates Sword should not be used too forwardly or too much to second or enforce Church discipline much less to be its life and strength and inseparably twisted with it I mean 1. No unbeliever should be forced to say he is a Believer and to professe the Christian faith 2. None upon such profession should be forced to be Baptized 3. None that hath no right to Church Communion in the Sacrament should be forced to receive it 4. None that Apostatizeth from Christ should be forced falsly to professe that he is still a Christian 5. None that are at age should be forced to stay in the Church by local presence or relation as a member of it who is not willing and the practice of the Papists who force no Heathens to be Christians but afterward force Christians by fire and Sword and burn them that were Hereticks Schismaticks or Apostates is self contradicting and self condemning God having left man as much unto his own choice for continuing as for Entring into the Church And as for Obedience to Rulers Infidels may owe it to Christian Kings as well as Christians And none but Magistrates can use the Sword to punish either 6. No Magistrate should punish a Mans body meerly because he is Excommunicate and so punished already Nor should he be made a meer executioner to the Bishop without hearing trying and judging the Cause himself in order to his own execution 7. No Magistrate should force an Impenitent sinner to lie and say he doth repent that thereby he may be admitted to the Church Communion and Sacrament but it is the force of Gods word that must try his Repentance But yet I acknowledge 1. That Magistrates and Parents and Masters may force their Subjects to use those means which tend to make them Christians as to hear Preaching Conference or disputations or to read convincing books But with these two Cautions 1. That it be but when it is like or hopeful to do more good than harme 2. That it be by wise and moderate means of constreint and not hang or burn them to convert them 2. Accordingly Magistrates Parents and Masters may use the like force with their Subjects who are Christians to cause them to use the foresaid meanes of hearing and Reading and conference for the cureing of their dangerous errours or sinful lives 3. And I doubt not but Magistrates may punish men Corporally for their crime according to the nature of them and even for the same that the Church hath excommunicated them If one be excommunicated for Treason Murder Theft Swearing Prophaning the Lords day and holy things c. it followeth not that the Magistrate may not also meddle with him 4. And we doubt not but Magistrates may Restraine false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them from God to sin 5. And the Magistrate may and ought to encourage Ministers in the use of the Church Keyes and to preserve them from the violence of wicked men 7. And they may make a difference in their favours and rewards between Christians obedient to God and their Pastors and Infidels excommunicate in penitent ones and Apostates by denying honors and preferments and rewards to the worse which he giveth to the better sort of men But yet as to the Cases before denied especially the forcing men by fire sword and imprisonment to say they believe and repent and to take the Sacrament and other Church priviledges and making this the strength of Church discipline I have all this against it 1. No force should be used to the hindering and destruction of Christs ordinance of discipline and his Church Laws But such it would be in the case in hand For Christs fundamental Covenant is that the true willing penitent and believer shall be a member of his Church or those only that credibly profess to be so at age He that will may freely drink of the water of life Nemo invitus fit Christianus so that to say that any man hath right to the mystical Church priviledges but Consenters or any man hath right to the visible Church priviledges but credible Professors of consent is to contradict the very condition of the Covenant of life which is the sum of all the Gospel It s true you may compel some men to duty but you cannot compel them to be happy But to force them by perpetual Imprisonment confiscation and the sword to say that they are Christians or repent consent or are willing and so to give them absolution and Church-communion is to make Christs ordinance of none effect For true discipline is to make them penitent and willing and then to use them as such But 1 It is not credible that that person is truly penitent and willing to be a Christian or have Church-communion who will not be perswaded to consent by all that can be said by the Pastors from the word of God but yet on the rack or to prevent undoing will say I consent This is contrary to the nature of true Repentance 2. Or if it did not make this forced consent utterly incredible yet it utterly crosseth the ends of Church discipline which is to discern the voluntary penitent which force so obscureth that no man can tell whether the person be credibly penitent or not If I left a Legacy to so many that are Lovers of the Church and its Communion and my Executors should get the Magistrate to hang or Imprison or undo certain men that are accused as Enemies of the Church unless they will say we Love the Church I think my Will would be ill performed if those men had my Legacy that were forced to say so 2. No man should be forced to his own sin and distruction But he that is forced to take the Sacrament when he is unwilling and had rather be without it in likelihood is forced to his sin and destruction For even the Liturgy telleth the unworthy that they eat and drink damnation to themselves and that the Devil may enter into them as he did into Judas And who is unworthy if the unwilling are not 3. Force is not fitted to cause love and willingness therefore
the way to make him hate them 15. And the Office of the Pastors is such as that truth and Goodness are the wares which they expose to sinners choice and Light and Love are the effects which Spirits Word and Ministry are appointed to produce And by Light and Love they must be wrought Therefore no Minister â—oth his work or doth any good to some if by Light and Love and holy Life he help not the people to the same And therefore the adjunction of Jayles and confiscations is so contrary to his Office and designe as obscureth or destroyeth it Though Enemies may be restrained and peace kept by force 16. True discipline cannot be exercised this way not only as it s lost in the confusion of powers as a little wine in Wormwood juice but because the Number and quality of the Church members will make it impossible Enemies and rebellious carnal minds are not subject nor can be to the Lawes of Christ you may affright them to a Sacrament but one of them will make a Minister such work who will but call them to credible repentance for their crimes and will renew those crimes so oft till he be excommunicated and will so hate those that excommunicate as will tell you what can be done when all such are forced unwillingly into the Church Of this I have spoke at large in my Book of Confirmation 17. It tendeth greatly to harden the sinners in the Church in their impenitence to their damnation when they shall see that let one swear and curse and be drunk every day in the week if he will but say I repent rather than lie in Jayl he shall be absolved by the Chancellour in the Bishops came and have a sealed pardon delivered him in the Sacrament by the Minister who knoweth his wicked life How easie a way to Heaven which leadeth to Hell do such good-natured cruel Churches make men Obj. The Minister is to refuse the scandalous Ans Not when he is absolved by the Chancellour Obj. But if he sin again he may refuse him again Ans How far that is true I shewed before But not when he is absolved again And he may be absolved toties quoties if he had but rather say I repent than lie in Jayle 18. Let but the ancient Canons be perused and how contrary to them will this course appear The ancient Churches would admit none to absolution and communion after divers greater crimes till they had waited as is aforesaid in begging and tears and that for so long a term and with such penitential expressions as satisfied the Church of the truth of their repentance It would be tedious to recite the Canons How great a part of Cyprians Epistles to the Churches of Carthage and Rome are on this subject reprehending the Confessors and Presbyters for taking lapsed persons into Church Communion before they had fulfilled their penitential course And what a reproach do they cast upon all these Bishops Churches and discipline who say That sinners must be taken into Communion if they will prefer it before