the number of Christians at his first Entrance was hardly enough to make a Congregation towards his latter end it was surely too great for one for the multitude of people in the City and the Country that belong'd to it Ubi supra it is said by Gregory Nysser to be infinite The Testimony of Tertullian Apolog. chap. 39. is as little to his purpose his words are these p. 93. Where a Body compacted by the Knowledge of the same Religion the Vnity of Discipline and the League of Hope do come together into one Congregation Conus ad deum Ed. Rigalty and not in caeum Congregationem to offer up Prayers to God we meet for the hearing of the holy Scriptures we feed our Faith with those holy words we raise up our hope we fix our Confidence 〈◊〉 confirm Discipline by the inculcating of 〈◊〉 â—ours Precepts there are likewise there Exhortations as being done in the presence of God that is lookt upon as an Anticipation of future Judgment if any one has so offended as to be banish'd from the Communion of Prayer and the Assembly and of all holy Commerce most approv'd Elders do preside Now let the Reader judge whether Mr. B. has Reason to be so confident of this Passage as to say pag. 94. If I be able to understand Tertullian it is here plain that each Church consisted of one Congregation and yet out of the words there can be nothing brought to favour it unless it be this that Christians used in those days to assemble for Prayer and reading of the Scriptures but whether one or more such Assemblies were under the Discipline of the Bishop and Presbytery is not signified in the least That Elders are said to preside does not at all prejudice the Right of the Bishop for either those are Bishops that are said to preside and so every particular Church will have many which if it be not against Mr B's Notion of Episcopacy is confessedly against the practice of the Church in those times when one Church had no more than one Bishop if they were Presbyters then 't is probable there was more than one Congregation But it appears by what follows that these Presidents were all the Officers of the Church where they are distinguish'd from the people and said to live out of the common Stock and the Deacons as well as Priests did assist at the Sacrament and the Bread and Wine was distributed by their hands aâ—â— shall endeavour to prove in due place 〈◊〉 cites out of the same Author De Corona Militis to put his meaning out of all doubt concludes nothing less than what he would have him to say his words are to this effect Presidentium c. 3. That we must receive the Eucharist at all times but from no other hand but those that preside That those were not Bishops appears from the next passage which he cites out of the same place This Mr. B. mistakes Ch. Hist p. 7. when he says that they took not the Lord's Supper but only Antistitis manu I suppose his Memory deceiv'd him 〈◊〉 where Tertullian speaking of Baptism mentions the form of renouncing the World and the Devil Sub manu Antistitis where we may observe that he uses another Word as well as another Number yet since it is said that Christians ought not to receive the Sacrament but from the hands of those Presidents we must not conceive the Bishop to be excluded but by that general Name to be comprehended together with his Bench of Presbyters but will not this Circumstance of Baptism serve to evince that a Bishop had then but one Congregation and every one to be baptized was to make his Renunciation under the Bishops Hand nothing less for many more might be baptized by a Bishop in the compass of few years than there are in the greatest Diocese in the World Paulinus could not well wish a greater number in his Diocess than he baptized in seven and thirty days Bed l. 2. chap. 14. Pamelius did labour to prove that Antistes is the same with Seniores Presidentes and that Presbyters might baptize as well as Bishops but that is not the thing in Question nor does this Passage suppose every baptism performed by the Bishop but the Renunciation of the Devil c. which was preparatory to it to have been made in his presence he might have a very large Diocess and be at Leisure for this especially when we consider that the generality of Christians in those times had such an awe of that Sacrament and the strict Obligation it lay upon them of more than ordinary Sanctity that they deferr'd it till the last and were baptized on their Death-bed and that not by the Bishop but by any other Presbyter or Deacon nor can we find in all the History of the times we now speak of that Children had any part in the solemn and publick Baptism but they might be privately baptized in case of Necessity and eminent danger of Death without the assistance of the Bishop And long after these times we find in the largest Dioceses where a great many Congregations are affirmed to be under the same Bishop One Baptistry to a Church sufficient for several Congregations there were but three days in the year appointed for solemn Baptism and the Bishops were so far from being unequal to the Multitude that they complain of the general Neglect of the Sacrament and of their not being fully employed at those times so that supposing this Antistes to be the Bishop and every one that was solemnly baptized past under his hand it is far from making out Mr. B's Notion that there was but one Congregation under him The next thing he makes use of to confirm his Conception of Congregational Church is the Consent of the people Disp 95. in the Margin Ch. Hist p. 7. as well in the Election of their Bishops as in several other Ecclesiastical Acts but this â—e rather hints by the Bye than insists upon and I suppose did not value much since he takes no care to improve it whoever will take the pains to examine those passages will find that the people never polled at the Election of their Bishops which was principally the act of the Clergy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but approved it commonly by a general and confused Voice of the Multitude that was present and the Phrase Vniversa Plebs does not denote every particular Christian of the Church but onely a general Assembly and Congregation of as many as could come together or of the most considerable Persons of the Diocese or rather as it is usually express'd all the People that were present at the Action Cornelius elected plebis quae tunc adfuit Suffragio Cypr. l. 4. c. 2. I shall not forget to answer this Argument more particularly hereafter when we shall meet with it confirmed by any Canon of Councils or other passages in his History Basil Ep.
many it is Pity these great London Parishes should ever be divided they are so serviceable to Dissenters on all Occasions for if a Conventicle is to be kept up the Greatness of St. Martin's or St. Giles Parish will justifie it those Churches will not hold a tenth man that ought to repair to them and surely better set up a meeting against the Law than that the People go unedified And again when Rome or Alexandria are to be reduced to a single Congregation then it is but comparing them to these great Parishes and the work is done It is not likely that for two hundred years Rome it self had near so great a number of Christians as one of these Parishes Suppose they had not the Question is not whether the Church of Rome was more numerous than that of St. Martins but whether they could meet in one Congregation for suppose they were but half or a quarter so big if they could not meet in one place to hear the Word and receive the Sacraments but must resolve into several Assemblies for to do it it is no matter what proportion they held to our London Parishes But what Evidence is there out of History that the Church of Rome made but one Congregation for two hundred years after Christ is it that the People are said to consent to the Election of the Bishops or to concur in several Ecclesiastical Acts But how shall we be assured that every Believer was obliged to be present or that Matters were carried by Vote and not by general and confused Approbation Besides though all that had the right of Electing Church Officers might possibly meet in one place yet they were not the fifth part of the number that had right to Congregation and Personal Communion for Women and Children and Servants must be supposed to be excluded together with the Poor and the more inconsiderable Persons or if this practice of approving the Election of Church-Officers be any Argument for a Churches being no more than a single Congregation it will follow that Rome had but one Congregation for many hundred years after for the People were very long in possession of that right after the whole City was become Christian and surely then they were too numerous for one Congregation Anton. de Dom. l. 4. c. 11. makes a long deduction of the Election of the Bishops of Rome and proves that they were chosen by the People until Innocent the Second for 1100 years and that he was the first that alter'd the ancient way of Election Now if any one can believe that for eleven Centuries there was but one Congregation in Rome much good may it do him As for the Peoples Right to chuse which Mr. B. does so much insist upon and seems to give the People Encouragement to revolt from those Bishops which they never chose I shall give a more particular Account of it towards the latter end of this Treatise Mr. B. makes a Computation of the Church of Rome in the time of Cornelius and finds it to fall much short of one of our great Parishes for when Novatian divided that Church it had but forty six Priests seven Deacons and as many Sub-deacons forty two Acoluti Exorcists Readers and Porters fifty two Widows and Poor that were disabled and lived upon the Charity of the Church fifteen hundred upon which we compute thus Suppose the Poor the tenth part of the whole Church as St. Chrysostom calculated the number of the Church of Antioch the Product then would be fifteen thousand and not ten thousand five hundred as Mr. B. reckons or the Printer mistakes and even thus would they be too many for one Congregation We cannot imagine any five Churches of such as the Christians might be supposed then to have Ch. Hist p. 7. capable of holding them all Euseb l. ◠c. 43. but if we consider this Passage more narrowly we shall find Mr. B.'s Computation to be extreamly short for these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not only poor but sick and disabled for so the word is explain'd in the Epistle of the Roman Clergy to the Clergy of Carthage upon the subject of Cyprians retiring Ap. Cyr Sive Viduae sive Thlebomeni qui se exhibère non possunt sive qui in Carceribus sunt sive exclusi à sedibus suis utique habere debent qui eis ministrent So then these poor were such only as were not able to help themselves that were not able to come abroad and such as these surely are not the fortieth part of any people unless it be in the time of Plague or extraordinary Sickness In the next place let us consider the number of the Priests what use can there be of forty six in one Congregation For they were neither to preach nor administer the Sacraments in the Presence of the Bishop for the first Mr. B. urged it elsewhere to prove no more than one Congregation belong'd to one Bishop and I hope he will not be so disingenious as to cast it off as soon as he has serv'd his turn of it For the Administration of the Sacraments Justin Martyr is very clear in his Description that the Bishop consecrated and gave it the Deacons to be distributed among the Congregation ubi supra so that unless there were distinct Congregations at that time those 46 Presbyters could hardly find how to employ themselves But Mr. B. does endeavour to remove this Objection Ch. Hist p. 8. by shewing the Church-Officers were very much multiplyed in those days to the end that as many as had any useful Gifts might be employ'd in the Service of the Church For this Orat. 1. p. 45. he brings in Nazianzen as a credible Witness shortly after complaining of the Excess in this part that the Church Rulers were almost more than the Subjects but how shortly after would you have judg'd this to have been spoke No longer than about a hundred and fifty years and after one of the greatest Revolutions that happen'd in the Church in Cornelius's time the Christians as Mr. B. remarks were not of the greatest and richest and therefore it is not likely that the publick Charge should be multiplyed without Necessity and forty six Presbyters be appointed for one Congregation But in Nazianzen's time the Church was in a prosperous and flourishing Condition the Governours were now become Christians and great Priviledges and Wealth were added to the Clergy which made it then so desireable a thing But in Cornelius's time the greatest Dignity was Martyrdom and the Clergy was particularly aim'd at by the Heathen Persecutors their Portion was Labour and Danger they were to come and assist the Brethren in the Prison and at the Stake and the Office was so unpleasant that Novatian the Author of that Sect which Mr. B. speaks so favourably of desired to be eased of the Burden Euseb l. 6◠c. 43. and renounced his Priest-hood besides the same Epistle of Cornelius
had all Wheat and no Tares were great Calumniators of Bishops and the honest Clergy that took their part they gave great Jealousie to the Civil Government and spoke Disrespectfully of Princes I will not say that any of our Separatists do resemble them in any of this The succeeding Councils of Ancyra Neocaesarea and two of Alexandria escaped with pretty good Quarter the Acts of some not displeasing him and of others being lost The next is that of Laodicea p. 42. § 49. They were so few that without Contention they made divers good Canons of 32 Bishops not so few but they could have fallen out if they had been so disposed three Canons of this Council he cites in favour of his congregational Church The forty sixth requires That those that are to be baptized and not already baptized as Mr. B. translates should learn the Creed and repeat it to the Bishop or Presbyters on the Friday of the last Week i. e. of the Lent or any other next preceeding the day of solemn Baptism By this saith Mr. B. You may conjecture how large a Bishoprick then was They might be as large as ours for all this For though the Bishop may not hear them all himself upon the same day yet the Presbyters of his Diocess may and the Canon is satisfied with that And Canon 56 forbids the Presbyters to go into the Church before the Bishop but with him and Mr. B's Inference from hence is That every Church had a Bishop though some Chappels afar off had but Presbyters only But I cannot see what Service this Remark does him for 't is confessed that no Bishop had but one Cathedral and that is the Church meant here in the Canon for it is added Nec sedere in Tribunalibus which were put up only in the Episcopal Church but that there were other Parish Churches supplied by Presbyters and those far from the Cathedral is acknowledged by Mr. B. I will not contend with him about their Title whether they were Churches or Chappels it is sufficient to disprove his Notion that they were several Congregations Canon 57. It is order'd that Bishops should not be ordain'd in Villages and Hamlets The Canon does not distinguish between the small and great putting Villages indefinitely but instead of Bishops they were to have Visitors i. e. qui circum eant that should go about and visit them § 49. which Expression imports that there was no small number of them under the same Association and yet all these were under the Bishop of the City upon which they depended and their Visitor was to do nothing without his Knowledge or Privity which Mr. B. translates Conscience Sine Conscientia Ep. nibil faciant But least he should have forgot the thirteenth Canon or taken no notice of it I would recommend it to his consideration it is but short Quod non sit permittendum turbis Electionem eorum facere qui sunt ad sacerdotium provehendi which shews that the Peoples Right of electing Bishops or Ministers is not so general as to have no Exception in Antiquity That great Roman Council of two hundred seventy five Bishops p. 43. p. 53. this is confess'd to be partly false if not all which Mr. B. mentions out of Crabb is of so little Credit as either not to be taken notice of by the following Compilers or else as is most probable is set down elsewhere for Crabb sets them down twice It is uncertain says Mr. B. whether it was before or after the Nicene Council for my part I believe it was neither before nor after but just the same time with the other great Roman Council that follows next to it of 284 Bishops which is said to be held after that ibid. Constantine was baptized by Sylvester A hundred and twenty nine Bishops came to this latter from the City of Rome and not far from it How big were Bishopricks then says Mr. B. But had there been no more Bishops in Italy than were in this Council they would not have exceeded the number of Christians in Alexandria when Strabo described it After this he finds fault with several things in this imaginary Synod first Because men are curs'd for being ignorant of the time of the Moon and then he congratulates the Makers and Improvers of the English Liturgy he should have said the Almanack-makers that they did not live in those severe times For alas one year they mistook the time of Easter and this is one of the things for which two thousand Ministers are silenc'd for not declaring Assent Consent and Approbation of yea and the use of it and so to keep Easter at a wrong time The silenc'd Ministers have little Reason to thank him or any body else that gives this reason of their Separation nor do I believe they would be thought such strict Observers of Times and Festivals and it is strange this should trouble their Consciences who care no more for Easter than they do for Christmas but only that it falls upon a Sunday and if the old observance of Easter in this Country upon the fourteenth day of the Moon had continued we must have expected to have had as many Arguments against the Feast of the Resurrection as we have had against that of the Nativity After this he quarrels with several other Canons of this Council and at last ends in these Exclamations O brave Pope and Clergy O patient Council that subscribed to one man and pretended to no Judgment O humble Constantine that subscribed to all this and said nothing and a Womans Subscription perfecteth all and O credulous Reader that believeth this Why then does he speak so modestly that the Fiction is but uncertain Why does he make Advantage of the number of these imaginary Bishops Why does he find Fault and aggravate and exclame if after all this is but a dream and his Reader a Fool to believe it Before I close this Chapter I must give an account of Mr. B's Favourite Sect the Novatians whom he speaks so favourably of as often as he has occasion to mention them The Original of their Schism he slubbers over p. 35. after this manner And Novatus and Novatian as 't is said being against their taking i. e. the laps'd into Communion at all the Councils excommunicated them all as Schismaticks One would imagine by this account that Novatus and Novatian had been thrust out of the Church and that their Schism was an Effect of their Excommunication but the contrary is notorious Ep. 39. for Cyprian charges Novatus with having first departed from the Vnity of the Church and drawn away several Brethren from the Communion of their Bishop and the Reason of all this was his Consciousness of those horrid Crimes he had committed which he foresaw would unavoidably bring the Censures of the Church upon him as soon as ever the Persecution was over This was the tender Conscience of the Author of the ancient Sect of
1. c. vii and what is that By a Diocese we Nonconformists mean only a large Circuit of Ground with its Inhabitants containing many particular Parishes and by a Diocesan Church we mean all the Christians within this Circuit who have but one Bishop over them though they be of mary Parishes And what Episcopacy does Mr. B. approve Bishop Vshers Episcopacy Reduc'd and what is this It is a Bishop over many Parishes a Bishop of a Rural Deanry that contains a great many Parish Churches It is manifest therefore that Mr. B. says and unsays and Condemns himself in that which he approves 2. Bishop Vsher's Reduction overthrows the Foundations of Mr. B.'s Church the Essence and Individuation of it for he defines a Church by a Congregation for personal Communion in Worship and Discipline and denies that one Church can be any farther extended in respect of its Government and Discipline than it may in respect of Worship which he expresses thus I think many of them i e. the Presbyterians do with Rutterford distinguish between a Worshipping Church and a Govern'd Church And sadling the Horse for Prelacy to mount on do affirm that many about Twelve of these Worshipping Churches like our Parishes may make but one Govern'd or Presbyterial Church But Bishop Vshers Project makes 40 or 50 Worshipping Churches but one Govern'd Church 3. Bishop Vshers Reduction deposes Parish Bishops and turns their Churches into Chapels because they are allow'd no exercise of the Keys but only admonition and suspension from the Sacrament 'till the Bishop and Synod is made acquainted with it Art 1. and this any incumbent in the Church of England is allow'd to do But Mr. B. rejects Diocesan Episcopacy for this fault of turning Churches into Chapels and Pastors into Preaching Curats and yet approves all that he Condemns by yielding to Bishop Vshers Reduction It is something strange he should be a Non Conformist to himself as well as to Diocesan Episcopacy and upon the very same reasons too Lastly This Project of Church Government in which there is one thing not so agreeable to the practice of Antiquity which is the Major part of the Presbyters concluding the Bishop who alwayes had a Negative voice and nothing ever becoming an Act without his consent and Approbation this I say may perhaps be of some use to make an accommodation between Presbyterian Government by Classes and Synods c. and Diocesan Episcopacy but it wholly overthrows Mr. B.'s Congregational way however qualifi'd by the Independent Principles of Consociation beyond which Mr. B.'s Notion of Church Government and constitution does not extend Therefore to leave this Episcopacy of Bishop Vshers as destructive of Independence why may not they of the Congregational way prevent such inconveniences as they have fallen into by some quallifying Principles in favour of Consociation and some abatement in their Punctiliousness of admitting into full Communion and Church-membership And thus far no doubt Mr. B. does comply to which I answer That the Fundamental Principle of this Congregational way does dispose it to all manner of confusion which I undertook to shew in the last place I shall say nothing to such Principles of our Independents as have no necessary Connexion with the nature of their Church Government as those of separation from every defect in ordinances and the like they are besides my purpose and the mischief and unreasonableness of them have been shew'd already with so much light and advantage by the Incomparable Dean of Pauls as to be able to convince any men who did mistake in good earnest as to that part therefore I will suppose them satisfi'd in point of Conscience though not perhaps in point of Honour and consider only the mischiefs of their Government abstracted from their other opinions The Independent or Congregational constitution is founded upon these two Principles 1. That Christ and his Apostles instituted Congregational Churches and endued them with all the Power that is given the Church as of censures Excommunication and the like without any dependence one on another or of several upon one General Pastor and that the single Congregations planted at first in several Cities when they came to encrease beyond the possibility of Personal Communion were to Imitate Bee-hives and to send out Colonies under their proper Officers without any dependence on the mother Hive 2. That what was thus instituted by Christ and his Apostles must so continue it not being in the power of man or the Church to alter it This is the foundation of Independent Government and if you abate any thing of these Principles the whole Fabrick must fall to pieces If you deny the first that Christ or his Apostles did not institute such Churches the Congregational way has no pretence or if you will say that the first that were planted were indeed of this kind but accidentally there being no more believers in any City than might meet in one Congregation it equally destroys it for when Christians were multipli'd into several Congregations they might put themselves under another form more commodious for preserving Unity among them If you deny the second that though the Apostolical Churches were of this Model yet that it was not necessary and unalterable it will remove all just reason of contention about it for the Church having made use of its liberty in the change of that Government which it is suppos'd to have power to do as it saw occasion nothing can be more unreasonable than to tear it in pieces upon this occasion unless it has done something that it had no authority to do and so alter'd the Government Establish'd by Christ with out his leave in short if the Apostles did not found Congregational Churches there is no reason why we should set them up if they did found them at first but did design they should continue no longer than till the numbers of Christians should exceed one Congregation the success of the Gospel has chang'd that form If they were founded at first and then the matter left to the discretion of the Church to frame it self according to its best convenience the Church has already determin'd it there can be no Controversie So that if any of these Principles be deni'd the Congregational Government must fall of course Independency therefore being founded upon a firm belief of those Fundamental Principles which cannot be left but the whole frame must sink I shall proceed to shew the unavoidable mischiefs that belief exposes these Congregational Churches to 1. Of the mischiefs that this way occasisions by rendring any Union between particular Churches Impossible 2. The mischiefs it produces in particular Churches or Congregations 1. Of the Impossiblity of preserving any Unity between Independent Churches These Churches like so many little Soveraignties crowded together within the same Territory and a great number of them within the Walls of the same City their Vicinity and Cohabitation gives them opportunities and begets a necessity of a
and the extraordinariness of their gifts can be no argument against their continuance for notwithstanding they did many miraculous things yet they never could contrive to be in two places a the same time and as to their governing of several Congregations they were under the same inconveniences with their successors They visited from place to place they called the Presbyters of some Churches to them to give them directions they proceeded by information and legal evidence and what was possible to them to do in these cases is not become impossible to those that succeed them 2. All other offices had extraordinary men in those dayes and the same argument will hold against Presbyters and Deacons as against Bishops for the first Deacons that were elected were men full of the Holy Ghost 3. The unfixedness of these is no argument against the reason of their continuance and all that will follow from that is no more than this that if it was essential to their office to be unfixed they ought to be so still and not to cease to be at all 4. All of them were not unfixed and if they had been so it does not follow that the nature of their office requires it it might be no more than accidental 5. That they governed several Churches and were Arch-Bishops As to the notion of Church or Churches it is not very material whether we say Bishop of one or of many Churches for many worshipping Churches may make but one Governing Church and worshipping Churches may have their officers too as our Parishes but still in subordination to the Bishop as the several Churches under these Evangelists and Apostles were subordinated to them in matter of Discipline and Ordination But because many depend upon the title which these secondary Apostles have in Scripture as Timothy is commanded to do the werk of an Evangelist it is necessary to observe that it was not all their work to Preach and Propagate the Gospel but to settle Churches to govern them to ordain Officers to censure offenders these are the things particularly given in Charge that of Evangelists was common to them with divers others But ordination is made their peculiar right For why did Paul leave Timothy and Titus one in Ephesus the other in Crete to ordain Elders Were there not Presbyters in Ephesus already Might not they ordain Might not they receive Accusations and Excommunicate Why then was there one single Person left to do all this and in Crete it is not to be conceived but that since St. Paul had converted several to the faith in that Island he also had ordained some Church Officers in those places of the Island where he most resided Or what need had he to leave a Bishop behind him to ordain when he might by the ordination of a few Presbyters in one City provided sufficiently for ordination in the rest or lastly since this ordination is made so insignificant by Mr. B. why might not these Believers have appointed their own Teachers without any further circumstance and by an instance of their power have freed Posterity from the superstition of thinking Apostolical Ordination and succession so requisite to Authorize Pastors But since the Apostles ordained all Ecclesiastical Officers by themselves or their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Assistants their suffragan Bishops and left some of them on purpose to do this work it is plain that they conceived some kind of necessity for it and did not look upon the power so common or insignificant as later projectors of Church settlements would make us believe Now as the Scripture discovers no other sort of Episcopacy than such as we have discribed so the ancient Bishops knew of no other Original of their Office for they conceived themselves to be derived from the Apostles not as ordinary Presbyters or Deacon but to succeed them in such a preheminence of dignity and power as their first Assistants were endued with And Eusebius whose diligence nothing could escape and whose judgment was not easily imposed on aâ—ter all his search could find no other Original of Episcopacy and derives the Bishops of the most eminent Cities of the Empire from the Apostles and their Assistants whom they appointed as the first Bishops of the Church Hist Eccl. l. 3. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How many sayes he and who they were that followed the example of the Apostles and were thought worthy to govern those Churches which they founded is not easy to say besides these which St. Paul mentions in his Epistles he indeed had a great number of Assistants and as he calls them fellow Souldiers whose names are preserved in his Epistle And Luke in the Acts of the Apostles makes mention of some of them Among these Timothy is said to have been first Bishop of Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus the Bishop of the Churches of Crete Crescens was sent to Gallatia as the present reading of St. Pauls Epistle is but as Eusebius read it to Gallia Linus whom he mentions in his second to Timothy was made Bishop of the Church of Rome next to Peter and Clemens who succeeded Linus is owned by Paul as his fellow labourer And Lastly Dionysius the Areopagite whom St. Paul mentions as the first Convert of Athens is reported to have been the first Bishop of that Church by another Dionysius a very Ancient writer and Bishop of Corinth This was the rise of Episcopacy according to Eusebius and the progress of it he takes care to shew by setting down the successours of these and other Bishops to his own time Ep. ad Smyrn ad Ephes ad Magn. Ignatius derives the Original of Episcopacy a little higher yet from Christ himself the Universal Bishop and compares the Bishop with his Bench of Presbyters to Christ sitting in the midst of his Apostles and is the most express and vehement of all the Ancients in setting out the dignity and preheminence of the Bishop Irenaus deduces the Episcopal Authority from the same Original and makes the Succession of Bishops from the Apostles to be his principal argument against the Hereticks and Schismaticks of his time and because it was endless to make a perfect enumeration of those who succeeded the Apostles in all the Churches of the World Valde longum esset in tali volumine enumerare Successiones l. 3. c. 3 he instances in that of Rome where Linus was first ordained Bishop Lino Episcopatum administrandae Ecelesiae tradiderunt Apofloli ibid. Polycarpus ab Apostolis in eâ qua est Smyrnis constitutus Episcopus qui usque adbue successerunt Polycarpe ibid. then Clemens and so on to his own time and in another place proposes it as the only remedy against Heresy to obey those that have a due succession from the Apostles who though they are there called Presbyteri yet it is plain who he means by them when he adds that they are the same which he shewed before to have succeeded the
Apostles which were those Bishops he had given a Catalogue of before And Lastly speaking of the Bishops to whom the Apostles committed the government of those Churches they had planted he makes them much ancienter than those Hereticks that disturbed the Church and draws an argument from their Apostolick institution and their constant succession in that office against those that brought in new Doctrines Tertullian makes use of the same Argument Quapropter eis qui in Ecclesia sant Presbyteris obandire oportet his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis sicut oftendimus qui cum Episcopatus successione Charisma veritatis certum acceperunt l. 7. c. 42. and requires of the Hereticks a succession from the Apostles and Origen speaking of Bishops makes them likewise to succeed the Apostles in their office Omnes enim ii valde posterieres quam Episcopi quibus Episcope Ecclesias tradiderunt In short it was the opinion of all the Ancients And Aerius is looked upon by Epiphanius if not as a Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 1. yet at least as an innovator for maintaining an equality between Bishops and Presbyters For if the Bishop were only the first Presbyter and the opinion of the Church was at that time that there was no Original difference between the Orders Haeres 75. Epiphanius could not have observed this as a singularity in Aerius therefore the common opinion then being contrary to this notion they must apprehend Episcopacy to be the Apostolical Order derived from the Apostles by a succession First to those Assistants we have been speaking of and from them to the Succeeding Bishops I shall conclude with the testimony of Theodoret whose judgment and knowledg of Ecclesiastical Antiquity was greater than ordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So also Clemens is said to be an Apostle by Clemens Alexand. Strom. l. 4. He makes Bishops at first to be called Apostles and Presbyters to be called Bishops and from such Apostles as Epaphroditus who was Bishop of Philippi Bishops are descended according to his opinion but that out of modesty the Succeeding Bishops changed the title of Apostles for that of Bishops and this for some time after was common to them with Presbyters though the offices then were manifestly distinct All this considered I cannot but wonder that the conjecture of St. Jerom concerning the Original of Episcopacy against all the sense of Antiquity and the traditions of particular Churches concerning the Succession of their Bishops gathered by Eusebius should obtain not only among the professed Adversaries of that Order but even among many that retain it therefore for a further Confirmation of what we have said concerning the Original of Bishops I shall indeavour to remove that prejudice which the Authority of Jerom has done it who has advanced a singular notion in this particular which I shall first set down as briefly as I can and afterwards examine the grounds of it St Jerom observing the name of Bishop and Presbyter used in Scripture promiscuously and without distinction concludes Idem est ergo Presbyter qui Episcopus antequam Diaboli instinctu studia in Religione fierent communi Presbyterorum Concilio Ecclesiae gubernahantur Postquam vero unisquisque eos quos Baptizaverat suos put a bat esse non Christi in toto Orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus caeteris superponeretur ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret Schismatum Semina tollerentur Hieron in Titum c. 1. that the Office was not not then distinct but that Bishop and Presbyter were but two names to signifie the same order but when divisions were occasioned in the Church by this parity between the Presbyters the Churches who were governed before by a Colledg of Presbyters for to remedy that evil consented that one should be chosen out of the rest who should be set over them and be called more peculiarly their Bishop to whom the care of the whole Church should appertain that all the seeds and occasions of Schism might be taken away But that St. Paul and the Ancients make Bishops and Presbyters to signifie the same thing This is in short the opinion of St. Jerom I will in the next place examine the ground of it Apud veteres idem Episcopi Presbyteri erant idem Ep. ad Ocean Cum Apostolus perspicue doctat cosdem esse Presbyteros quos Episcopos id Ep. ad Evagr. It is manifest by the allegations of Jerom in defence of his opinion that it was grounded chiefly upon those places of Scripture where Bishops are called Presbyters or Presbyters Bishops and then from the synonomy of the names concludes to an Identity of the Office and then he adds One may perhaps think this to be my sence and not that of the Scripture Phil. 1.1 let him read the Apostles words to the Philippians his salutation of that Church with the Bishops and Deacons which he confirms by Acts 20.27 28. Heb. 13.17 1 Pet. 5.1 And now suppose all this is granted that Presbyters are called Bishops and they again Presbyters yet I am afraid it will hardly follow that they are the same and some of those texts cited by St. Jerom are sufficient proofs to the contrary for that of Peter The Elders or Presbyters among you who am my self an Elder 1 Pet. 1.5 if the reasoning of St. Jerom hold will prove likewise that Apostles were no more than ordinary Presbyters and if Peter were but a Presbyter we shall be at a great loss to find any Bishops in Scripture that were superior to Presbyters and to the same purpose Jerom cites those texts of St. John The Elder to the elect Lady 2 John 1. 3 John 1. The Elder to his beloved Gaius which plainly overthrows his Argument for if an Apostle were of an office superior to a Presbyter properly so called and yet is called Presbyter in Scripture then Bishops might be of a superior degree to Presbyters though they might some time be so called or if it be replyed that these Presbyters again are called Bishops it does not alter the case at all for so some Messengers of Churches are called Apostles as Andronicus and Junia who were of note among the Apostles Rom. 16. Besides there were several of the Fathers that observed this Synonomy of Bishop and Presbyter as well as Jerom but could not observe the necessity of his inference that therefore there were then no Bishops but Presbyters Chrysost in Ep. ad Phil. c. 1. Chrysostom confesses the titles were confounded but he takes notice likewise that all other Ecclesiastical titles were so as well as these that Bishops were sometimes called Deacons and that Timothy being a Bishop was commanded to fulfil his ministry or his Deaconship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor did he wonder at this at all since in his own time the Bishops when they wrote to Presbyters or Deacons