a Jayle Though they love a Wherehouse an Ale-house a Play-house a Gaming house yea a Swine-Stie better than the Church yet if they do not love a Jayle with beggery better they shall be received 19. Even when Christian Emperours had advanced Prelates and given them though not the sword yet the aid of it in the Magistrates hand to second them they never used it to force any to the Communion of the Church but only to defend them and to repress their adversaries Yea when Prelates themselves began to use the sword or to desire the Magistrates to serve them by it it was not at all to force men to say They Repent and so to be absolved and communicate But only to keep hereticks from their own assemblings and from publishing their own doctrines or maintaining them or from being Pastors of the Churches And yet now men will force them to be Absolved and communicate And how great mischiefs did even so much use of the sword in matters of Religion as was the punishment of Hereticks then being though they were not forced into the Church Socrates brandeth Cyril of Alexandriae for the first Prelate that used the sword and what work did he make with it He invaded a kind of secular Magistracy He set himself against the Governour Orestes and under his shadow those bloody murthers were committed on the Jewes who also â—illed many of the Christians The Monks of Mount Nystra rose to the number of 500 and assaulted the civil Governour and wounded him and Amonius who did it was put to death by Orestes and Cyril made a Martyr of him till being ashamed of it he suffered his memorial to be abolished And when Hypatia a most excellent woman of the Heathens was famous for her publick teaching of Phylosophy Peter one of Cyrils Readers became the head of a party of that Church who watched the woman and dragg'd her out of a Coach into a Church stript her of her cloaths and tore her flesh with sharp shells till they killed her and then tore her members in peices and carried them to a place called Cynaron and burned them for which we read of no punishment executed Socrat. lib. 7. c. 13. 14 15. And it was this S. Cyril who deprived the Novatians of their Churches and took away all the Secret treasure of them and spoiled the Bishop Theopompus of all his fortunes Socrat. l. 7. c 7. What his Nephew and Successor Theophilus was and did you have heard before and shall hear more anon What the ancient Christians thought of using the sword against Hereticks though they compelled them not to the Church and Sacrament any man that readeth their Writings may see viz. Tertullian Arnobius Laâ—tantius and abundance more And the case of S. Martin towards Ithacius and Idacius I have oft enough repeated Only I cannot but note the impudency of Bellarmine who de Scriptor Eccles de Idacio falsly making Idacius to be the same with Ithacius when he was but one of his associates doth tell us that Idacius fell under the reprehension and punishment of the Bishops in eo reprehensus punitus ab Episcopis fuit quod Priscillianum apud seculares accusaverit occidi curaverit whereas Sulpitius Severus telleth us that all the Bishops of the Synod joyned with them and one S. Martyn and one French Bishop more disowned and refused them and Martin would have no Communion with them to the death save that once at the Emperours perswasion he Communicated with them to save a prisoners life which was given him on that condition and yet was chastised by an Angel even for that And Ambrose at Milan also disowned them as you may read in his life and when the deed was done the Christians spake ill of Ithacius and Idacius for taking that new and bloody way which before the Churches commonly disowned but they pretended that they did not cause this
execution And the same Sulpitius tells you that when this new way of seeking to the Emperour was first set on foot by Ithacius and his Synodists the Priscillianists quickly got the handle of the sword and by a Courtier got even Gratian to be on their side against the Bishops And yet that was not all the mischief but when Maximus had killed Gratian it was this pleasing of these bloody Orthodox Prelates which he trusted to as his means to possess the Empire and so punished the Priscillianists to please them and serve himself of them of which more anon But you may see here that Bellarmine himself seemeth to disown Bishops seeking to Magistrates to punish Hereticks As if he had forgotten their bloody Inquisition and Massacres And Baronius invit Ambros would perswade us that Ambrose who was of Martins mind did not disown the punishment of hereticks by the sword but he would not have Churchmen seek it As if it were not evident enough that it was the thing it self that he and Martin were against and that Martin was reproached by the Prelates as a fâ—â—tor of Hereticks for travelling to Maximus Court and importuning him to save them And as if the Inquisitors did not seek to the Magistrate and more even Judge and execute the sword themselves It s true that Augustine was at last for the use of the sword against the Donatists But it s as true 1. That he wrote much before against it 2. That it was so much against the Churches former judgement and practice that he was fain to write his Apology and reasons 3. And that the Donatists Circumcellians used frequent and cruel violence against the Christians that were Orthodox or Cecâ—llians and catch'd their Presbyter in the streets of Carthage dragg'd him in the dirt and abused him cruelty two Church daies before they let him go with many such outrages Yea the Catholicks could not go safely in the streets for them And among other devises they mixt Lime and Vinegar together and cast it in mens eyes as they passed in the streets to put out their eyes And they were so mad that they wounded and killed themselves to bring odium on the Catholicks And they were so numerous that they called themselves the whole Catholick Church 4. And Austin did never desire the Magistrate to force them to the Sacrament but to defend the Church and repress their insolencies 5. And yet the whole Clergy joyned first in a representation of all this to the Donatists Bishop Januarius as being an old experienced peaceable man and to desire him to remedy it before they would fly for aid to the Magistrate all this you may see in their Epist to him inter Augustini Epistolas And what work did the Arrians make with the Orthodox when they had got the Emperours sword to serve them Nay indeed it was the Arrians who did first set this work on foot after the Jewes and Heathens They so depopulated the Churches by it in the daâ—es of Constantius and Valens that they seemed all to be turned Arrians and thâ— Orthodox party seemed to be almost conquered if not extinct And their Sergius the Monk that instructed Mahomet set him by this way of the sword on that extirpation of Christianity which hath so dolefully prevailed in the Eastern Empire And so great was the swords success against the faith of the Trinity that Philostorgius of Old and out of him Sandius of late would make us believe that almost all the ancient Bishops indeed were Arrians But the saddest instance of the mischief of too much serving Church-men by the sword is the case of the Papal faction when Cyril had begun the trade at Alexandria saith Socrates Episcopus Romanus non aliter atque Alexandrinus quasi extra sacerdotis fines egressus ad secularem principatum erat jam ante delapsus it seems Rome had the primacy in a Sanguinary Prelacy And saith he Then Pope Celestine first took their Churches from the Novations and compelled their Bishop Ruricolae to keep their meetings privately in houses And though the Bishops commended them as Orthodox yet they spoiled them of their fortunes Socrat. l. 7. c. 11. so impatient are armed Prelates of any that are not of their mind and way how honest otherwise soever they acknowledge them But alas since then what streams of blood have been shed to â—ack the Romane discipline How many hundred thousand of the Waldenses and Albigenses did they murther How many thousands in Belgia France Germany Poland Ireland c. And when at first they precariously got the Magistrates to serve them voluntarily with the sword at last they would constrain them to it as their duty and such a duty as they must perform on pain of losing their dominions For the Pope having first excommunicated them next may give away their dominions to others as is fully expressed Concil Lateran sub Innoc. 3. Can. 3. Concil Rom. sub Gregor 7. And do I yet need to say more what mischief hath come by overmuch backing Church discipline by the sword If I do let this be the close that God knoweth how many Great men and Commanders are now in Hell for the persecutions and murders which Church men have thus drawn them to 2. Lastly most certain this course of forcing all men into the Church and to the Sacrament by prison and sword will keep up perpetual divisions in the Churches The more religious sort of people will still in all ages be flying away from such Churches as from a Pest-house or infected place or ruinous house that 's ready to fall The unexperienced Prelates think that it is but some few preachers that teach the people such strict opinions and if those were cut off all would be well But their ignorance is the Churches plague and their own 1. There is somewhat in Scripture that perswadeth them that God hateth all the workers of iniquity and that holiness and unholiness are as Light and Darkness and that he that nameth the name of Christ must depart from iniquity and that the impenitent and scandalous must be avoided and ashamed and hereticks after a first and second admonition and that he that bids them Good speed is partaker of their evil deeds and that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump and therefore the wicked must be cast out and must be to us if obstinate after admonition as Heathens and Publicans These are not the words of phanaticks but of Christ 2. There is something in the newborn soul which is contrary to wickedness and which inclineth men to an enmity with the Serpents seed as such though a love to them as men that are yet capable of grace and which disposeth men to obey all the foresaid words of Christ 3. And there is in the people more than in the Pastors some remnants of ignorance which makes them more liable to stretch these words of Christ too far and by mistake to run further from wicked men than
God would have them But when they see the Wilderness called the Garden of God and the wicked not only tolerated in the Church but forced into it by the Sword and so the Church to contain the world and to be as vicious as Infidels what ever men should do I dare confidently prophecy what they will do All the Prelates in the world no nor all the godly that preach will never prevent it but every age will bring forth new divisions and the stricter sort will be still flying from such Churches as these to worship God in purer societies And if you are angry with the Scriptures and with the Papists keep them from their knowledge you must do so also by the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments or else the very Article of the Communion of Saints and the praying Thy Name be hallowed thy Kingdome come thy Will be done in earth as it is heaven with the precepts of Holiness and Righteousness will have the same kind of operation Obj. But in the Church of Rome there is unity and concord and no Sects and therefore that sheweth us what the sword may do Ans 1. But the Church of Rome is it self but a fraction divided from the rest of the Church Do they not differ sufficiently from the Greeks Armenians Abassines c. Did they not drive from them Germany Belgia and the rest of the Protestants Yea even by their cruelty so far was cruelty from preventing it The Anabaptists and many other Sects may be at one among themselves and yet not at one with any others 2. Are you willing of a concord in your Churches upon the same terms as the Church of Rome hath it What with the same ignorance and ungodliness Locking up the Scriptures in Latin Prayers and Masses and a Catholick Tyrant or Usurper and all this procured by the blood of so many hundred thousands and kept up by the same Love-killing means would you indeed have such a concord Et cum solitudinem facitis pacem vocabitis as Tertullian speaketh 3. But indeed the Church of Rome hath one other means for concord which you want and that is various houses and orders of Monasticks Ignorance and prophaness will serve for the concord of the worst but there will be still some who believe and forethink of a life to come and therefore will be religious and for these when they cannot have communion with the wicked this politickly holy Church hath provided this expedient every one that will be Religiouser than the rest hath a hive or society to fliâ— to at their choice and may betake themselves to that which is most strict or most suited to their own conceits And if you would make Independant Churches to be like such Monasteries where the Religiouser sort may have Communion with one another you may do much to prevent a further breach Object II. But the sword will prevail with the most In the changes of â— Religion in England and else where the People have alwayes changed with the he King Answ 1. Men may seemingly leave an ill way with the King Because they are wicked that walk in it and therefore can say any thing But men will not so easily leave a good way when a King shall leave it Because they that are in a good way are often Good men and true to God and hold Truth and Goodness faster than bad Men hold Error and Evil. 2. Indeed this is the way to have a Church onely of perfidious wicked Men who will turn to any thing with their tongues because they will not turn to God with their hearts And to have no true Christian left among you for such fear not them that can kill the body onely in comparison of him that can damn the Soul Luke 12. 4. 3. Do not France and all the Churches and Our selves at this day fully shew you the falseness of this Objection CHAP. XXII An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishops no King 2. And of the Rebellions and Seditions of those that have been against Bishops I Come not for your own sake to meddle with such matters as these but you put a necessity on us by making us odious by such pretences 1. To the first I answer 1. Were not all the very Heathen Emperors heretofore and are not all the Heathen Kings still Kings and as great as others without Bishops And may not Christian Kings much more 2. If the Presbyterians had said no Presbyters no King you would have taken it for treasonable as if they had threatned that the King shall not be King unless they may have their way and shall not the King be King unless you may be Bishops 3. What is in the nature of the thing to warrant this assertion Presbyterians own every text and Article for Monarchy as the Prelatists do even as ever any Christian Council or Confession asserted as far as we can learn They plead no other divine right for their offices than our Prelates do And save what some of them have held by the Magistrates own gift they pretend to no power over any mans body or purse Many of them and the Independants meddle no further than their own Congregations What is in all this against Kings That an Aristocratical Church Government may not live quietly under Monarchy or a Monarchial Church Government under Aristocracy is an asserted fiction without all proof Otherwise by the same reason you would perswade Venice Holland and all such Governments that Prelacy may not be endured under them 4. But what if it were all as true as it is false What is it to those Nonconformists that craved Bishop Ushers Episcopacy The question is but whether a humble Bishop in a Parish or Market Town without any Lordship or great revenews or interest in the sword may not live as safely and obediently under Kings as our Lord Bishops Yea in very deed most of the Independant Churches themselves have a kind of Episcopacy whether they own the name or not For usually one single Pastor hath as much as a Negative voice in the management of all disciplinary affairs II. But the answer to the second will fuller answer this 1. Do you not know that where Prelacy is at the highest there Kings and Emperours have been at the lowest Do you not know how the Papal Prelacy at the present usurpeth one part of their Government and is ready to take away the other when they can when ever Kings displease them Can any thing be said to hide this by him that readeth but the two forenamed Councils Later Rom. sub Gregor 7. Did Prelacy preserve those Emperors of the East that suffered by it Doth it now preserve the Emperour of Moscovy where the Patriarks interest is pretended in the rebellion Did it preserve Frederick and the two Henries of Germany or Henry 3. and 4th of France Did it preserve the Kings of England Will. 2. Hen. 2. and 3. John c. from their wars and troubles