titles are mentioned Besides the mentioning but these two sorts of Church Officers may be done only according to the distinction of the several imployments in the Church some being Ministerial others Governing though the latter may have a difference in the measure of their power in the administration of the same Government An evident instance of this we have in Clemens of Alexandria who notwithstanding he distribute the Clergy sometimes into Presbyters and Deacons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. strom l. 6. p. 283. Ed. Silburgii in 1 Tim. 1. as the Governing or Teaching and the Ministring Parts yet he does elsewhere acknowledg three Orders where he comes to speak more distinctly To the same effect are the words of the Greek Scholia collected out of the ancient Fathers that Bishops sometime in Scripture comprehend Presbyters too Because their offices are much alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sch. Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in 1 ad Tim. c. 3. Secundum Presbyterorum immo paene unum corum esse gradum Episcoperum they both administer the Sacraments they both teach and guide the Church and exercise discipline and the difference between them is not very great and what is that since they are both qualified for the same Acts Besides Ordination there iâ— hardly any thing but that they act in subordination to the Bishops in whom the principal Authority of Teaching and governing is placed and the Presbyters are the Assistants and supreâ—â— Council of the Bishop and both making as it were one Bench the directive governing part of the Church Salmasius would understand Chrysostom when he sayes the distance between Bishops and Presbyters was not great to speak of his own time only which is so impudent a construction that one would wonder how any man could be guilty of it since every one that has the curiosity to consult the place will discern the imposture and there is none of the Ancients that does more expresly distinguish between Bishops and Presbyters from the beginning than this eloquent Father and nothing can be more plain than that he speaks there of the constitution of Episcopacy and Presbytery without any regard to time for it is evident from him that he thought there was no difference in this particular between these orders of the Church in his time and that of the Apostles as any man may see that will but look into his comments upon Phil. 1.1 1 Tim. c. 1 Tom. 4. Ed. Savil. and c. 3. There are several other passages in that Epistle of Clemens that make mention of Presbyters appointed by the Apostles to guide the Church of the Presbyters of the Church of Corinth who were turned out by a faction but nothing that affords any argument against Episcopacy but such as the same answer may be extended to which I have given already to the allegations made from thence But to clear this business of the Church of Corinth as far as possible I will shew the state of it as it may be gathered from this Epistle and then take liberty to offer a conjecture concerning the form of its Government at that time and the occasion of the Schism The Church of Corinth in the first place is said here to be an Ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sound Church that for a long while had enjoyed all the benefits of peace and order and was had in great esteem and veneration of all those that knew it until at last having eat and drank and being enlarged and growing fat it lifted up the heel From this prosperity sprung all the evils of emulation and discord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaner sort setting themselves up against the better and silly men growing conceited and pragmatical set themselves against men of wisdom and experience But because in all the insolencies of the people against their Rulers there are commonly some persons of note that first animate the sedition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was no otherwise here a few ambitious discontented men and they too not very extraordinary Persons for knowledg or endowments instigated the common people against their Governours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having popular parts they knew how to insinuate themselves into the multitude and to manage the credulity and passions of the people to their own advantage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and prejudice of the publick Therefore Clemens aggravates this sedition by comparing it with that mentioned by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when they cryed some for him some for Cephas some for Apollos for they were two of them great Apostles and the other one highly esteemed by the Church But now sayes he consider by what manner of men you are perverted And now what could give occasion to all this disorder What would these troublesome men have this is not expresly set down but such hints are scattered as are sufficient to ground a probable conjecture 1. They are said to be great Zealots about things not material or requisite to salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hot disputants about such matters 2. They were such as magnified the power of the people and perswaded them that they had a right to turn out their Pastors therefore Clemens shews what course Moses took to establish the Priesthood and how the Apostles foreseeing there would be contentions about the name and office of a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appointed chosen men which the people cannot with any justice turn out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. These men were ambitious disobedient despisers of their superiors and yet such as would bear rule themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and lift themselves up above their brethren and their discontents arising from the ill success or opposition their ambitious pretensions met with were probably the occasion of this Schism and therefore Clemens advises them to be content with their statition and chuse rather to be inconsiderable in the Church than to be never so great out of it than to be the heads and Bishops of a Faction From which Circumstances one may conjecture 1. That the Church of Corinth at this time had no Bishop the See being vacant by the death of the last or otherwise 2. That this sedition was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a contention about this Bishoprick 3. That the Clergy and people were divided about it the people setting up some they had a favour for whom the Clergy did not approve and when they could not be prevail'd with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the people persisting in their kindness towards these persons broke out into extremities and turned out part of the Clergy that would not comply with their choice Which is yet further confirmed from the directions which Clemens gives upon this account that these men would go regularly to compass their design by just means that they would enter in at the right gate and
Bishops it seems were so few that we find but eight of them subscribe in that Council The Council of Valence had twenty one Bishops and this is very extraordinary for the Province of one Metropolitan in these times and therefore it is more probable that it was a general one of several Provinces or of all Gallia For there is an Epistle of this Synod directed to all the Bishops and Churches of Gallia by way of Preface to the Canons of it a thing never assumed by the particular Synods of a Province and this will appear yet more probable by comparing this with other Councils that followed The Council of Regium or Riez consisted but of thirteen Bishops personally present and one Presbyter who was Proxy for a Bishop The first Council of Orange had but sixteen personally present and one Proxy And that we may not imagine the Gallican Bishops to be so negligent as not to attend these Provincial Synods let us but consider the eighteenth and nineteenth Canons of the second Council of Arles which provide against this neglect There it s ordered That if any Bishop be hindred by sickness he shall not fail to send his Proxy But if any Bishop shall neglect to come or depart before the conclusion of the Assembly let him know that he is shut out of his brethrens communion and so to continue until the next Synod shall restore him Yet for all this injunction the Synod of Anger 's assembled the year following had but eight Bishops and the third Council of Arles within three years after had but thirteen Bishops The Synod of Tours ten whereof one subscribed by Proxy and another subscribed being absent the Canons being sent to him The Council of Vennes Venetum had but six Bishops and there were but two more in the whole Province as appears by the Epistle of that Synod to those two that were absent desiring their confirmation of such Canons as they had made And Lastly another Council at Arles about Predestination had but twelve subscriptions From whence it appears how large the Dioceses of Gallia were at that time The Ancient Notitia Galliae published by Sirmond and written as is conjectured in the time of Honorius and Arcadius reckons in all the seventeen Provinces of Gallia one hundred and fifteen Cities taking in all the Country between the Rhine and the Brittish Sea Carolus à Sancto Paulo will by no means allow this to be an Ecclesiastical Notitia Geogr. sacra Galliae p. 124. because there are several Cities mentioned in it that never were Episcopal seats and several Episcopal Sees are omitted indeed the Ancient Notitia of the Gallican Bishopricks published by that Author reckons about one hundred twenty and six in all that vast tract of Country nor are they so few at this day taking in Savoy Suitzerland Alsace and all the Countries bordering upon the Rhiâ—â— to Cologn and the Country of Cleaves besides all the Spanish Netherlands all reckoned within the Ancient Gallia which will afford very fair Dioceses But the Acts of the ancient Gallick Councils do make yet clearer proof of the largeness of the Dioceses there Proculus Bishop of Marseilles layes claim to several Churches as having been anciently Parishes of his Dioceses Con. Taurin c. 1. Easdem Ecclesias vel Parochias suas fuisse vel Episcopos à se in ilsdem Ecclesiis ordinatos and left that the ambiguity of the word Parochia may make the sense doubtful he layes claim in the same place to others as depending upon his Metropolis and where he had Ordained Bishops The Council of Regium Orders That if one be Ordained against his will Bishop of any City by fewer than three Bishops Liceat ei unam Parochiarum Ecclesiam cedere nec uâ—quam duarum Ecclesiarum gubernationem obtineat or without the consent of the Metropolitan that he may be made Rector of one Parish in the Diocess if the Bishop thinks fit but is to have the government of no more than one Parish and the City Bishop to Ordain all his Assistants The First Council of Orange appoints That if a Bishop shall build a Church in another Bishops Territory Gon. Arans 1. Can. 10. the Ordination of Minister to serve it shall belong to the Bishop in whose Territory it is but the right of Presentation and Patronage shall be in the Founder of that Church which supposes a Diocess of more Congregations than one The Council of Vaison Vasense enjoyns all the Ministers of Parishes within every Diocess to repair to their Proper Bishop for Chrism every year before Easter Per singula Territoria Presbyâ—eri vel Ministri ab Episcopis non prout libitum fuerit vicinioribus sed à suis propriis per annos singulos chrisma petant appropinquante solemnitate Paschali Con. vas c. 3. and not to go to other Bishops that may be nearer to them There would be no end of instances of this kind within the space of five hundred years after Christ but this is sufficient for our present design which is only to give a view of Diocesan Episcopacy of the Rise and Propress of it in several parts of the Christian World As to our own Country of Brittain for whose use Mr. B.'s Church History is more especially calculated and against whose Bishops all the Venom is directed it is certain indeed that we had Bishops betimes for we find some of their Subscriptions to the great Council of Arles A. D. 314. Sulp. Sever. l. 2. And there were some of them present about forty years after in the Council of Ariminum But how large their Bishops were then will be a very hard matter to demonstrate Hist Brittan l. 2. c. 1. ed Ascens Jeffrey of Monmouth reckons twenty eight Bishops and three Arch-Bishops in Lucius his time set up in the place of so many Flamins and Arch-Flamins who were the directours of the Heathen Religion here Vid. usser de Primord Eccl. Brit. p. 57. Gild. bis denis bisque quaternis Civt tibus munita Bede Hist l. 1. c. 1. Bede l 2. c. 2 and this it seems he had from Gildas de Victoria Aurelii Ambrosii But all this I suppose has no other foundation than a passage out of Gildas de exidio Britanniae where he mentions twenty eight Cities in Brittian and another out of Bede who follows Gildas The Flamins I suppose were added for ornament afterwards by some imposture under the name of Gildas But all the account that I know of the number of Bishops here is in Bede who sayes That in a Synod assembled in Worcestershire about the receiving Augustine the Monk there were seven Brittish Bishops present and probably all the Bishops in the Country were there this being the second Synod assembled upon that subject and that wherein the matter in controversy was to be finally decided the Bishops that were present in the first Conference pretending they had not sufficient Authority to make an
are transcribed out of Mr. Baxter with little of Improvement or Addition One would think a diligent Man might find good Gleaning after Mr. B. but Dr. O's Book it seems is answered already by an unknown Hand But there is a later Book published under the Title of No Evidence for Diocesan Churches c. in the Primitive Times in Answer to the Dean of St. Paul 's Allegations out of Antiquity for such Churches c. But no Reply being yet made that I know of to those Exceptions I shall endeavor to take off such of them as may concern me 1. I have endeavored to prove that the Church of Carthage in Cyprian's Time was Diocesan and among other things urge for it the Multitude of Presbyters that belong'd to that Church even in the time of Persecution when the greatest part of the Clergy was fallen off The Author above-mentioned excepts against this where it is alleadg'd by the Dean of S. Paul's and offers two things in Answer 1. A Passage out of Bishop Downham That indeed at the first Conversions of Cities the whole Number of the People converted being sometimes not much greater than the Number of Presbyters plac'd among them were able to make but a small Congregation But this Allegation can be of little Vse because 1. This was not the Case of the Church of Carthage it was not a new converted Church but settled long before and in a flourishing Condition 2. Many more Presbyters may be ordain'd in a City than is necessary for the first Beginnings of a Church with respect to future Encrease and for the Service of such as afterwards should believe So that tho' there might be in a new gather'd Church almost as many Presbyters as there are People yet the Design of that number of Officers may be for several Congregations when the Believers of that place should become so numerous as not to be contain'd in one 3. The Multitude of Presbyters belonging to one Congregational Church might be occasioned by the uncertain Abode of most of the Apostles and their Commissioners who are the Principal if not the only Ordainers of Presbyters mentioned in Scripture Therefore they might ordain more than were just necessary for the present Occasions of a Church because they could not be present to ordain as often as the Increase of a Church or Vacancies or other Necessities of it should require But that any Church fix'd and settled having its Bishop always present should multiply Presbyters beyond Necessity in the Circumstances of the Primitive Christians before Constantine is altogether incredible For the necessary Expences of the Church were very great the Poor numerous the generality of Christians not of the Richest and the Estates they had being at the Discretion of their Enemies and ruin'd with perpetual Persecution Is it credible that persons in this Condition would multiply Officers without Necessity who were to be maintain'd out of the Public Stock as Cyprian affirms the Presbyters of Carthage were And lastly if this Opinion of Bishop Downham had any certain Ground in Antiquity We should probably hear of it with both Ears and we should have it recommended upon Ancienter Authority than His But the first which this Author cites is Nazianzen who complains of the Multitude of Presbyters in his Time This has been already alleadg'd by Mr. Baxter and has received Answer and he that cannot answer it to himself from the great difference between the Condition of the Church in Cyprian and in Nazianzen's Time has a fondness for the Argument beyond my Skill to remove The next Instance of the number of Presbyters belonging to the great Church of C. P. St. Sophia the greatest perhaps in the World will do as little Service as the complaint of Nazianzen Justinian says that Gentleman Observing that Officers in Churches were multiply'd beyond reason and measure takes order that they should be reduc'd to the numbers of the first Establishment but in the great Church at C. P. he would have the Presbyters brought down to Sixty And what follows from this That the Number of Presbyters was become extravagant in Justinian's Time but what is this to their Number in Cyprian's For this very Edict of Justinian shews that this multiplying of Church-Officers was an Innovation and therefore would have them reduc'd to the first Establishment but that first Establishment it seems admitted great Numbers for one Church had Sixty True but it must also be noted first that these sixty were to serve more than one Church For there were three more besides St. Sophia to be supply'd by those Presbyters as may be seen in the Constitution Nov. 3. c. 1. viz. St. Mary's Church and that of Theodorus the Martyr and that of Helena as some but of Irene as others read Yet after all there is no Argument to be drawn from this Number for these were Canons of a particular Foundation design'd for the Service of a Collegiate Church and no measure to be taken from hence concerning the Numbers of Presbyters belonging to the Diocess This is evident from the Preface of the said Novel whither I refer the Reader But I must confess that what this Gentleman adds concerning the Church of Constantinople is something surprizing No doubt says he they the Presbyters were more numerous in C. P. in Constantine's Time who endeavor'd to make that City in all things equal to Rome and built two Churches in it Soz. l. 2. c. 2. yet in the latter end of his Reign after the Death of Arrius the Christians there could all meet together for Worship It is said expresly that Alexander Bishop of that Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Constantine built two Churches in C. P. Sozomen does not say but that he built many and very great Churches there Soz. l. 2. c. 3. Ed. Vales. Euseb de vit Const l. 3. c. 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the same manner Eusebius says that he adorn'd the City that he called after his own Name with many Churches and great Temples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some within the City and in the Suburbs of it Nor can we imagine that two Churches much less one could suffice all the Christians in C.P. when the City of Heliopolis being converted to Christianity requir'd more and Constantine built several for them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soc. l. 1. c. 18. i. e. Having built several Churches he ordered a Bishop but one for all those Churches and Clergy to be ordain'd there Socrates indeed says that Constantine built two Churches in C. P. and names them but does not say either that there were no more there in his Time or that he built no more but these being remarkable for the Magnificence of the Structure are perhaps upon that account only mention'd by this Author But we have shew'd already from other Writers of as good or better Credit That this Emperor built there very many and very Great Churches Nor were these only for State and