Did it preserve the Kingdome of Navar to the right Lord What should I say more of this after the copious instances of H. Fowlis and after that volume of W. Prin. of the English Prelates Treasons Read it and judge 2. What people more peaceable and obedient to their superiors for instance than the Helvetian Ministers have been who yet have no such thing as Bishops 3. Dr. Pet. Moulin Junior one of your selves in his answer to Philanax Angl. hath said enough to confute most of the Calumnies against the Reformed Churches in this point 4. Who knoweth not that even in the ancient Churches and that when Episcopacy was thriving apace yea and by and among the Bishops themselves yea some that were good men and are now Sainted yet tumults seditions rebellions and contentions troubled the Churches and the Emperours and Magistrates as frequently as of later times which I mention not to abate the honour of those better Christians but 1. To shew you that all this was done under Prelacy and therefore it was not want of Prelacy or aversness to it that is to be taken for the cause 2. That these distempers were found in the best times and among the purest Churches and therefore are not to be now thought strange or taken for a mark of a bad religion I will not repeate what I said but even now of the horrid tumults and blood shed at Alexandria their cruel Murdering of Hypatia and the insurrection and sedition even of the Holy Monks and Saint Cyrils Sainting of the executed actor of violence on the Governour What work his Predecessor Saint Theophilus made against Saint Chrysostome how Epiphanius acted his part how Saint Hierome was of their party how even the Orthodox Bishops in several Synods opposed and deposed those two excellent Bishops of Constantinople Gregory Theol. and Chrysostome hath been said before Even at the Election of Chrysostome Theophilus went about by all means to discredit him and to preferr to the place one Isidore a Priest of his own Church And that you may know how Loyalty prevailed against the owning of Tyrants when they got the better you shall further hear why Theophilus set so much by this Isidore because he undertook for him a perillous piece of service saith Socrates li. 6. c. 2. viz When the Emporour Theodâ—sius waged War with Maximus the Tyrant Theophilus sent Presents directed to the Emperour with two Letters one to Theodosius and one to Maximus charging Isidorus to present him that got the better with the gift and one of the Letters Isidore being careful of his business went diligently about this feat got him to Rome and hearkeneth after the Victory But his fetch was not long ere it was found out for his Reader that accompanyed him stole away his Letters Whereupon Isidore being afraid to be taken with the manner took his heeles in all hast to Alexandria This was it that made Theophilus labour so carnestly for Isidore But all that were of the Emperours Court preferred John to the Bishopprick And afterwards when as many charged Theophilus with heynous crimes and presented to the Bishops then present libells and Articles against him some for this thing and some for that Eutropius one of the Emporours Chamber having gotten the Articles and Inditements shewed them to Theophilus bad him choose whether he would Create John Bishop or stand at the Barr and answer to the Crimes that were laid to his charge Theophilus was so afraid with this that presently he consented to the installing of John What would have been said of one of us now if we had not only complyed with a victorious Tyrant but also so jugled with presents and double Letters before hand I did my self disowne Oliver Cromwel openly to his death and yet because after twelve years possession of the Usurpers I did but Dedicate two Bookes to his Son Richard whom I never saw nor heard from only to encourage him to befriend truth and unity against Papists and Sectaries who then threatened all and this when the Royalists themselves gave out that he was Really for the restoration of the King this is made the odious Crime in me as a thing deserving greatest Infamy Do I need to recite how great Leo himself and other Roman and Italian Bishops owned the Barbarian Conquerours No wonder than if they too early took Theodoricus for their King set over them by God who was a better man than the rest and had at last a better Tittle Saith Socrates further li. 6. c. 7. When the Common-wealth of the Roman Empire was tossed with these troublesome stormes of Rebellion such as were promoted to the reverend function of Priest hood were at distraction among themselves to the great slander of Christian Religion Then was one set against the other the original of which pestilent Schism came from Egypt and the occasion was as followeth There was a question broached a little before whether God were a body made after the likeness and forme of man Or whether he were without body and void of all Corporal shape Hereof there arose sundry contertions and quarrels While some affirmed this and others that Some of the rudest and unlearned sort of Religious men thought that God was Corporeal and of the forme and figure of man But the greater part condemned them with their Heretical opinion affirming that God had no bodily substance or shape Of which opinion was Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria so that in the hearing of the whole Congregation he inveighed bitterly against the Contrary The worshippers of Egypt understanding this left their Religious houses came to Alexandria flocked about Theophilus condemned him for a wicked person and sought to bereave him of his Life Theophilus being made privy to their Conspiracy was wonderful pensive devised how he might scape their hands and save his life As soon as he came into their presence he saluted them Courteously and said thus to them When I fasten mine eyes on you methinks I see the lively face of God With these words the rash heat of the unruly Monkes was delayed and they said If that be true that thou sayest that the Countenance of God is no otherwise than ours accurse then the works of Oregen For divers of his books do impugne our opinion But if thou refuse to do this assure thy self to receive at our hands the punishment due to the impious and open Enemies of God Nay saith Theoph. I will do that which seemeth good in your eyes Thus you see what the Monks were But will you see what Theophilus was It followeth The Religious houses in Egypt were overseen of four worthy men Bretheren Dioscorus Ammonius Eusebius and Eutburmus Their great fame and excellency made Theophilus force them out of their beloved solitude and make Dioscorus a Bishop and two other to live with himself At last their Consciences were pricked perceiving that the Bishop was set upon heaping and hoarding of mony and that all their labour
2. c. 5. That were for seventy years after their conversion without a Bishop Vlphilas being the first 4. Columbanus was no Bishop but a Presbyter and Monk nor his Successours that yet Ruled even the Bishops as Beda noteth Hist. li 3. c. 4. 5. Hâ—here solet ipsa Insula Rectorem semper Abbatem Presbyterum cujus jure omnis provincia ipsi etiam Episcopi ordine inusitatâ— debeant esse subjecti juxta exemplum primi Doctoris illius Columbani qui non Episcopus sed Presbyter extitit Monachus And these Presbyters did not only ordaine as being the only Church Governours but they sent Preachers into England and ordained Bishops for England at King Oswalds request as Beda at large relateth Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 3. 5. 17. 21. 24 25. The Abbot and other Presbyters of the Island Hy sent Aydan ipsum esse dignum Episcopatu ipsum ad erudiendos incredulos indoctos mitti debere decernunt Sicque illum ordinantes ad praedicandum miserunt c. Successit vero ei in Episcopatu Finan ipse illo ab Hy Scotorum insula ac monasterio destinatus c. 17. cap. 25. Aydano Episcopo de hac vita sublato Finan pro illo gradum Episcopatus a Scotis ordinatus missus acceperat c. So cap â—4 c. You will find that the English had a Succession of Bishops by the Scotish Presbyters ordination And there is no mention in Beda of any dislike or scruple of the lawfulness of this course Segenius a Presbyter was Abbot of Hy cap. 5. when this was done And cap. 4. it appears that this was their ordinary custome though in respect to the Churches that were in the Empire it be said to be more inusitato that Presbyters did Govern Bishops but none questioned the validity of their ordinations And the Council at Herudford subjecteth Bishops in obedience to their Abbots And the first reformers or Protestants here called Lollords and Wicklifists held and practised ordination by mere Presbyters as Walsingham reports Hist Angl. An. 1â— 89. and so did Luther and the Protestants of other Nations as Pomeranus ordination in Denmark shews and Chytraeus Saxon Chron lib. 14. 15. 16. 17. 5. Leo Mag. Epist 92. cited by Gratian being consulted a rustico Narbonensi de Presbytero vel Diacono qui se Episcopos mentiti sunt de his quos ipsi clericos ordinârâ—nt answered Nulla ratio sâ—vit ut inter Episcopos habeantur qui nec a clericis sunt electi nec a plebibus expetiti c. yet thus resolveth of their ordination Siqui autèm Clerici ab ipsis Pseudo Episcopis in eis Ecclesus ordinati sunt quae ad proprios Episcopos pertinebant ordinatio eorum cum consensu judicio presidentium facta est potest â—ata haberi ita ut in ipsis Ecclesus perseverunt So that the mere consent of the proper Bishops can make valid such Presbyters ordination 6. Fâ—licissimus was ordained Deacon by Novatus one of Cyprians Presbyters Schismatically yet was not his ordination made Null by Cyprian but he was deposed for Mal-administration See Blondel p. 312. 113. 7. Firmilian in 75 Epist apud Cyprian Saith Necessariò apud nos fit ut per singulos annos seniores praepositi in unum conveniamus ad disponenda quae curae nostrae commissa sunt ut si quae graviora sunt communi consilio dirigantur This shews that communi consilio importeth a consenting Governing Power c. Omnis potestas gratia in Ecclesus constituta ubi praesident majores natu qui baptizandi manum imponeâ—â—â— ordinandi possidâ—nt Potestatem If any say It is only Bishops that Formilian speakes of I answer 1. He had a little before used the word Seniores the same in sense with Majores natu here as distinct from Praepositi to signifie either all Pastors in general or Presbyters in special 2. When he speakes of Majores natu in general they that will limit it to Bishops must prove it so limited and not barely affirme it 3. The conjunct acts of the office disprove that It was the same men that had the power of baptizing 8. The great Council of Nice the most reverend Authority next to the holy Scripture decreed thus concerning the Presbyters ordained by Melitius at Alexandria and in Egypt Hi autem qui Dei gratiâ nostris precibus adjuti ad nullum Schisma deflexisse comperti sint sed se intra Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae fines ab erroris labe vacuos continuerint authoritatem habeant tum ministros ordinandi tum eos que clero digni fuerint nominandi tum denique omnia ex lege instituto Ecclesiastico libere exequendi If any say that the meaning is that these Presbyters shall ordain and Govern with the Bishops but not withoutthem I am of his mind that this must needs be the meaning of these words or else they could not be consonant with the Church Canons But this sheweth that ordination belongeth to the Presbyters office and consequently that it is no nullity though an irregulrity as to the Canons when it is done by them alone Socrat. lib. 5. 6. cap. 6. 9. It is the title of the twelfth Canon Concil An cyrani Quod non oportet Chorepiscopos ordinare nisi in agris villulis Now either these Chorepiscopi were of the order of Bishops or not If they were then it further appeareth how small the Churches were in the beginning that had Bishops even such as had but Vnum Altare as Ignatius saith when even in the Countrey Villages they had Bishops as well as in Cities notwithstanding that the Christians were but thinly scattered among the Heathens But if they were not Bishops then it is apparent that Presbyters did then ordain without Bishops and their ordination was valid And the Vafrities of the Prelates is disingenious in this that when they are pleading for Diocesan Churches as containing many fixed Congregations then they eagerly plead that the Chorepiscopi were of the order of Presbyters But when they plead against Presbyters ordination they would prove them Bishops Read Can. 10. Concilii Antiocheni 10. Even in the daies of ignorance and Roman Usurpation Bonifacius Mogunt alias Wilfred Epist 130 Auct Bib. Pat. To 2. p. 105. tells Pope Zachary as his answer intimateth that in Gente Boiariorum there was but one Bishop and that was one Vivilo which the Pope had ordained and that all the Prebyters that were ordained among them as far as could be sound were not ordained by Bishops though that ignorant usurping Pope requireth as it seemeth that they be reordained unless Benedictionem ordinationis should signifie only the blessing or confirmation of their former ordination which is not like For he saith Quia indicasti perrexisse te ad gentem Boiariorum inâ—enisse eos extra ordinem ecclesiasticum viventes dum Episcopos non habebant in Provincia nisi
unum nomine Vivilo quem nos ante tempus ordinavimus Presbyteros vero quos ibidem reperisti si incogniti fuerint viri illi à quibus sunt ordinati dubium est eos Episcopos fuisse an non qui eos ordinaverunt si bonae actionis cathoâ—ici viri sunt ipsi Presbyteri in ministerio Christi omnemque legem sanctam â—docti apti ab Episcopo suo benedictionem Presbyteratus suscipiant consâ—â—râ—ntur siâ— ministerio sacro fungantur 11. Of old it was the Custom of the Church that Presbyters joyn with the Bishops in Ordination Concil Carth. c. 3. All the Presbyters present must impose their hands on the head of the Presbyter to be ordained with the Bishop Which fully sheweth that it is an act belonging to their Office and therefore not null when done by them alone in certain cases and that it was but for order sake that they were not to do it without a Bishop who was then the Ruler of the Presbyters in that and other Actions And its worth noting That ib. Can. 4. The Bishop alone without any Presbyters was to lay hands on a Deacon though not on a Presbyter Because he was ordained non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium not to the Priesthood but to a Ministery or service which plainly intimateth what Arch-Bishop Usher said to me that Ad Ordinem pertinet ordinare quamvis ad Gradum Episcopalem ordinationes regere The Priesthood containeth a power to ordain Priests but the Episcopal Jurisdiction as such sufficeth to ordain a Deacon Or that the Bishop ordaineth Presbyters as he is a Presbyter his Prelacy giving him the government of the action but he ordaineth Deacons as a Ruler only Arg. II. Ordination by Bishops such as were in Scripture time is valid and lawful But the Ordinations in England now questioned were performed by Bishops such as were in Scripture times Ergo the late ordinations in England now questionedare valid and lawful The Major speaking de nomine officio is granted by all The Minor I prove thus 1. The Ordinations in England now questioned were many or most performed by the cheif particular Pastors of City Churches together with their Colleagues or fellow Presbyters that had Presbyters under them But the Cheif particular Pastors of City Churches having Presbyters under them were such Bishops as were in Scripture times Ergo the Ordinations in England now questioned were performed by Bishops such as were in Scripture times I must first here explain what I mean by a particular Pastor as in an Army or Navy a General Officer that taketh up the General care of all is distinct from the inferiour particular Captains that take a particular care of every Souldier or person under their command so in the Church in Scripture times there were 1. General Officers that took care of many Churches viz. a general care And 2. perticular Bishops and Presbyters that were fixed in every City or perticular Church that took a perticular care of every Soul in that Church It is only these last that I speak of that were Bishops infimi gradûs not such as the Apostles and Evangelists but such as are mentioned Acts 14. 23. and Acts 20. 28. Tit. 1. 5. c. Now for the Major it is notoriously known 1. That ordinarily some of our Ordainers were City Pastors 2. That they had Presbyters under them viz. one or more Curates that administred there with them or in Oratorics called Chappels in the Parish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Oppidum and our Boroughs and Towns Corporate are such Cities as are signified by that word And there are few of these but have more Presbyters than one of whom one is the Cheif and the rest ruled by him Besides that one was oft-times President of the Assembly chosen by the rest For instance if I had ever medled in Ordainings as I did not 1. I was my self a Pastor of a Church in a City or Burough 2. I had two or three Presbyters with me that were ruled by me so that I was statedly their Chief I was statedly chosen by the neighbourhood associated Pastors to be their Moderatour which was such a power as made Bishops at Alexandria before the Nicene Council Now that such were Bishops such as were in Scripture-times I prove 1. By the Confession of the Opponents Doctor Hammond and his followers maintain that there were no subject Presbyters instituted in Scripture times and consequently that a Bishop was but the single Pastour of a single ongregation having not so much as one Presbyter under him but one or more Deacons which granteth us more than now I plead for and that afterwards when Believers were encreased he assumed Presbyters in partem curae So that our Bishops which I plead for are of the stature of those after Scripture times in the Doctors sence Defacto this is granted 2. The Bishops in Scripture times were ordained in every City and in every Church Tit. 1 5. and Acts 13. 