nothing to be seen in his Book but the Avarice Ambition Ignorance Mistakes and furious Contentions of the Bishops and the Governours of the Church And they being so bad the People that were guided by their Order and Example could not be much better they were but the Instruments of the Episcopal Ambition to fight their Quarrels to kill all that opposed and to burn and destroy all that came before them turbulent seditious Incendiaries and Murderers and what can be the effect of such an History but that men should believe there never was any sort of People so desperately wicked and so great disturbers of the World the Enemy of our Religion will have reason to rejoyce that his work is in great measure done to his hands for this will serve him as a common place book for railing against Christianity and the Christian Reader will be in danger either of loosing all his Patience or a great deal of that Reverence he had for his Religion and those primitive Worthies that profest and defended it But this perhaps will be thought not to concern the Church but the Bishops only who are charged with these Misdemeanours and dishonour'd by this Representation He must have a strange notion of the Church that can think it unconcerned in the dishonour of those by whom it is governed for if one should write a Book and call it the History of the English Nation which should only represent the Vices of our Kings the Contentions and Disagreements of our Parliaments the Weakness and Corruption of our Ministers of State and Justice and represent all persons that were eminent enough to hold any place in Story under mean and infamous Characters he must needs have a very metaphysical Moderation that could think the honour of the Nation unconcerned and that it was no Reflection upon the English name God forbid I should charge the Design of the Author with any disservice to Religion but well-meaning men do sometimes pursue their Resentments too far and so they can be revenged of their Enemies pursue them into the Church and set upon them in the Sanctuary not considering how much it is violated and profaned by the Action But Mr. B. is not insensible of the evil use that may be made of this book and therefore endeavours to prevent it by wholsome Caution and frequently in his History starting like a man affrighted to see that which he though to have been a Rod turn'd into a Serpent streight applies what Remedies he can against the Poyson he does in the first place warm the Reader that he do not abuse this into Diabolisme But alas it is a poor Relief to forbid an Enemy to make use of those Weapons you have put into his hands to leave the Honour of our Religion at his Mercy and then to desire him to be generous not to make use of his Advantage However if the Scorner should prove perverse and take no Warning Mr. B. proceeds to confute his reasoning and his Inference by saying that this scandalous account of the Bishops and their Councils concludes nothing to the discredit of Church or Religion for there were many good men that were not Bishops but Presbyters Monks or Lay-men nay p. 16. 17. c. many Hereticks obscure good men whose Vertues do not shine in Story nay there were some good men among the Bishops themselves with more to the effect God forbid I should endeavour to invalidate the least shadow of reasoning that is urg'd in defence of the Church of Christ I joyn heartily with him in this part and I must profess it is the greatest end of this Treatise to prevent the Contempt of Religion which this Church History might occasion Nor can I think the Author will be offended that I take his part and Religions against his own Book and that I look upon it as a dangerous piece p. 16. 19. § 49.22 c. when he himself has given such frequent and solemn Warnings against it But I must take leave to pursue this point upon another Supposition than he does for he takes all his History to be a true and just representation of things and upon that supposal makes his Vindication of the Church which I hope is a mistake in him and will endeavour to shew is very far from being true nay on the contrary it is the most injurious Character and the most unsuitable to the persons it is fastned upon that can be imagined this I take the great Confidence to do because I am persuaded Mr. B. would be very glad this dishonourable Character even of Bishops should be found a Mistake rather than it should be true to the Disparagement of the Christian Name It is true that in the Western Church the generality of the Clergy as well as Laity were so grievously corrupted as well in Doctrine as Discipline in some of the Ages that were more removed from our Saviour that we must make use of God's Vindication of the Church of Israel to Elijah to excuse it from a total Defection but for the first four or five hundred years thanks be to God there is no need of that refuge for the generality of the Christians of those times and the Bishops more eminently were men of that Holiness and Integrity as reconciled the most obstinate Prejudices against their Religion men of so exact and punctual a Justice of so frank and unstinted a Charity of so severe a Temperance of so grave and weigh'd Conversation that their Memory does still command an universal Veneration and their Examples remain a reproach to the degeneracy of after Ages What sort of men did the World know that were greater Undervaluers of it Upon whom did the Temptations of Wealth or Honour or Pleasure prevail less What Society of men was ever united by so powerful Bands of Friendship and Affection No Religion had ever so constant and faithful Adherers whom no Danger no Loss no Death could fright from the Acknowledgment of the Truth which is after Godliness in hope of eternal Life And all this owing next to the Grace of God and the Precepts of so holy a Religion to the Guidance and Example of the Bishops It was by their Ministry that Churches were multiplyed and the Kingdom of Christ enlarged by their Care that they were preserved in Peace and Unanimity These were the great Champions for Religion that maintainld the Purity of the Faith against Paul of Samosata Arrius Eunomius Photinus Macedonius Pelagius Nestorius Eutyches and innumerable other pestilent Hereticks and Overthrowers of the Foundation of our Religion But with all this they were men subject to the same Passions and Mistakes with us and if some among them were evil men and the best of them had his Failings it is not to be wondered at much less to be aggravated to the Disparagement of the Order They were generally men of severe Lives and that naturally sharpens the Temper and renders it more rigid and uncomplying they had
their Elders do directly excommunicate and yet are lay-men It would be much to the Advantage as well as the Reputation of our Dissenters if they would first agree and correct those Abuses among themselves which they so sharply exclaim against in our Church 2. When they oblige the Magistrate to execute their Decrees by the Sword be they just or unjust § 55. and to lay men in Goals and ruine them because they are excommunicated by Bishops Chancellors c. This is the Law of the State and not of the Church and therefore is not to be charged upon Diocesan Episcopacy besides now there are few that have reason to complain of this there are those Evasions found that render that Law insignificant but the Threatning Princes and Magistrates with Excommunications if not Depositions p. 23. if they do communicate with those whom the Bishops have excommunicated belongs not at all to our Diocesan Episcopacy let the Papists who hold this Dostrine or the rigid Scotch Presbyterians who seem to have outdone the Popes in their Claim of Authority over Sovereign Princes answer it if they can 3. Or when they arrogate the Power of the Sword to themselves as Socrates says Cyril did § 55. How far Socrates is to be credited in his account of that Bishop we shall consider in due place in the mean time this does not concern Diocesan Episcopacy as it is with us for our Bishops do not arrogate that Power if the King confer upon them any Authority extrinsecal to their Office Mr. B. has declared himself p. 23. § 59. that shall make no difference and that he will submit to them notwithstanding The next Paragraph I am loth to meddle with it is little else but Biitterness and Railing and this I have neither Skill nor Inclination to answer yet because it is set down as the highest Aggravation of Diocesan Tyranny I must say something to it lest I should be thought to be ashamed of the Cause and to desert it It becomes much worse § 56. continues Mr. B. by tyrannical Abuse when being unable and unwilling to exercise true Discipline and so many hundred Parishes they have multitude of Atheists Infidels gross Ignorants and wicked Livers in Church Communion yea compel all in their Parishes to communicate upon pain of Imprisonment and Ruine and turn their Censures cruelly against godly persons that dare not obey them in all their Formalities Ceremonies and Impositions for fear of sinning against God I am afraid there are too many wicked men in all Communions and the Communion or as they call it the Religion of the State will have the most for Reasons I need not mention but it is oftentimes a hard thing to know them and until they are discovered it can be no Reproach to the Discipline of the Church that they are in outward Communion but all sorts of People and these with the rest are forced into our Communion They are indeed obliged to come to Church and to receive the Sacrament three times in the year but all this is upon the Supposition of their being Christians if they declare to the contrary they are immediately exempted from all Church-Jurisdiction and for the Civil let them deal with it as well as they can It is the duty of every Christian to come to Church and receive the Sacrament and because all that have been baptised and have not renounced the Faith are presum'd to be Christians it is doubtless lawful to quicken them to that which is their Duty by Penalties upon the neglect of it As for the Atheists and Infidels declared if they are admitted to Communion it is an unexcusable fault of Discipline yet such as is to be charged on the Minister of the Parish that receives them rather than the Bishop and for the being of any such men amongst us that is not so much to be imputed to the defect of present Discipline as to the licentiousness of the late unhappy times and the Offence that was given to light and unsteady minds by such pretended Saints as made Religion their Warrant for all their barbarous Villanies they committed But wicked Livers he adds are forced into Church-Communion by the Bishops § 56. This is a great Mistake for the Bishop forces no such into the Church but obliges the Minister and Church-wardens of every Parish to present such if any there be that they might be separated from Communion till they shall have given some Satisfaction to the Church by their Repentance and good Hopes of their future Amendment and lastly that gross Ignorants are admitted to the Communion can be charged upon no other than the Minister of that place whose Duty it is to instruct them in the Principles of their Religion and the Bishops are so far from obstructing the Exercise of this Duty that there is hardly any thing which they press with greater Earnesiness As to those godly persons who dare not obey the Orders of Bishops in point of Church-Communion and cannot bring their Conscience to comply with Ceremonies and Formalities Whether it be their Fault or Misfortune I pity them heartily but I believe this ought not to be charg'd upon the Constitution of our Episcopacy for if the King and the great Senate of the Nation after Experience of former Troubles should think fit to impose this as a Test upon such as they thought the Government not secure of what is all this to Diocesan Episcopacy The next Paragraph concludes the Arraignment of Diocesan Bishops § 57. not with any Argument but a great many hard Words which suppose the Proofs that have gone before to have amounted to full Evidence I am not willing to repeat them here let them stand or fall with those Arguments they depend upon Now least you should take Mr. B. for an Enemy to Bishops for one sort he rejects he receives two the first such as St. Jerom says Was brought into the Church for a Remedy against Schism the Bishop of this Constitution was it preside over Presbyters and without him nothing of Moment was to be done in the Church § 58. These Presbyters that were under the Bishop had they several Parishes or Congregations or the same with their President If several then this is the Diocesan Prelacy that is a Crime in it's Constitution if the same then what did they do there For by old Canons it appears and Mr. B. makes use of them to serve his own Turn that a Presbyter was not to preach in the Presence of the Bishop what then Shall they only read the Offices of the Church This is to fall into worse than Diocesan Episcopacy and to make Presbyters not Preaching but what sounds much meaner reading Curates only to the Bishops There is another sort of Bishops that he dares not deny to be of divine Institution § 60. And they are such as succeed the Apostles in the ordinary part of Church-Government while some senior Pastors have
all the Churches they lookt upon that as their peculiar Charge and govern'd not as ordinary Presbyters but by Apostolick Authority as a Metropolitan who although he has the supervising of all the Diocesses within his Province yet may have his proper Diocess which he governs as a particular Bishop And the Office of an Apostle does not essentially consist in the governing of more Churches than one else St. Paul would never have vindicated his Apostleship from the particular Right he had over the Corinthians 1 Cor. 9.2 If I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the Seal of my Apostleship are ye in the Lord. So that though he had had no more Churches to govern yet his Apostolick Authority might have been still exercised over that particular one of Corinth The Provinces of the Evangelists were not yet so large as those of the Apostles for these were either sent to such Cities or Parts whither the Apostles themselves could not go or left where they could not stay The Church of Ephesus was the Diocese of Timothy from whence although the greater Occasions of other Churches might call him away and require his Assistance yet his Authority was not Temporal nor would it have expired if he had resided a longer while at Ephesus so that these Apostolick men were not so because they were unfixt but because they had that Eminence of Authority which they might exercise in one or more Churches according as their Necessities did require or as the Spirit signified and that they did not settle in one place is to be ascribed to the Condition of their Times and not to the nature of their Office for the Harvest was now great and such Labourers as these were but few and therefore their Presence was required in several Places And as this Unsetledness is not essential to Apostolick Authority no more is it essential to Episcopacy to be determined to a certain Church Every Bishop is Bishop of the Catholick Church and that his Authority is confined to a certain district is only the positive Law of the Church that forbids one Bishop any Exercise of his Office within the Diocess of another and St. Paul seems to have given them the occasion who would not build upon another mans Foundation However in any case of Necessity this Positure Law is superseeded and a Bishop may act in any place by virtue of a general Power he has received in his Ordination so that this first Exception of the Apostles and the Evangelists being unfixt and Bishops determined to a particular Church can make no essential Difference As to the Visitors of the Church of Scotland they make evidently against Mr. B's Notion of an essential Difference between Bishops and Evangelists for first of all the Residence was fixt to certain Cities and their Jurisdiction confin'd within certain Provinces as the Superintendent of the Country of Orkney was to keep his Residence in the Town of Keirkwall Spotswood Hist Scot. l. 3. p. 158. he of Rosse in the Channory of Rosse and so the rest in the Towns appointed for their Residence Their Office was to try the Life Diligence and Behaviour of the Ministers the Order of their Churches and the Manners of the People how the Poor were provided and how the Youth were instructed they must admonish where Admonition needed and dress all things that by good Counsel they were able to compose finally they must take note of all hainous Crimes that the same may be corrected by the Censures of the Church So far of their Constitution as we find it in Mr. Knox's first Project of Church-polity Spotswood p. 258. and their practice was altogether the same with that of Diocesan Episcopacy as Bishop Spotswood describes it The Superintendents held their Office during Life and their Power was Episcopal for they did elect and ordain Ministers they presided in Synods and directed all Church Censures neither was any Excommunication pronounced without their Warrant And now let the Reader judge how the Constitution of Diocesan Episcopacy becomes a Crime and yet these Visitors of the Church of Scotland conformable to divine Institution As to the second Exception that the Apostles and Evangelists were Episcopi Episcoporum and had Bishops under their Jurisdiction which our Diocesans who are the Bishops but of particular Churches do not pretend to This makes no Difference at leastwise no essential one for the same person may have the Charge of a particular Church or Diocess and yet have the supervising Power over several others But in this point Mr. B. does but equivocate and impose upon his Reader for by his Episcopus gregis he means only a Presbyter and a particular Bishop may have Jurisdiction over such without any Injury or Prejudice done to the Office which from it's first Institution has been under the Direction of a superiour Apostolical Power if therefore these Presbyters do retain all that Power which essentially belongs to them under a Diocesan Bishop how are they degraded In short either this Order of Congregational Episcopacy is different from Presbytery or the same with it if the same how is it abrogated by Diocesan Episcopacy since Presbyters are still in the full Possession and Exercise of their Office If they are distinct how then comes Mr. B. to confound them as he does § 16. where he says That the Apostles themselves set more than one of these Elders or Bishops in every Church So then those Apostolick men as Bishops of the particular Churches wherin as they resided had Authority over Presbyters within the Extent of their Diocess and a general Supervising Care of several other Churches and so they were Episcopi Episcoporum in the first they are succeeded by Diocesan Bishops in the latter by Metropolitans which yet were never lookt upon as two orders essentially distinct But after all this we shall never come to a right Understanding of Mr. B's Episcopacy unless we take along with it his Notion of a particular Church which he sets down p. 6. § 19. There is great Evidence of History p. 6. that a particular Church of the Apostles setling was essentially only a Company of Christians Pastors and People associated for personal holy Communion and mutual help in holy Doctrine Worship Conversation and Order therefore it never consisted of so few or so many or so distant as to be uncapable of such personal Help and Communion but was ever distinguished as from accidental Meetings so from the Communion of many Churches or distant Christians which was held but by Delegates Synods of Pastors or Letters and not by personal Help in Presence Not that all these must needs always meet in the same place but that usually they did so or at due times at least and were no more nor more distant than could so meet sometimes Persecution hindred them sometimes the Room might be too small even independent Churches among us sometimes meet in diverse Places
govern'd by a Bishop Presbyters and Deacons was but one Congregation for every such Church had but one Altar This Observation of one Altar in one Episcopal Church he confirms by Mr. Mede who propounds it with great Modesty and onely as a Conjecture and M. B. has added nothing to his Reason more than his own Confidence If he had but taken leisure to consider and not have run away with that onely which seems to make for his purpose he might have found enough in those very Passages cited by Mr. Mede to have undeceived him The Matter in short is thus The Principal Church or Meeting-place in every City belong'd to the Bishop where his Chair was set up with a Bench of Presbyters on every side circling the Communion Table this whole place was called Altare Sacrarium and within the Jurisdiction of a single Bishop it is probable there was no more than one the Bishop with his Presbyters and Deacons represented the Unity of the Church although it might be divided into several Congregations and every Congregation might have a Communion Table so that one Bishop one Altar signifies indeed the Unity of the Church as being the place of its common Councel and solemn Tribunal and to set up an Altar is not to have two Communion Tables in a City but to have distinct Governments Mr. B's Dispute of Church Government p. 90. The Ancients ordinarily call the Lords Table and the place where it stood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say the Table and the Sacrarium or place of it's standing And so says Bishop usher in his Notes upon the passage before cited Altare apud patres mensam Dominio eam passim denot at apud Ignatium Polycarpum Sacrarium quoque and opposite Bishops and Presbyters this is confirmed by a Passage of Ignatius in his Epistle to the Magnesians cited by Mr. B. Omnes adunati ad templum Dei concurrite sicut ad unum Altare If this reading which he uses were right it would distinguish between Christian Temples and imply that some of them had not Altars which is not likely to be true if Altar and Communion-table were the same But to speak ingeniously neither Temple nor Altar here does signifie what Mr. B. would have it for the Florentine Copy has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which refers only to the Jewish Temple and Altar wherein consisted the Unity of the Jewish Church notwithstanding they were divided into many Synagogues and Congregations But that one Altar for every Church so frequently mention'd by Ignatius does not signifie every Communion-table but that eminent one together with the Bishops Chair and the bench of the Presbyters appears from diverse Passages in his Epistles In that to the Magnesians he alledges to this Ecclesiastical Consistory about the Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That well-platted Crown of our Presbyters alledging to the Figure in which they sate and then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Counsel of the Altar or Sacrifices And in his Epistle to the Ephesians he speaks to this Effect Unless a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the verge of the Altar he is no partaker of the bread of God and this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he explains in his Epistle ad Trallenses he that is within the Altar is clean wherefore he obeys the Bishops and the Presbyters he that is without is such a one that does any thing without the Bishop and the Presbyters so that Obedience to the Bishop or Presbyter is an Explication of that Phrase of being within the Altar and this might consist with the Division of the Church into several distinct Congregations But St. Cyprian in his fifty fifth Epist makes this yet clearer where speaking of the Insolence of such as having sacrificed to Idols thrust themselves into Church-Communion without doing any Pennance he breaks out at last into this passionate Aggravation what then remains but that the Church should yield to the Capital and that the Priests withdrawing themselves and taking away the Altar of our Lord Images and Idol-Gods together with their Altars should succeed and take Possession of the place proper to the sacred and venerable bench of our Clergy the bench of the Clergy then belongs to the Altar that is the Communion-table of the Principal and Episcopal Church to which all other Congregations did belong in as much as the Presbyters they joyn'd with appertain'd to that Altar and so there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and yet several Assemblies under his Direction and within the Communion of that Altar This Usage of one Altar and several Communion-tables depending upon it continu'd a long while after in the Church Innocent I. in his Letter to Decentius mentions the sending of the consecrated Symbols from the Episcopal Church Altar to the depending Parishes upon solemn times and long after that all the Parishes of a Diocese paid Homage to the Episcopal Church by sending some of their principal Members to communicate there upon Solemn Festivals as appears by several Canons that are cited and examined more particularly hereafter and here in England there have been Footsteps of the same Custom till of late in Comparison though from the first beginning of the Gospel we have not the least hint of Congregational Episcopacy in this place The next thing he alledges is a passage out of Justin Martyr Just Martyr Ap. 2. p. 97. Ed. Paris 98.99 where he describes the manner of the Christian Assemblies in his time where the Eucharist is said to be celebrated by the Bishop 1 Dispute p. 92. and that on Sunday all the Christians that liv'd either in Cities or in the Country came together prayed with and received the Sacraments at the hand of the Bishop and those that were absent had it sent to them by the Hand of the Deacons but what shall we conclude from hence That all that came together could come to one place or because the Congregation of the Bishop as being the most eminent is here only described must we conclude that there was no more than one in any City This account is only General and serves only to shew what they did when they came together and the Principal Assembly was surely the most proper instance and not in how many places they might be Assembled Disp p 33. The Story of Gregory Thaumaturgus makes the next Proof who being made against his will Bishop of Ne-Caesarea found but seventeen Christians in the whole City this was indeed a small Congregation and hardly numerous enough to make a Church but if Mr. B. had been so ingenious 〈…〉 as to have mentioned the Success of that Bishop's Ministry he might have spared any one else the Labour of answering this Instance for the same Bishop out of those contemptible Beginnings did so far enlarge the Church of that place that when he dyed he left but seventeen in the whole City that were not Christians if
194. ad Pleb Nicop As for Nynius's History of St. Patrick and the three hundred and sixty five Bishops which he planted in Ireland I suppose 't was invented by some learned Monk to fill up the Irish Calender and to leave no day in the year so forlorn but that the name of one of these Bishops could vindicate it from Prophaneness That which follows of Scotlands having no Bishops before Palladius Disp 1.97 Yet England had Bishops long before as may be seen in the Subscriptions of the Councils of Orleance and Nice but that the people there were instructed by Priests and Monks makes nothing at all to our present purpose though the Authority of Henricus Major and Johannes Fordorius were unquestionable for there is no account of setled Churches or Discipline but only that some good men out of their Zeal for Religion did endeavour to propagate it among the Scots and that these were not Bishops But Buchanan stretches this point higher than it will bear and will have it that the Churches of Scotland were governed by Presbyters and Monks the first time I believe in Story we meet with Monks amongst the Orders of Church-Government but I believe that the Story it self may be easily disproved and we may expect shortly a fuller account of this and other things relating to the ancient British Church by the hand of one of the greatest Masters of Antiquity in this Nation The last part of Mr. B's Evidence has some of the Canons of ancient Councils but I must needs say he does not cite with that accuracy that one would expect from a person that advances so singular a notion The first is the fourteenth of the Council of Adge Can 1. the Sum of it is this that if any man should desire a Chappel of Ease for the benefit of his Family he might be gratified in it but with this Proviso that upon the most solemn Feasts he should hear divine Service in Parochiis aut Civitatibus Mr. B. makes Parochia signifie a Diocese because the word is used frequently in that sense by Eusebius and other Ancients but does not consider that the Import of it is changed by this time and is taken for a Parish in the fifty third Canon of the Council of Adge whose Title is de Presbyteris parochianis rei Ecclesiae distrahentibus cap. 2. vass 3. There is express Difference made where a Presbyter is allow'd to preach Non solum in Civitatibus sed in omnibus Parochiis 47. The next is the thirtieth Canon of the same Council Benedictionem super plebem fundere aut poenitentem in Ecclesia benedicere presbytero poenitus non licebit to which he adds the thirty first 47. Missas die dominico saecularibus totas audire speciali ordine praecipimus ita ut ante benedictionem sacerdotis egredi populus non presumat quod si fecerit ab Episcopo publicè confundatur From whence he infers that all the people were oblig'd to come to the Bishops Church because they were to stay till the Benediction which it was lawful for the Bishop only to give but if Mr. B. had considered these two Canons he must have observed that either they contradict one another or the same thing is not meant by the Benediction of the Priest and the Bishop by the first which is reserv'd to the Bishop Confirmation must in all probability be understood By the second the Priests Benediction that which is pronounced at the dismissing the Congregation or if he will understand a Bishop by Sacerdos the Canon forbids it in making a Distinction between them ab Episcopo confundatur whereas if by Sacerdos they would have understood a Bishop it is not likely they would have either chang'd the Term or repeated it but have added ab eo confundatur But why should we insist upon this since nothing can be more notorious than that Presbyters had Churches now distinct from Bishops and every Diocess almost a great number of Parishes and there are few Councils of that Age but oblidge the Bishop to visit all these Churches once a year To these he adds the thirty eighth Canon of the same Council Disp p. 99. Cives qui superiorum solemnitatum id est Paschae Natalis Domini vel Pentecostes festivalibus cum Episcopis interesse neglexerint quum in Civitatibus communionis vel Benedictionis accipiendae causa positos se nosse debeant triennio communione priventur Ecclesiae It is not to be denyed but it was the ancient Custom for all the Parishes or places depending upon any Episcopal Church on certain times to repair to it not so much for personal Communion as for Homage but we are not therefore to conceive that every Soul under a Bishops Charge was to appear before him on those solemn times but only the most considerable persons of every Division and this Canon means no more Sirmond could never find any more than 47 Canons of this Council the rest were taken out of Conc. Epaonense from whence the true Reading of this Canon is to be sought for there is Cives superiorum natalium not solennitatum and so it is corrected in the best Edition of the Council of Agde and Communionis is left out which restoring of this Canon overthrows all the use that M. B. would make of it since all are neither obliged to be present nor to personal Communion but what Cives superiorum Natalium signifies we must learn from other Councils of this Age in the 14 chap. of the Councel of Arvern we have it thus explained that together with all the Presbyters and Deacons of a Diocese Quicunque sunt etiam Cives natu majores pari modo in Vrbibus ad Pontifices suos in praedictis Civitatibus veniant And the third Canon of the fourth Council of Orleans obliges onely the Principal Citizens to assist the Bishops on these Solemn Times Quisquis de prioribus Civibus Pascha extra Civitatem tencre voluerit sciat sibi à cuncta Synodo esse prohibitum which is no other than if the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen the Liveries and most considerable Citizens were obliged on certain High Festivals to come to Church to St. Pauls The next of the Canons he produces are either to the same effect with what he has already alledged or not directly to his purpose so that I believe upon a Review he will judge as well as I that there is no necessity of a Reply Mr. B. has heretofore excepted the Churches of Rome and Alexandria Ch. Hist p. 7. § 23. and has despair'd of bringing them ever to comply with his Model but now it seems he has found a means to reduce them to a Congregation he revokes his former Concessions and declares that he finds no reason to believe that ever the two chief Cities of the Empire had so long that is for two hundred years after Christ more than some London Parishes or near half so