23. So are ours They had the particular Episcopacy over-sight rule and teaching of all the Flock committed to them Acts 20. 28. and if the Angel of the Church of Ephesus were one cheif he was but one of these and over these in the same Church and charge And so have our Parochial Pastours these very words Acts 20. 28. being read and applyed to them in their ordination They had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to them and so have ours If it be said that these are but things common to the Bishop with the Presbyter 1. What then is proper to a Bishop To say Ordination is but to beg the question And Ordination it self is not proper in the sense of our own Church that requireth that Ordination be performed as well by the laying on of the hands of the Presbyters as of the Bishop 2. They use themselves to make the governing or superiority over many Presbyters to be proper to a Bishop 3. Those to whom the description of Bishops in Scripture belongeth are truly and properly Bishops But the Description of Bishops in Scripture agreeth at least to the chief particular Pastors of City Churches having Presbyters under them Ergo such are truly and properly Bishops The Minor which only needeth proof is proved by an induction of the several Texts containing such descriptions as Acts 20. and 13. 23. 1 Tim. 3. and 5. 17. Tit. 1. 5. c. 1 Thes 5. 12. Hebr. 13. 7. 17 24. 1 Pet. 5. 1 2 3. and the rest 4. If our Parochial Churches or at least our City Churches those in each Town Corporate and Borough be true Churches then the cheif particular Pastors of them are true Bishops but they are true Churches Ergo. Still note 1. That I speak of Churches as governed Societies in sensu Politico and not as a Company of private Christians 2. That I speak only of particular Pastors or Bishops infimi gradus and not of Arch-Bishops and
when vacant by the Bishops death Now all these lived together as in a little Colledge thus the Churches were planted and the Gospel disseminated through the world But at first every Bishop had but one Parish yet afterwards when the numbers of the Christians increased that they could not conveniently meet in one place and when through the violence of persecution they durst not assemble in great multitudes the Bishops divided their charges in lesser Parishes and gave assignments to the Presbyters of particular flocks which was done first in Rome in the begining of the 2d Century And things continued thus in a Parochial Government till toward the end of the 2d Century the Bishop being chiefly intrusted with the cure of Souls a share whereof was also committed to the Presbyters who were subject to him and particularly to be ordained by him nor could any ordination be without the Bishop who in ordaining was to carry along with him the concurrence of the Presbyters as in every other act of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction Pag. 308. 309. Corruptions broke in upon Church Officers especially after the 4th Centurie that the Empire became Christian Which as it brought much riches and splendor on Church employments so it let in great Swarmes of corrupt men on the Christian Assemblies And then the Election to Church offices which was formerly in the hands of the people was taken from them by reason of the tumults and disonders that were in these Elections which some time ended in blood and occasioned much Faction and Schism And Anâ—bitus became now such an universal sin among Churchmen that c. Pag. 310. I do not alledge a Bishop to be a distinct office from a Presbyter but a different degree in the same office c. Pag. 320. As for the sole power of ordination and Jurisdiction none among us claime it but willingly allow the Presbyters a concurence in both these Pag. 322. That whole frame of Metropolitans and Patriarks was taken from the division of the Roman Empire which made but one great National Church Pag. 331. I acknowledged Bishop and Presbyter to be one and the same office and so plead for no new office bearer in the Church The first branch of their power is their authority to publish the Gospell to manage the worship and dispence the Sacraments And this is all that is of Divine right in the Ministry in which Bishops and Presbyters are equal sharers but besides this the Church claimeth a power of Jurisdiction of making rules for discipline and applying and executing the same All which is indeed suitable to the common laws of societies and the general rules of Scripture but hath no positive warrant from any Scripture precept And all these Constitutions of Churches into Synods and the Canons of discipline taking their rise from the divisions of the world into the several provinces and beginning in the 2d and beginning of the 3d. Century do clearly shew they can be derived from no Divine original and so were a to their particular forme but of humane constitution Therefore as to the managment of this Jurisdiction it is in the Churches power to cast it into what mould she will But we ought to be much more determined by the Laws of the land In things necessary to be done by Divine precept since no power on earth can Council the authority of a Divine Law the Churches restraints are not to be considered Pag. 335. I acknowledge that without Scripture warrant no new offices may be instituted Pag. 337. I am not to annul these ordinations that pass by Presbyters where no Bishop can be had And this layes no claime to a new office but only to a higher degree of inspection in the same office whereby the exercise of some acts of jurisdiction are restrained to such a Method And this may be done either by the Churches free consent or by the Kings authority Pag. 348. In Augustines time it appears from the journal of a conference he had with the Donatists that there were about 500 Bishopricks in a small tract of ground Pag. 30. Observe the Bishops were to be ordained in the presence of the people where every one might propose his exceptions yet the popular Elections were not wholly taken away and at least the peoples consent was asked Pag. 41. Vossâ—is from all the manuscripts of Damasus his lives of the Popes shewes that S. Peter ordained both Linus and Gletus Bishops of Rome and after some enquiry into the matter he concludes that at first there were three Bishops in Rome at once Linus Cletus and Aneneletus in the next succession he placeth Cletus Anencltus and Clemens Pag. 48. Among the Jewes where ever there were an hundred and twenty of them together they did erect a Synagoguge Pag. 49. At a conference which Augustine and the Bishops of that Province had with the Donatists there were of Bishops 286 present and 120 absent and 60 Sees vacant And there were 279 of the Donatists Bishops Pag. 51. The Gothick Churches are said to be planted 70 years before Ulphilas their first Bishop came to them Pag. 50 He she weth the like of the Scots By the streine of Ignatius Epistles especially that to Smyrna it would appear that there was but one Church at least but one place where there was one Altar and Communion in each of these Parishes which was the Bishops whole charge Pag. 56. The enlarging of the Diocesses hath wholly altered the figure of Primitive Episcopacy That the Bishops were chosen by the people and by the Clergy and people and at last not obtruded without the peoples consent Father Paul Saript de Beneficiis oft tells you and I have fully proved by many Canons in my abstract of Church-history of Councils FINIS * Where Dr. Allestree was bred His next Neighbor a Cosins Tab. 3. b Cosins Tab. 4. c Cosins Tab. 5. d Cos Tab. 6. e Cos Tab. 2. f Cos Tab. 8. g Cos Tab. 2. Tab. 8. h Cos ibid. i Cos ibid. k Cos Tab. 2. l Act of Uniform That Parish Priests have no Governing power see Dr. Zouch as also that the King is the Ecclesiastical Supream m Cos Tab. 13. n Cos Tab. 11. Acts 14. 23. Tit. 1. 5. ☞ Vid. Epist 2. Edict Anacleti de forma provinciali Metrapol c. Turrian pro Epist decr c. 24. De novitate hujus formae leg Blondel cont Decr. p. 1. 27. who giveth full testimony of it cont Anaclet Ep. 2. 41. Leg. Vitaâ— Ambros per Baron August li. de opera Monecheâ—â—â—n Invit Ambros per Baron Vit. Ambros per Baron Socrat l. 3. c. 15. Theodoret Eccles Hist l. 1. cap. 10. Leg. Valentiniani Valentus Legem seu Literas in Theodoreti Eccl. Hist l. 4. c. 7. Hestor Andaeanorum c. 9. Messalianorum c. 10. cum interpretatione D. Hookeri li. 7. p. 66. de Audio Euseb l. 8. c. 1. Dr. Hanmer's Translat p. 144 145. Socrat. l. 2. c. 3. Id. ib.