before Arrius's time Epiphan Haeres Melet Arrian who was the fixt Minister of one of them call'd Buchalis are to be supposed to have been instituted before for Epiphanius though he observe this as singular in the Alexandrian Church at that time yet says nothing at all of its Novelty which he would not probably have omitted and Sozomen seems to imply Soz. l. 1. c. 15. that it was an ancient Custom Petavius mistakes Epiphanius's his words and imagines in Epiph. that these Divisions of Alexandria are therefore said by him to be singular and different from the Usage of other Churches because says he those which Epiphanius had seen were but small and might have but one Congregation but it is plain from Epiphanius his words that what he look'd upon as singular was not their having several distinct Assemblies but because they had certain and fix'd Presbyters and therefore he adds as an Effect of that Custom that every one would be denominated from his Pastor as the Corinthians did when one cry'd I am of Paul I am of Apollos and this indeed was so singular that perhaps no other Church in the World had it besides Vales Annot in Sâ—zom l. 11. c. 15. not that of Rome and Valesius infers from the same Passage of Pope Innocent's Epistle to Decentius which Petavius brings to prove the contrary that although there were several Titles or Churches in Rome then and had been long before yet none of them was as yet appropriated to any Presbyter but they were served in common as greater Cities in Holland and some other Reformed Countries that have several Churches and Ministers who preach in them all by their turns Lastly and to conclude this account of the Church of Alexandria it is evident out of Athanasius how the Bishop of that City had from the Beginning several fix'd Congregations under him Athan. T. 1. p. 802. particularly those of Mareotes who though they must be suppos'd to receive the Faith almost as early as Alexandria yet never had a Bishop before Ischyrias if he were to be reckon'd one Mareotes says Athanasius is a Countrey belonging to Alexandria wherein there never was a Bishop not so much as a Chorepiscopus but all the Churches of that place were subject to the Bishop of Alexandria And now let the Reader judge whether the Bishop of Alexandria had more Congregations than one under him or no more than could conveniently meet in one place I have hitherto examin'd Mr. B's Evidence of History for his Congregational Churches let us now see whether there be not as good Evidence to the contrary The growth of the Church of Jerusalem was so sudden and so great as to exceed the measure of one or two Congregations St. Peter's first Sermon brought over three thousand another five thousand Acts 2.41 then the Sacred Historian as if the Multitude had grown too great to be numbred mentions the other Accessions in gross and indefinitely but with such Expressions as imply they much exceed the numbers aforementioned Multitudes both of Men and Women were added to the Church and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great number of the Priests were obedient to the Faith Act. 6.7 Now let us seriously consider whether all these Converts could meet together in one place for personal Communion Doctrine and Worship or whether they could find a room spacious enough to meet in all together we find but two sorts of places they met in the Temple and from House to House the Temple cannot be supposed the ordinary place of their Assembly since the generality of the Priests and People did oppose them and though the Apostles preacht there it was no otherwise than they did in the Synagogues acd Market-places and other places of concourse to gain new Proselytes and not to instruct those they had converted when they preacht from House to House the fifth or tenth part of them can hardly be supposed to have convenience for personal Communion and it is certain they did break Bread no otherwise than from House to House from whence it is plain that it was not possible for them all to hold personal Communion in the principal part of Christian Worship i. c. the holy Eucharist which is made by Mr. B. as necessary to the Individuation of a Church as Communion in Doctrine The Presbyterians prest this Instance very unmercifully upon those of the congregational way who made use of all Shifts and most of them very poor ones To elude the force of the Argument sometimes they turn the Temple into a Church another while they send the greatest part of them home to the country and whatsoever other means they could find to diminish their number they laid hold of them and this way not succeeding in their own Opinion they found a Secret in the Ayr Grand Debate Answer of the Assembly to the Reasons of the dissenting Br. p. 27. ibid. which they fancied to be much more pure and shine in Jerusalem than our Northern Climates and so more proper to convey a Voice to a greater Distance whereas our dull unyielding Fog arrests the Voice in every point as it passes However the Assembly of Divines resolved they would not be paid with this piece of Philosophy and undertook to shew the Argument to be as thin as the Ayr they talkt of and the Lord Bacon relieves them in this Distress who was of Opinion that a Voice could be heard much farther in a gross than a pure Ayr the Resistance perhaps preserving it longer as Opposition serves to lengthen a Discourse and to make Disputes endless p. 81.82 but in the second part of Ch. Hist takes it up again but Mr. B. in his first Disputation of Church-Government summing up the Exceptions of the Independents against the Presbyterian Argument drawn from the Church of Jerusalem prudently leaves out this of the Ayr but finds another Expedient as proper for his purpose and that is that men had much stronger Voices in those times and places which they may believe that can fancy Nature to decay and that our Fore-fathers were Giants For my part the next thing I expect is that they should believe with Kirker that the Ancients knew the use of Sir Samuel Morland's speaking-trumpet for Kirker had a Vision of some old Manuscript that no body else ever saw which revealed to him that Alexander the Great could speak to his whole Army together by the help of a Trumpet and who can tell but in this vast Congregation of Jerusalem such an Engine might be made use of However since Dioceses are to be no larger than the Sphear of a man's Voice it will be an useful Instrument to a Preacher of weak Lungs to stretch out the Bounds of his Diocess and be as serviceable to the Church as it is to the Camp Disp of Ch. Gov. p. 81. But Mr. B. tells us one thing more which a Friend told
that are grounded upon a mistake for this is rather to be counted a Consultation than a Council and as if they had wanted Authority to determine any thing in that ticklish point of receiving the lapsed into Communion they only agreed this ap Cypr. Ep. 31. That nothing should be changed before the Election of their next Bishop as appears by their Letter to the Clergy of Carthage the Bishops that were here present were such as came to assist and advise the Roman Clergy in a time of so great danger and not to determine any thing authoritatively in Council much less to be presided and govern'd by the Roman Presbyters After this says he p. 35. § 26. there was another Council in Carthage two in Rome and one in Carthage about the same Controversie These he passes over very lightly and the Schism that was the occasion of some of them because it was impossible to charge it upon any Bishop Cyprian behaved himself like a prudent good man and an indulgent Father and yet all this could not prevent Schism and Conventicles Faelicissimus Priest of Carthage makes the first breach whom Mr. B. mistakes for Felicissimus the Deacon § 26. who joyn'd himself afterwards with Novatus against the good Bishop Cyprian Novatus an African Presbyter improved this difference and not content to disturb his own Church went to Rome and kindled Discord and Dissention there Baronius would have this Novatus to be a Bishop because he is said by Cyprian to have ordained Felicissimus a Deacon but it is plain as well out of Cyprian as the Chronicle of Eusebius that he was but Priest Novatus Presbyter Cypriani Romam veniens Ep. 49. c. saith Eusebius and Cyprian after he had shewed what manner oâ— man he was adds that being conscious of such horrid Crimes he must expect non 〈◊〉 Presbyterio excitari tantum sed Communicatione prohiberi and as for the Ordination oâ— Felicissimus Cyprian in the same Epistle shewâ— it to have been done against all Rule and Order because he says that he did it nec pâ—mittente me nec sciente but sua factione ambitione which plainly shews that Novatâ—â— was Cyprian's Presbyter and ought not to have ordained a Deacon unless it were in Conjunction with him or by his Permissionâ— whereas if he had been a Bishop his right to the ordaining of Deacons would have been unquestionable This was the Author of that Schism Mr. B. favours so much throughout his whole History and claims Kindred with them as the Puritans and Nonconformists of those Times yet having known what manner of man he had been he might have been ashamed of such a Progenitor who if Cyprian be to be believed was always restless arrogant proud perfidious a Flatterer and an Incendiary that carried a tempest with him wheresoever he went and was a sworn Enemy to Peace and Settlement he robb'd the Orphans cheated the Widows purloin'd the Treasures of the Church he suffer'd his Father to starve and would not as much as bury him when dead he kick'd his Wife being great with Child and caused sudden Abortion and this was the great Saint and Puritan that could find no Church no Bishop holy enough for his Communion this was the severe Judge that would not admit Repentance and represented God cruel and implacable as himself for it was really his Opinion as I shall shew in due place that there was no pardon for the lapsed no not with God and that Mr. B. mistakes when he affirms this Rigour to extend no farther than to refuse an outward Reconciliation with the Church The next is another Council of Carthage p. 36. under Cyprian where one Victor is condemned for making a Priest Guardian of his Children and intangling a man devoted to the Service of the Altar in the Affairs of this World All that he has to except against this is the Rigor of the Sentence that forbids his name to be mentioned in Prayer for the dead and that there should be no Oblation made for his Rest but this shews that the ancient praying for the dead was intended rather as an honourable Remembrance of them than any act of Charity toward the Soul departed else it is not likely so good and indulgent a man as St. Cyprian was would have been so cruel in his Intentions as to deprive a poor Soul of any Relief he had judg'd necessary for it p. â—5 § â—8 After this he gives a short account of several Councils called upon the subject of Rebaptization of Hereticks and here to do him Right he is just enough in his Remarks The Generality of the World was for rebaptizing Hereticks and considering what manner of men the first Hereticks were it is probable they had Tradition as well as Reason on their side However Mr. B. endeavours fairly to excuse these Differences and speaks of the Bishops with Honour and respect allowing them to be men of eminent Piety and Worth Had he used the same Candour towards others who were no less eminent it would have been no Disparagement to his Judgment or Sincerity but his contrary unequal Dealing is not much for the Reputation of his Charity and Modesty There is a mistake § 29. where he make Eus bius to speak that in his own Person 〈…〉 which he cites not of Dionysius Alexandrinus That he does not condemn the rebaptizing of Hereticks Euseb l. 7 c. 6. which was a Tradition of so great Antiquity The Councils of Antioch that condemn'd Paulus Samosatenus are in effect acquitted by Mr. B. when he acknowledges him that was rejected by those Councils a gross Heretick That infamous meeting of Traditors at Cyrta p. 36. § 37. A meeting of 12 evil men that were Bishops lib. 1. contra Parmen was rather a Conspiracy than a Council and I am sorry Mr. B. has not done that Right to the Catholick Church as to shew who these men were Opatus Milev reproaches his Donatist Adversary with these Progenitors amongst these was Donatus Masculitanus Victor Rusicciadiensis Marinus ab aquis Tibilitanis Donatus Calumensis and the Murtherer Purpurius Limatensis the great Promoters of the Schism of the Donatists and as it were the Apostles of that Sect yet these men tho they were confessed Traditors became of so tender Consciences soon after as to abhor Communion with Cecilianus because he was ordained by Felix whom they suspected of the same Crime that they had pardoned one another The Church is so unconcerned with the crimes of these men that they are in some measure her Vindication they went out from us because they were not of us and they left the Communion of the Church because their crimes made them despair of enjoying it The next Council he mentions c. 2. § 38. is that of Sinuessa one of the most nonsensical pieces of Forgery that ever I saw three hundred Bishops are said to meet together to judge Pope Marcellinus and could find no better
for his Banishment Theod. l. 4. c. 13. tells him If the people should know it they would drown him in the-river Euphrates What would they say if our Churches were such as this Orthodox Episcopal Church was What ever they would say of the people they must needs commend your Ministers But the case is very much alter'd Here a Bishop leaves his people rather than occasion any disorder With you the Pastors perswade the people that notwithstanding all the laws to the contrary they must not desert their Pastors Here the People were incensed with the apprehension of Arianism which overthrew the Foundation of the Faith with you there is no such reason since you all confess we are agreed in the Substantials of Religion and yet the Teachers press their Congregatios to stand by them against the Government Here a good Bishop would not be prevailed upon by any intreaties to return against the Emperors command to the manifest endangering of the publick peace and desire them to have patience and submit to Authority The Presbyterians Teachers when they had opportunity did inflame the people against the Government and by their seditious preaching kindled the late Rebellion What would we say then if you were like this Church of Samosata that lovded their Bishop and would be govern'd by him and take his advice when he disswaed them from tumult and sedition We would say then that tho' the first heats were not warantable yet that you would be much better than you are and the Government could be much more secure of you than it is Mr. B. pursues this instance farther and adds Theod. l. 4. c. 14. When the Emperors Arian Bishop was set over them not one of all the people would come to the Church as they were used to do Would not wash in the same water c. do our hearers deal as harshly as this How shall a man deal with those that have no Conscience but against Ceremonies and Episcopacy Is there any resemblance between our case and this The Arians as Mr. B. confesses deny'd by direct consequence the Being of Christ and is it any wonder that Orthodox Believers should have such abhorrence of these men If any of our Bishops Nay if an Angel from Heaven should preach such Doctrine as this let him be Anathema and be abhorr'd as much as you please In the mean time they are but in evil case that depend upon the Authority of your instances for Separation and will believe they are moderate Men because they do not use Orthodox rightful Bishops as harshly as the Orthodox did the Arian Usurpers Although they have no great reason to boast of their civility upon this account it being easy to shew out of their writings and Sermons to say nothing of their common conversation such Language as a Christian ought to be ashamed of But these good men are too much mortified to blush and keep their blood so much in subjection that they never suffer it upon any provocation to flush into their faces After this we have another story of the Virgins that sung in reproach of Julian the Apostate Who can help Libels Theod. l. 3. c. 13. and Lampoons from stealing out against one that is generally hated Did any of the Christians enter into any combination against him or declare it lawful to Rebel Presently we have another story of the Church of Edessa that would assemble notwithstanding the Emperors commands to the contrary And what is all this to the purpose Did not the Primitive Christians do so too and suffer'd Martyrdom for it But did they ever enter into Covenants and Practices against the State No here is mention of a poor Woman that made hast to the Assembly when she knew it would be disturb'd by Souldiers and in probability be massacred but what to do to see how manfully a field Conventicle would be have it self or to plunder the Baggage of the assailants when they should be put to the rout No such thing but with a design to suffer Martyrdom and to dye tamely with the rest for the profession of the Faith In the next place We have Basil 's answer to the Prefect Theod. Hist l. 4. c. 19. when he offered him the Emperours favour upon condition he would turn Arian which our Author with great ingenuity forgets This sayes he may take with Children c. And as for the Emperors friendship I much value it joyned with Godliness but if it want that I say it is pernicious Upon this our Author remarks In one of us this Answer would have been enough to make us seem as bad as it made Basil esteemed good I must ask your pardon if in this point I am not of your Opinion For when your circumstances are the same with Basils I believe you may follow his example and they are unreasonable men that will find fault that when any King or Emperors fayour upon Earth is offered you upon condition to betray the Faith you should reject it with indignation But the difference between the substance and indifferent circumstances of Religion strangely alters the case There is a great deal more to this effect of the Orthodox refusing to conform to and keeping separate assemblies from the Arians which as they do not prove Sedition against those that were then Non conformists so they do not excuse ours And this must be added that in all these lamentable distractions of the Church we find no Orthodox Bishop animate the people against the government what persecution soever they suffer'd but on the contrary restraining all Tendencies to Rebellion and withdrawing themselves when the Popular favour towards them grew inordinate and uncontroulable whereas too many of our Schismatical Presbyters have kindled and fomented Sedition Mr. B. saith Audas a Bishop in Persia demolish'd their Temple or Pyreum by violence for which the Emperor of Persia kill'd him Theodor. l. 5. c. 39. and destroy'd all the Christian Churches And Audas was very much to blame and the fact was disowned generally and Theodoret condemns it and antiquity never approv'd it But who follows the example of this Zealot Bishop I am sure our Episcopal men are far enough from any such imputation But there are men in the world that Mr. B. knows who have not destroy'd Pagan Temples but Christian Churches and some were so zealous as to move for the pulling of them all down as polluted with superstition What Theodoret says of Julian calling him Tyrant which Mr. B. takes notice of was after Julian's Death and therefore could not tend to Sedition But whoever animated the people to resist him His Apostacy indeed being inexcuseable people took the Liberty to give him such a Character as he deserv'd when he was dead and his successours were not at all concern'd in it as having no relation to him Isaak as Mr. B. observes l. 4. c. 34. spake to Valens with great boldness but it was with the assurance of a
became the Church Government and I believe it will be found to have preserv'd those Churches in as great peace and Unity if not more than those had that were Governed without Bishops The Churches of Sweden and Denmark never knew what Schism or Heresie was but by reading or hear-say and those of Germany though something more disquieted yet it was seldom from within but by Projects of Union with other Churches under a different kind of Polity as well as of different opinions in some points of Religion It is to be wish'd that the Churches of the Ausburg Confession as they took care to preserve the Antient form of Church Governmet had been also a little more careful in the point of Ordination For their Bishops though they have the same authority with Diocesans yet were at first ordain'd but by Presbyters and the Principles of those Churches touching the right of ordination are so loose that I believe those of the Presbyterian Discipline will hardly allow them Hunnius defending their Ordinations says the power is in the Church diffusive and that it may be conveyed not only by Bishops or Presbyters but by Deacons or any body else if the Church think fit and I am afraid the Practice of some of those Churches is not otherwise to be justifi'd But before this Lutheran Reformation was that of the Bohemians not that of the Calixtins only but the Vnitas fratrum Bohemorum whose Churches were govern'd by Diocesan Bishops and where Discipline was so far from being Impossible Commenii Hist Eccles Slav. p. 32. notwithstanding the Dioceses were very large that they were perhaps the best Govern'd Churches in the world Bucer speaking of this Government says haec verò est Coelestis potius quam Ecclesiastica in Terris Hierarchia and Calvin was so taken with this Government as well as Discipline that he looks upon their Governing and ordaining Pastors as no inconsiderable blessing Ep. ad Pastor Bohem. Neque Vero parvo est estimandum quod tales habent Pastores a quibus Regantur Ordinentur and those were their Bishops as may be seen in that Account they gave of themselves in Ratio Disciplinae Ordinisque Ecclesiastici in Vnitate fratrum Bohemorum printed at Lesna 1632. and afterwards at the Hague by Commenius 1660. Whoever would know more of these Episcopal Diocesan Churches may consult Lasitius or the short Accout of Commenius the then only Remaining Bishop of those Churches And these had such Bishops as were not only invested with the full Authority of Diocesans over several Churches but such as had been ordain'd according to the Canons of the Ancient Church Stephanus accito Episcopo altero c. Commen Hist p. 24. by the Bishops of the Waldenses who derived themselves by an uninterrupted succession from the Apostles It is time now to Return to the Principal Design which was to shew how no other form of Government can secure the Church from Heresie Schism and Contention any more than Episcopacy and that those Churches which put themselvs under new Models of Government and discipline have been excercis'd with Schism Heresie and Sedition no less than those under Episcopacy The Churches which follow'd the Reformation of Zuinglius had at first no Government nor discipline that was properly Ecclesiastical All authority rested in the Civil Magistrate and the Ministers did only preach and administer the Sacraments without excluding any It was from this practice I suppose that the Divines of that way came to speak generally so loosely of the power of the Keys making it all to consist in preaching without any regard to Ecclesiastical discipline But the Licentiousness that followed this defect of Discipline and Government soon open'd the eyes of the Ministers who Complain'd passionately of the Increase of Libertinism under pretence of Reformation and endeavour'd to make the people sensible that there is more required to make a true Protestant than to Renounce the Pope and Transubstantiation and that the Notion of a Church did imply something more than a Company of sound believers met together to hear a Sermon Calvin a person of extraordinary Abilities was one of the first that observ'd and Complain'd of this defect in the Reformation and endeavour'd to Remedy it in the Church where he was Pastour by Establishing an Ecclesiastical Government Baza vit Calv. and that perhaps not such as he thought most perfect and absolute but such as the Circumstances of the place would bear The people of Geneva were sufficiently prejudic'd against Episcopacy having turn'd out their Bishop who had likewise a title to be their Prince and to have talk'd of Introducing a Bishop there would have sounded as harsh as the mention of a King would have done to the Romans after the expulsion of Tarquin But suppose they could have been Reconcil'd to the name and the office upon assurance it should not exceed its proper bounds it is possible Calvin might look upon it as too Invidious a proposal to his Church for fear of being understood to recommend himself and to affect dominion over his Brethren Episcopacy then seeming Impracticable in that place he devised a form of Government that should be more popular and consequently more acceptable the Ministers were to be all of equal Authority and were in the first place to govern the Church and with them a certain number out of the Laity under the Title of ruling Elders were to have a share in the Church Government and this mix'd Council without any Bishop was to exercise all Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction One would think this would be unexceptionable but it proved otherwise for this frame was no sooner begun but it was presently broken in pieces and the Author banish'd But his Reputation abroad made them reflect upon this Treatment with shame and desire him to return With him this Government was restor'd which was so far from remedying all disorders that it became the occasion of some very great ones and the State of that Church as it is discrib'd by Calvin in his letters to his friends and by Beza in his life was most lamentably distracted and this Government was made odious in the beginning of it by very harsh and rigorous proceedings The Expulsion of Castellio a man of Great and Polite Learning was too Invidious The opposing of the Senate in the Election of a Minister to such a point of heat and Contention Beza vit Calv. as to endanger the peace of the City wanted little of Sedition Calvins quarrels with Perinus came to that height that the Council of the City had almost cut one anothers throats about it Siquidem eousque semel in ipsâ curiâ deventum est coactis Diacosiis pene exertis jam Ensibus parum abfuerit quin mutuis caedibus ipsam Curiam cruentarent And what was the reason of so dangerous a Contention No Article of the Creed was in danger It was not for any part of the faith that they contended so
said to be sent in the name of the Church in General as the Church of Jerusalem sent John and Peter to Samaria Act. 8. In like matter the Church sent Barnabas to Antioch v. 11. But now it seems they come from James and the Acts of the Church pass in the name of the Bishop only although after this we find this Style to vary again and sometimes the Church of such a place sends to another without the mention of the Bishop though the letter be pen'd by the Bishop himself as the inscription of Clemens his Epistle to the Corinthians does inform us and Iastly as the authority of James appears by sending to the Church of Antioch so it does likewise from his speech in the Council of Jerusalem where he seems to preside and determines the question in dispute Act. 5. in the name of the whole Assembly All this consider'd together with the Testimonies of Hegesippus and Clemens there can be as little doubt that Dâ—ocesan Episcopacy was setled by the Apostles in the Church of Jerusalem as there is of any thing that is not expresly set down in Scripture and it cannot be deni'd without resecting the most Authentick records of Church History It is to be confess'd that the Scriptures have not left so full and perfect account of the constitution and Government of the first Churches as might be wish'd for the Acts of the Apostles the only Scripture History of those time relate mostly the victories of Christian Religion how several Cities were converted By what miracles by what Argument or exhortation but before the Holy Pen-man comes to give an account of the settlement of those new Conquests he carries away the Reader from thence to follow the Apostles to some other place where they begin to lay the Foundations of another Church Thus we have no more notice of the Churches of Samarid and of Judea Jerusalem excepted than that such were founded by the Apostles but of their Government and constitution we are not the least information and the prospect left of Antioch in Scripture is very confus'd as of a Church in fieri where a great number of Eminent persons labour'd together to the building of it up but after what form does not appear but only from Ecclesiastical Writers Eusel l. 3. c. 22. Chronnon Chrysost Orat. de Ignatio who report that this Church when it was setled and digested was committed to the Government of Evodius and after him to Ignetius and the succeeding Bishops Nevertheless we are not left destitute of all light in this particular even from the Scriptures the History of St. Paul as it is deliver'd by St. â—â—ke in the Acts of the Apostles and by himself scatteringly in his own Epistles informing us in some measure of the from of the Primitive Church Government in the Apostles times This Apostle of the Gentiles did commonly use this method informing those Churches he had converted as may be seen by consulting the Citations in the Margin When he came to any place where the Gospel had not been preached and he did not affect much to build upon another was foundation He preached first in the Synâ—gogues of the Jews Rom. 15.20 1 Cor. 3.10 Acts 9.20 13 14. Acts 13.46 and if they rejected the grace of God he turn'd to the Gentiles Assoon as he had converted a competent number he took care to improve them in the knowledge of the truth 1 Cor. 3.2 and for that purpose taught them constantly either at his own house Acts 28.30.19.9.20.20 or at some publick School as that of Tyrannus or any other convenient place where a good number might assemble together These converts as they were made Partakers of the same common Doctrine and Faith so they were to be perpetually united by a Communion in worship in Prayer and the Sacrament for it was not with the School of the Apostles as with those of this World Acts. 11.26 Heb. 10.25 which the Disciples leave when they conceive themselves to have learn'd what they came for But there was an obligation upon all these Scholars to Assemble themselves together Rom. 12.5 1 Cor. 12.13.12.22 Phil. 2.12 till they came to a perfect man which was not consummated till after this life Nor was the Relation between Christians dissolved when the Congregation was dissmiss'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Origâ—câ—â—â— â—â—s 1.8 in fine but they were united farther into one Society or Corporation into a holy City under the Government of Christ their King and under Apostles and such other Officers of his and their appointment and so far to act and determine all things within themselves that they were not to appear before any Heathen Magistrate upon any difference but to referr it to the Brethren or to the Apostle under whose direction they were Thus far we may consider a Church without any other Officer than the Apostle who converted them but their numbers increasing in that place and much of his time being taken up in disputing with and preaching to unbelievers and gainsayers or this Apostle being call'd away to preach the Gospel in other places Acts 9.29.17.17.19.8 9. it was necessary to ordain such Church Officers as might take care of this Church in the Doctrine and Discipline of it 6.4 Acts 14.23 Phil. 2.12.20.17 and others to take care of the poor lest that Office taking up much time might be a hinderance to those who were to guide the Assembly in Doctrine and Worship Now this constitution does not take away the relation that was between this Church and the Apostle that founded it and these Officerâ— act in subordination to him whether present or absent and St. Paul therefore looks upon himself as the Apostle or Bishop of the Corinihians though he could not hold personal Communion with them 1 Cor. 5.3 Acts 15.36 for sometimes he goes a Circular visitation to examine the State of those Churches which he had planted or if the distance and oceasions of that Church where he resided or his imprisonment and other outward Circumstances would not admit this personal visitation he sends his letters and orders what is to be done If any open Scandal be permitted he sends his Excommunication to be publish'd in that Church whereof the offender was a member 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5. Cum meo spiritu quipro me erat praesens sive in mearum literarum authoritate Hieroâ— he judges as though he were present he orders that when they are met together in his spirit they would deliver the Criminal to Satan And because some of the Teachers in the Church of Corinth began to set up themselves in opposition to the Apostle taking advantage of his absence 1 Cor. 4.18 19.9.1 2.5.19 and using all means to lessen him in the esteem of that people he is forced to assert his Authority and to justifie his Title to let them know that he was their Father their Apostle and that they
owed him still the duty of Children notwithstanding his absence and lastly that he would come to them shortly by way of Apostolical visitation and examine the power of those that entred into competition with him For as far as his Line or Diocess or Province did extend so far he pretended a peculiar Authority to govern Rom 15.19 2 Cor. 10.13 to 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dioecesis sive certus Pastorum Ecâ—lesiarum numerus Unit. Frat. Bohem. Sect. de Antist Regulam vocat Ditionem praescriptum Praedicationis Terminum Salmeron and exercised Diocesan jurisdiction upon all within his Rule But when this Line was so far extended that he neither was able to visit every part himself and his communication by Letters would not answer all the occasions of those Churches he had planted 1. Tim. 1.3 18. c. 2.14 15. c. 4.12 14. c. 5.21.22 Tit. 1.5 c. 2.15 he provides for them not by leaving every Congregation Independent and resigning all Authority into the hands of every particular Presbytery but by sending Persons endued not only with extraordinary gifts but with Apostolical power to ordain Elders to end disputes to censure the unruly and irregular whether of the Clergy or People to confute Hereticks to preach the Gospel and in short by all means to provide for thee welfare of those Churches committed to them And now as the Apostle had before ordained assistant Elders in the several Churches which he had planted for the ordinary attendance of the Congregation so now he takes to himself Assistants of another sort Suffragans for the Service of his Province which he distributed as he found most expedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 1. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod in 1 Tim. 3. Phil. 3.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 acceperat in illis Apostolatus officium Hieron in locum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anonym 〈◊〉 Phot. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Timoth. and these in the Apostles time were sometimes called Apostles or Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Fellow Labourers Helpers Deacons c. but their successors leaving greater and more invidious titles contented themselves with the name of Bishops which was common to them with ordinary Presbyters at first though the Offices were alwayes distinct Of this kind we have several mentioned in Scripture of St. Pauls Province as Barnabas Timothy Titus Crescens Epaphraditus Sosthenes and some others that had no relation to him as James the Just Mark Linus Clemens c. These exercised Episcopal jurisdiction in that district where they were appointed Ordained Presbyters received accusations against them Reprov'd and censur'd them as there was cause and in short govern'd those Churches over which they were appointed by full Apostolical power which was transmitted to their successors But the extraordinary abilities of some of these men and the occasions of several other Churches made their residence less constant in the Diocess where they were plac'd 2 Tim. 4.9 than otherwise might have been expected Phil. 2. and therefore Timothy the Bishop and Apostle of Ephesus is called to Rome by St. Paul to be imployed as the necessities of the Church should require Titus is sent to Dalmatia though Crete were his first Province but this concludes no more against their being Diocesans than the Voyage of Germanus and Lupus into Brittain to oppose the Pelagian Heresy would conclude against their being Bishops Now what care was taken for those Churches which these Apostolick Diocesans left whether they returned again to their Provinces is not mentioned in Scripture But Ecclesiastical Records shew an uninterrupted Succession from the Bishops in several Churches Nor do we find that they were all so unfixed as they are represented by the adversaries of Episcopacy for Mark who was the first Bishop of Alexandria remained in that Province Euseb Hist l. 2. c. 16. Niceph. l. 2. c. 43. Gelas in Conc. Rom. in decr de lib. Auth. planting Churches in the Country round about and governing them by Apostolical Authority which after his Martyrdom there was derived to his successuors in the same charge Now this order being of perpetual use and necessity in the Church to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to exercise discipline to preserve unity they were multiplyed according as the Apostles found most expedient for the Church and the most eminent Cities became the Residence of these first Bishops not because God takes greater care of Cities than he does of lesser Towns and Villages but because the Apostles thought it the most natural way to follow the distribution that was then in the more civilz'd part of the world St. John a little while before his death mentions seven in the Lydian Asia under the name of Angels of the Churches nor is it probable there were any more in that Province The Seven Churches being the same with all the Churches mentioned in the next Chapter Rev. 1.20.2.23 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Andr. Caesar Ego puto simul inveniri posse Angelum hominem bonos Ecclesia Episcopos Origen in Lucam Hom. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut Collegas moneat Beza Ad Episcopum loci dirigitur Paraus and Carolus à Sancto Paulo concludes the same thing out of St. John Cum in Asia septem tantum hisce temporibus essent Episcopi ut in Apocalypsi legere est nec majorem corum numerum in Ponto tunc fuisse probalile est Geogr. Sacra p. 289. Dissert 4. c. 5. Quod si de Angelis superiorum Coelorum non de praepositis Ecclesie intelligi vellet non consequenter diceret Laudatur sub Angeli nomine praepositas Ecclesiae Aug. Ep. 162. But Dr. Hammond makes all these Angels to be Metropolitans having several Bishops under them for the reasons I must refer the reader to his Dissertations Thus far the Scripture discovers the rise and progress of Diocesan Episcopacy which was the form of Church Government under the Apostles who had large Provinces to supervise and their suffragans such as are commonly called Evangelists had several Congregations to govern and this was undeniably the constitution of the Church in the first age the next thing we are to inquire is whether the Office expired with those Persons or was designed to be of perpetual use in the Church The Adversaries of Episcopacy are not all agreed as to this point the Presbyterians generally looking upon the offices of Apostles and Evangelists extraordinary as the persons were Mr. B. is something more scrupulous because he does not find any where that Christ design'd to have this alter'd and yet he condemns Diocesan Episcopacy as being altogether different from it I have said something to this already and therefore I shall answer here more briefly 1. That we have no reason to believe from Scripture that the Office of Apostles or Evangelists which concerned the Government of the Church was extraordinary and for a time only