the Apostles there must be but just 13 or 14 in the whole world if they succeed them fully in the accidentals of their office But if not than their residence in Cities will not prove that they must succeed them in that accident any more than in the number 2. Because as is shewed the Apostles tyed not themselves to Cities only and what they did in preferring Cities was occasional as is said before 3. Nor is there the least proof beyond an ostentation of vain words and confidence that ever the Apostles setled Churches according to the civil form and put the Bishops of lesser Cities under the Metropolitans No more than that among themselves that Apostle was Ruler of the rest who had the Metropolis for his Seat The Papists themselves not pretending that Peter was Ruler of the rest because Rome was his Seat but that Rome must have the ruling Universal Bishop because it was the Seat of Peter And if the Metropolis made not one Apostle Ruler of the rest why should it do so by their successors And I never heard any attempt to prove that Mathew Bartholomew Lebbeus James the Apostle Thomas Philip and every one of the Apostles had a distinct independent Metropolis for his Episcopal Seat 4. Indeed it s but vain words of them that pretend that the Apostles fixed themselves in any Seat at all but it is certain by their Office and by History that they oft removed from place to place in order to call as much of the world as they were capable and were somtimes in Metropoles and sometimes in other places and though the ancients make them the first Bishops of Churches they do not say that they were Bishops of any particular Churches only exclusively to all others But the same Apostle that Planted ten or twenty Churches was the first Bishop of them all pro tempore setling fixed Bishops to succeed them 5. And whoever dreamed that Mark who was no Apostle was the Ruler of other Apostles at least that came into his Province because Alexandria was the second Metropolis 4. This pretended forming of the Churches as aforesaid is contrary to the Ends of Church institution and Communion which are the publick worshipping of God and personal Communion of Parochians or Cohabitants in that worship Sacraments and holy living in mutual assistance Whereas in a great part of the world Country Villages are so far from any Cities that if they must travel to them for this publick Communion they must spend all the Lords day in travaile and yet miss their Ends and come too late Nor can Women Children and aged ones possibly do it at all But if they are to have no such personal Communion with the City Churches but have it ordinarily among themselves then whatever men may say that strive about the Name they are not of that particular City Church as such but are of another Church at home which must have a BishopÌ„ because it is a Church 5. Their Civil and City or Diocesan frame contradicteth the plain institution or Law of Christ and of his Spirit For 1. Math. 28. 19. 20. it is the very Commission of the Apostles and their successors with whom Christ will be to the end of the world to Teach or Disciple all Nations and then to Baptizc them and so gather them into the Church Universal and then Teach them as Disciples all his Laws which includeth Congregating them in perticular Churches where they must be so taught Now as it is all Nations even the whole Countryes and not the Cities only that must be Discipled or convicted and Baptized so it is the whole Nations Villages and all of Baptized persons that must thus be Congregated into particular Churches and taught 2. To which add Act. 14. 23. the positive exemplary and so obliging ordinary practice of the Apostles They ordained them Elders in every Church so that 1. It is Gods will that Villages have Churches 2. And it is Gods will that every Church have a Bishop at least therefore it is Gods will that every Village have a Bishop which have a Church or that some Villages have Bishops And though every City be mentioned Tit. 1. 5. that only sheweth that de facto then and there Village Churches were rare or none but not de jure they must not be gathered nor doth he say ordain Elders in Cities only much less give them Rule according to the City power And as Ceuchrea had a Church which was no City so Act. 14. 23. will prove that they should have a Bishop For every Church is to have a Bishop And Ceuchrea was not a family-Church and so the name not used equivocally And Bishop Downams assertion that it was a Church with a mean Presbyter under the Bishop of Corinth is a naked unproved saying that deserveth no credit and is contradicted by Doctor Hammond who saith there was there no meer Presbyter in being 6. Had this form been setled as they Pretend in Cities only and Diocesses there would have been uncertainty and contentions what places should have Bishops and Churches and what places should have none For it is uncertain and litigious what place is to be taken for a City and what not For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes signifieth any great Town and some times strictly Towns incorprate and sometimes more strictly eminent Corporations now called Cities with us here in England And how great would the difficulty have been to determine when a Town was big enough to pass for a City or when it had privileges enow for that title If it be said that the account and name then and thus used was the directory they will then make Gods Church to depend for being upon a Name with heathen people If they will call Ceucbrea a City it shall have a Church otherwise it shall have none But there was no such controversie in those times 7. According to their model Churches shall be mutable and dissolvible at the will of the Magistrate yea of every Heathen Magistrate For if he will but change the priviledges and title of a Town and make it no City it must have no Church or Bishop And if he will remove the privileges and title the Church and Bishop must remove And if he will endow a big Village or Town with City privileges and name a Church and Bishop must be then made anew But who can believe that Christ thus modled his Churches in his institution 8. Yea after their model an infidel or Christian King aâ—iud agenâ— that never thinketh on it or intendeth it shall change the Churches and destroy them If by war a City be turned into no City or if the King for other reasons un-city it or if change of Government put it into another Princes power that shall for his convenience un city it the Church in City and Country is at an end though there remain people enow to constitute a Church 9. Yea a fire or an Earthquake by this Rule
Communion be Professed seeming Christians and Saints or not And whether they revolt by Heresie or wicked lives from their profession And whether they be impenitent in these revoltings And therefore having opportunity by presence or nearness to know them and the witnesses must judge of the credibility or reports or accusations And must admonish the offenders and seek by all possible conviction and exhortation with patience to draw them to Repentance And if no perswasion will prevail to refuse to admit them to the Communion of the Church and to deliver them the Sacrament of Communion and to tell them openly of their sin and danger and pronounce them lyable to Gods wrath till they do repent and to charge the Church to avoid Communion with them 10. It is the particular Pastors of those Churches to whose office all this belongeth 11. If that Church have more Pastors than one they must do all this work in concord and not divide nor thwart each other So that as many Physicians undertake one Patient as each one singly of the same office and yet must do all by agreement unless some one see that the rest would kill the patient so it is in this case 12. All these particular Churches must in their vicinities and capacities live in Concord and hold such a correspondency and Communion of Churches for mutual strength and edification as tendeth to the common good of all The means of which are Messengers Letters and Synods as there is occasion All these twelve particulars I doubt not but so judicious and worthy a man as Dr. Stillingfleet will easily concede And indeed the summe of them is granted in his book And then whether you will call this a Form of Government or not how little care I for the meer name 13. I may add this much more that All these Congregations are under the extrinsick Government of the Magistrate as Physicians are And he only can rule them by the sword and force But then we will agree with Dr. Stillingfleet or any man that God hath left all these things following without a particular determination to be determined according to his General Laws 1. Whether this Parochial or Congregational Church shall always meet in one and the same place or in case of persecution or want of room or by reason of the Age Weakness and distance of some Members may have several houses or Chappels of ease where some parcels may sometimes meet who yet at least per vices may have personal present Communion with the rest 2. Whether a Church shall be great or small that is of what number it shall consist supposing that it be not so great or so small as to be inconsistent with the end 3. How many Pastors each Church shall have 4. Whether among many One shall be a Chief and upon supposition of his preeminence in Parts Grace Age and Experience shall voluntarily be so far submitted to by the rest as may give him a Negative voice 5. Whether such officers of many Churches shall consociate so as to joyn in Classes or Synods stated for number time and place And whether their meetings shall be constant or occasional pro re nata 6. Whether One in these meetings shall be a stated Moderator or only pro tempore and shall have a Negative voice or not in the circumstantials of their Synodical work 7. Whether certain Agreements called Canons shall be made voluntarily to bind up the several Members of the Synods to one and the same way in undetermined circumstances of their callings or as an agreement and secondary obligation to their certain duties 8. Whether these Associations or Synods shall by their Delegates constitute other provincial or larger associations for the same Ends Who those Delegates shall be Whether one in those larger Synods also shall have such a Negative as aforesaid All these and such like we grant to be undetermined And if they will call only such Humane modes and circumstances by the name of Forms of Government we quarrel not de nomine but de re do grant that such kind of Forms or Formalities are not particularly determined of in Gods word 9. And besides all these whether successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their work as A. Bishops or General Ministers having the care of many inferiour Bishops and Churches be not Lawful yea of Divine right or whether they be unlawful is a question which all Nonconformists are not agreed on among themselves so great is the difficulty of it But for my own part being unsatisfied in it I never presumed to meddle in any Ordinations lest it should belong to Apostolical A. Bishops only and I resolved to submit herein to the order of the Church wherever I should live III. But if you hold that Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop Reynolds and all those Conformists who say that no Church Form is jure divino necessario do extend this as expresly they do to the Diocesane Form Let it be observed 1. That we plead for no more than we have proved and they will confess I think to be jure divino 2. And that we plead against swearing and subscribing to nothing but what they themselves say is not of Gods institution 3. That the proper Prelatists affirm it to be of Divine Institution or else they will renounce it 4. That the preface of the book of Ordination to which we must subscribe or declare Assent and Consent doth make this Episcopacy to be a distinct Order from Presbyters as a thing certain by Gods word This therefore I wonder how they can subscribe to who say no Form is jure divino I am sure they perswade us not to subscribe it while they disprove it And I would have leave to debate the Case of the Church of England a little with these Humanists and to ask them If no Church Form be of Gods making 1. Why may not the King and Parliament put it down as aforesaid 2. But specially who made the Form of the Church of England which we must swear to If another Church then that other was not of the same Form otherwise that Form was made before which is a contradiction If it was of another Form I ask what it was and who made the Form of that other Church which made this Church Form and so to the Original If Bishops or Synods made it still they were parts of a Church or of no Church If of no Church what Bishops were those and by what power did they make new Church Forms that were of none themselves If an Emperor or King first made them either he was himself a member of a Church or of no Church If of a Church what form had that Church And why should not that first form stand And who made that form and so ad originem If he was of no Church how came he by power to make Church forms that was of none himself Nemo dat quod non habet It 's no honour to
Prelacy to be so made And were they Christians or no Christians that made the Diocesane Form If Christians were they orderly Christians or rebellious If orderly how happened it that they were of no Church themselves when the Apostles setled so much of Church Form and Order as I have before named If rebellious they were a dishonourable original of Diocesanes And if the Church Form be not of Divine institution then the Church it self is not For forma dat nomen esse And so the cause is given up to the Brownists by these Learned moderate men so far as that there is no Church in England of Divine institution Were it not that when in general they have said that no Church Form of Government is so Divine they again so far unsay it as to confess the Parith Churches or Congregations with their Pastors to be of Divine institution and of continued necessity All that is to be said by and for them is this That the Apostles were the makers of the English or Diocesane Form but not of that only but of the Presbyterian and Independent also and so made no one necessary but left all indifferent Or that they made one of these Forms as mutable allowing men to change it Answ But 1. I have proved what they made Let them prove that they made any other of a different sort not subordinate or supraordinate if they can 2. And let them prove the mutability of that which they made and their power to change it which they assert Till one of these is proved we are or should be in possession of that which was certainly first made I am bold to conclude this argument with the speech of a bold but a wise and holy man Joh. Chrysostome de Sacerdotio lib. 3. pag. mihi 48. cap. 15. And when some Bishops have obtained that prefecture of a Province not belonging to them and others of one FAR GREATER THAN THEIR OWN proper STRENGTH CAN BEAR THEY CERTAINLY BRING TO PASS THAT THE CHURCH OF GOD SEEMETH NOTHING TO DIFFER FROM AN EURIPUS or a confused turbulent changeling thing pag. 49. AND DO NOT THESE THINGS DESERVE GODS THUNDERBOLT A THOUSAND TIMES ARE THEY NOT WORTHY TO BE PUNISHED WITH THE FIRE OF HELL NOT THAT hell WHICH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THREATEN TO US BUT EVEN OF ONE THAT IS FAR MORE GRIEVOUS Forgive the words my Lords They are not mine but Chrysostome's or if you will not forgive the citing of them I will bear it as he did the like Only I will abate you in my prognostication or sentence that far sorer hell fire than the Scripture threameth supposing this will be sharp enough even for the most dispersing silencing persecuting Prelate and imputing those words to honest Chrysostome's vehement Oratory And I 'le tell you what went next before these words And they do not only take in the unworthy into the Priesthood but they cast out the worthy For as if they had agreed both ways to spoil the Church of God and the first cause were not enough to kindle the wrath of God they add the second or worse to the former For I judge it equally pestilent to drive out the Profitable and to take in the unprofitable which certainly they do that the flock of Christ may from no part either find consolation or be able to take breath O what would this man have said had he lived now in England CHAP. XI Argument 3. From the destruction of the order of Presbyters of Divine Institution and the Invention of a new order of Sub-half-Presbyters in their stead ARGUMENT III. THe office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost containeth an Obligation and Authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline the flocks committed to their care But the office of a Diocesane being one only Bishop over many score or hundred Congregations is destructive of that office of Presbyters which containeth an obligation and authority to Guide by Doctrine Worship and Discipline or the exercise of the Church keys the flocks committed to their care Therefore the office of such a Diocesane is destructive of the office of Presbyters instituted by the Holy Ghost The Major is thus proved by the Enumeration of the Acts which contain the general office and by the proof of the General power extending to those Acts viz. 1. They that had the Authority and Obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence had the authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But the Presbyters of the Holy Ghosts institution had the authority and obligation to exercise the Church keys in the Scripture sence Ergo they had authority and obligation to Guide their flocks by Doctrine Worship and Discipline 2. Again The office which contained an Authority and Obligation to Teach Exhort Rebuke publickly and privately to judge of persons baptizable and to baptize them to Pray Praise God and administer the Lords Supper to the Church and to judge of them that are to receive it to watch over them privately and publickly to Excommunicate the obstinately impenitent and absolve the penitent doth contain authority and obligation to Guide that flock by Doctrine Worship and Discipline But such is the Office of Presbyters as instituted by the Holy Ghost Ergo c. Here note 1. That I am not now medling with the Questions Whether such Presbyters hold this power in subordination to any superiour Bishops nor whether there lie any appeal from them to a higher power in the Church 2. Nor am I now questioning Whether in Scripture sence Bishops and Presbyters are all one in Name or thing 3. But that which I maintain is 1. That there is no proof in Scripture that God ever instituted any order of Presbyters which had not the forementioned power of the keys 2. And that God did institute such an Order of Presbyters as had that power de nomine de re And 3. That the Diocesane Office destroyeth such and setteth up others in their stead What God instituted I will prove 1. Out of the Scripture records 2. Out of the History of the Church which long retained them in some degree CHAP. XII That God instituted such Presbyters as had the foresaid power of the Keys in Doctrine Worship and Discipline and no other proved by the Sacred Scriptures THat God instituted such Presbyters and no other I shall prove by the enumeration and perusal of all the Texts of Scripture which mention them viz. as instituted in the New Testament and now in force Act. 14. 23. When they had Ordained them Elders in every Church Compared with Tit. 1. 5. That thou shouldest Ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee 7. For a Bishop must be blameless as the steward of God And his power is described v. 11 13. Ch. 2. 1 7 15. and 3. 10. intimate it Compare this with 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 5 6. 1 Tim. 5. 17. Let the Elders that rule well be