owned them as Brethren and called them their fellow Presbyters or fellow Deacons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he did not take at all to derogate from the dignity of their Order no more than the modesty of the Apostles calling themselves Presbyters or Deacons could be a prejudice to the Preheminence of their Apostleship which they took care to vindicate when they were forced to it by the ambition of some teachers that entred into competition with them Theodor. ubi supra in Ep. ad Phil. ad Tim. Tit. Theodoret observ'd the same promiscuous use of Bishop and Presbyter but could yet see that there were Bishops then superior to Presbyters and in that time properly called Apostles The Greek Scholiast Theophylact and Oecumenus saw the same but were still of opinion that the Episcopal office was alwayes distinct from the Presbyters so that the ground upon which Jerom built his conjecture was rejected by the current of Ecclesiastical writers who could discern the preheminence of Bishops above Presbyters notwithstanding the names were confounded And yet this is the foundation upon which that conceit doth wholly stand all Jeroms allegations are to this effect all the additional confirmations of Salmasius and Blondel are no other than from the phrase of some of the Ancients who do not alwayes distinguish between Bishops and Presbyters but speak in the phrase of the Scriptures and yet there is nothing more evident than that at that time when these Authors writ Bishops and Presbyters were distinguished and excepting only Clemens Romanus Blondel and Salmasius do both acknowledg it But to return to Jerom Let us considet the account he gives of the Original of Episcopacy something more particularly Before there were factions in Religion the Church was governed by Presbyters of equal Authority But what factions were these that gave birth to Episcopacy What time was that when the Church was under Presbyterian government He informs us in the following words Before it was said I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas If we understand this according to the letter we must conclude this to be very early For this Epistle to the Corinthians where that division is mentioned was written in the year of Christ 52 And then this notion will do little service against Episcopacy for this will make it of Apostolick institution Besides I do not see how it can be true for the Church was now Governed by Apostles and not by Presbyters and if in most Cities there were no particular Bishop ordained yet it was because the Apostles were their Bishops and visited them to establish good order to ordain officers to punish the disorderly as they had opportunity and when they were not able to be present they sent their orders in writing and exercised Episcopal Authority at a distance But Blondel contends earnestly against the literal understanding of that passage and shews that Jerom could not mean this of the Church of Corinth but of some following Schism that sprung up after the example of this of Corinth His reason is that the passages whereby Jerom confirms his opinion of Bishops and Presbyters being the same were written after that Epistle to the Corinthians I have shewed before how probable it is that Jerom spoke without a figure and I need not repeat it here But these things you will say cannot cannot consist It may be so and it is not certain that Jerom when he wrote this passage did consider in what order of time St. Paul's Epistles were written what if it was an oversight for want of stating the Chronelogy of the New Testament If it be replyed that Jerom a man of that great learning and diligence and particular knowledg also in Chronology as we may conclude from his translating of Eusebius his Chronicon could hardly commit such a mistake It is to be considered that according to Blondels computation who makes him to speak of the second Century he will be as inconsistent with himself for suppose w◠should say that Jerom pointed to the year 135 as the precise time when the Presbyterian Government was changed how shall we reconcile Jerom to himself For in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers he reckons several Bishops long before that time he makes James to be Bishop of Jerusalem statim post Ascensionem presently after the Ascension of Christ He calls Timothy Bishop of Ephesus he makes Anianus to succeed Mark in Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero. How shall we make all these things to consist did he think James to be no more than a simple Presbyter or Timothy could he fansie him to have no superiority over the Elders he was to ordain or to govern it is not possible or shall we say that in these relations he only transcribes out of others and that he does not speak his own opinion Well suppose this Either he must have some Authority for his opinion greater than that of such Authors he follows in that Book or not if he had none why should we believe him against all Antiquity Nay why should we believe so uncharitably of him as that he would deliver those things he did not believe without the least warning to the reader or that he would believe any matter of fact against all the tradition and History of the Church and yet have no Authority for it Or if he had any Authority from Ecclesiastical writers to ground his opinion upon why are they not produc'd Nay we may be assured in this point that he had none from that Catalogue of writers we are speaking of since he had seen none but what Eusebius had seen before him and cites as we have shewed before for the contrary opinion to confirm Episcopacy to be Apostolical and to have begun long before this time which Blondel would have Jerom thought to assign for its Original So that what way soever Jerom be understood of the Original of Episcopacy he is either manifestly inconsistent with himself or with Scripture and Antiquity But his Scripture Authorities you will say do sufficiently prove that Episcopacy was not yet introduced into the Church Nothing less unless they can prove that those Presbyteries were not governed by the Apostle that established them or by some Assistant or Suffragan or unless they can make out that Timothy Titus and divers others of that rank were no more than simple Presbyters After this time whensoever it was St. Jerom adds It was decreed over all the world that one of the Presbyters who governed before in common should be set over the rest In what Church in the whole world was this Decree Registred Who ever heard of it before St. Jerom What general Council passed it What Authority made it Authentick Or by what means did all the Churches in the World agree to this change What was there no opposition made against this alteration of the Apostolical Government What did all the little Ecclesiastick Aristocracies submit without dispute to this innovation We
happy are those that enter that way behaving themselves peaceably For let a man be faithful let him be never so powerful a Preacher let him be never so wise and discerning holy in his life yet by how much he seems to excel others by so much ought he to behave himself more humbly and seek the common good of all and not his own particular Besides this the passionate expostulation of Clemens with the Ringleaders of this sedition makes this conjecture yet more probable Who is there among you generous and charitable Let him say if this Schism and Sedition has been raised upon my account I will withdraw I will be gone withersoever ye please only let the Fold of Christ live in unity and peace with the Presbyters that are over it and to incourage them to this generous resignation he tells them of many Kings that have offered themselves a Sacrifice for the safety of their Countrys How many to put an end to sedition have left their own Cities Apud Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 45. with more to that effect which Dionysius of Alexandria borrows out of this Epistle and sends it as an exhortation to Novatus to put an end to that Schism he had caused and what is there so proper against a Schismatick Bishop we may judge not without reason to have been applyed by the first Author upon the same occasion And thus much of the state of the Church of Corinth at the writing of this Epistle The last thing I shall observe out of Clemens is a passage that seems to favour the distribution of the Clergy into three Orders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop Priests and Deacons The High-Priest sayes he hath his proper office the Priests have a proper place appointed for them and the Levites have their peculiar Ministry and the Lay-man is obliged to keep himself within the bounds of his own station Brethren let every one of you glorifie God in his own place and keep himself within his own line not breaking over the bounds of his own Office and Ministry Having now given an account of the Original of Diocesan Episcopacy out of Scripture and Antiquity and examined the singular opinion of St. Jerom concerning it I come now to give a short view of the progress and advancement of it The first Bishops after the Apostles according to the opinion of Rabanus Maurus In 1 Tim. 4. had very large Dioceses Primis temporibâ—â— Episcopi Provincias integras regebant Apostâ—lorum nomine nuncupati i. e. In those first times Bishops governed whole Provinces being called then Apostles and this conformable to Theodoret who affirms not only the same thing of the first Bishops being called Apostles Is Argumento Ep. ad Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. in 1 Tim. 3. but also that they had large Dioceses too for speaking of Titus he calls him Bishop of Crete though it were a very great Island and in another place he sayes that Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians Titus of the Cretians and Timothy of the Asians i. e. In his language their Bishops and the Canons of the Apostles signifie as much where they order every Bishop to medale only with his own Diocess and the Regions that belong to it Can. Ap. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as Christians were multiplyed in the World so the number of Bishops increased every considerable City with the Country about becoming Dioceses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil 1. Chrysost in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecum Theoph. nor â—â—iâ— una in urbe plures Episcopi esse potuissent Hieron It could not be It was against the design of the institution Loci ipsius Episcâ—â—o scribendum esset non duobus aut tribus Ambr. in Loc. so Asia towards the latter end of St. John had seven Bishops and by proportion we may conjecture of other Countries and the first advances of Christianity being very wonderful and the success of our Religion giving occasion to envy and persecution the condition of those times seems to have proportioned the distribution of the Church and to multiply Dioceses For in those troublesome times it being very difficult to maintain such a communication as ought to be between a Bishop and all the parts of his Diocese it was found necessary to multiply Churches and that every City with some Portion of Countrey belonging to it should have its own Bishop who though his flock might at first be but small and not exceed a Congregation yet was he properly the Bishop of the place i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of those that afterwards should believe Whatever accessions were made to this Church though the whole City and Country should be converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cornel. ap Eâ—seb l. 6. c. 43. Episcope cedunt they accrue to the Bishop of the place into how many Congregations soever they might after be distributed and therefore the Church of a Bishop retained still the singular number though distributed into several Congregations and in such a Church they contended there ought to be but one Bishop though it had never so many Presbyters as that of Rome had when Cornelius pretended there ought to be but one Bishop and Novatus did not contradict him but the dispute was about this which of them were the rightful Bishop Episcopacy being setled upon these foundations with a regard to the future increase as well as the first condition and small beginnings of the Church we do not find that for the first three Centeries the number of Bishops was near so great as it became afterwards although in a little while the multitude of believers was so great that there was no Country no City no village in several Provinces of the Roman Empire where there was not a good number of Christians Before the persecution of Trajan they were so increased that in the Province of Bithynia as Pliny complains the Heathen Temples were become desolate Prope jam desolata Templa coepisse celebrari Sacra Solemnia diu intermissa repetl paffimque venire victimas quarum ad huâ— rarissimus emptor inveniebatur ex quo facile est opinari quae turba hominum emendati possit Yet after the Apostasy of so many the numbers are still great Visa est mihi res consultations digna maxime proper periclitantiam numerum multi enim omnis aetatis omnis or diâ—is utriusque sexus neque enim Civitates tantum sed vicos agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est Plin. Ep. l. 10. Ep. 100. the Sacrifices neglected and laid aside and notwithstanding the severity of that persecution made great numbers fall off yet those that remained unshaken and resolved to dye Martyrs for their Religion were exceeding numerous Not long after Arrius Antoninus found so many of them in Asia that it was an endless thing to put them to death though they made no resistance and when they thronged so much about his Tribunal
go to the Confessours in Prison by turns to Administer the Communion to them that the changing of the Persons and the seeing of new faces daily may render it less envied or observed Besides when four of his Presbyters and those probably living at some distance from Carthage had writ to him about something relating to the Church he tells his Clergy that he was resolved from the time he was made Bishop Ad id vero quod scripserunt mihi Compresbyteri nostri Donatus Fortunatus Gordias Novatus solus rescribere nihil potui quando à primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine consilio vestro sine consensu plebis meae privatae sententia gerere sed cum ad vos venere in commune tractabimus Ep. 6. Decipientes quosdam fratres ex plebe nostra Ep. 28. to determine nothing without advising with his Clergy which intimates that they were not of the Clergy residing at Carthage for it is not likely that four persons would pretend to write to their Bishop about any publick concern of the Church without consulting their Brethren if they lived together with them and met daily at the same Altar and Cyprian's speaking of them with this strangeness makes it improbable that they were among this Clergy to whom he wrote concerning them Besides we have express mention of one Country Presbyter and Deacon belonging to the Diocess of Carthage Gaius Diddensis Presbyter who from several passages of that Epistle appears to have been near the City and under its jurisdiction and it is not improbable that this is one of those Presbyters Cyprian complains of in another place for their presumption in receiving the lapsed into communion Quorundam immoderata praesumptio plebis universae tranquillitatem turbare conetur aliqui de Presbyteris nec sibi praepositum Episcopum cogitantes quod nunquam omnino sub Antecessoribus nostris factum est cum contumelia contemptu Prapositi totum sibi vendicent Interim prohibeantur offerre acturi apud nos apud confessores ipsos apud universam plebem causam suam Ep. 10. without consulting their Bishop or the Clergy and the nature of their fault makes it evident that there were several Congregations now in Carthage for this could never have been done by a few in the Episcopal Church in the presence of all the Presbytery it is not probable they would have indured it or if they had then they had been all in equal fault which Cyprian does by no means lay to their charge but layes it upon a few and orders they should be suspended from their office by the rest of the Presbyters and their cause reserved to be tryed before him and the whole Church at his return Beside this the Charity of the Diocess of Carthage towards the redemption of the Numidian Captives was so considerable that it cannot be supposed to be gathered in one oâ— a few Congregations Misimus autem Sestertia centum millia nummum quae istic in Ecclesia cui de Domini indulgentia praesuâ—us cleri plebis apud nos consistentis collatione collecta sunt And if the like should happen again he makes no doubt but his Diocess will relieve them libenter largiter Subsidia praestare ad hoc opus tam necessarium Fratres Sorores prompte libenter operati sunt Ep. 60. LL. S. centum millia LL. centum as Pamelius corrects it though without the Authority of any MS S. Potest inter caeteros qui alimentis Ecclesia sustinentur hujus Histrionis necessitas adjuvari Si illic Ecclesia non sufficit ut laborantibus prâ—stet alimenta poterit se ad nos transferre hic quod sibi ad victum vestitum necessarium fuerit accipere especially when we consider that Cyprian when he sends it to the Bishops of Numidia with a Letter and particulars does not take notice of it as any extraordinary matter and all the observation he makes of the Contributions of his flock is that they were done prompte libenter readily and willingly and he promises that they will be as ready upon any such occasion 2. The Ordinary charge of that Church was so great for the support of the Bishop Presbyters and a very numerous Clergy besides poor who were plentifully relieved and especially in dangerous times besides the maintenance of such as when they became Christians were obliged to quit their former callings as inconsistent with that holy profession and the extraordinary charge of Messengers that passed perpetually between them and other Churches This ordinary charge was so great that the summ collected in this Diocess for the redemption of those Câ—ptives at the lowest computation must suppose a considerable Diocess to furnish it especially so soon after a terrible persecution as that which this is supposed to follow Lastly the Diocess of Carthage is not extraordinary in all these circumstances but the rest of Africk were some of them distributed into several Parishes For Caldonius an African Bishop makes mention of one Felix Faelix qui Presbyterium subministrabat sub Decimo proximus mihi vicinus plenius câ—gnevi â—â—ndem Cum ergo universi pacem preterent quamvis mihi videaâ—tur debere pacem accipere tamen ad consultum vestrum â—â—s dimisi â—e videar aliquid temere praesumere Caldon Ep. ad Cypr. 19. who did the office of a Presbyter under one Decimus another Presbyter of Caldoniuâ—'s Diocess as will appear from some passages of that Epistle though Goulartius be of opinion this Decimus was a Bishop and Felix his Presbyter But Pamelius his conjecture is much better grounded who makes him the Vicar or Curate of Decimus For 1. If he and his wife Victoria had belonged to another Bishop why do they make their Application to Caldonius to reconcile them to the Church Why do not they go to their own Bishop Decimus or if he were dead and no other yet ordained in his place Why not to the Presbytery there who ought to have reconciled them and in a vacance took care of Ecclesiastical Discipline as the Clergy of Rome declare that at such a time they are to take care of the Church Cum nobis incumbat Ap. Cypr. ep 3. qui praepositi esse videmur vice Pastoris custodire gregem But their making their application to Caldonius makes it clear that he was their Diocesan that the Cure in which Felix officiated was in his Diocess 2. Caldonius his remitting them to Cyprian as the first Bishop makes it probable that he was their Ordinary for what else had he to do to meddle with or remit the cognizance of any persons belonging to another Church to any other than their own Clergy and let them remit them to the Primate if they judged the case difficult Therefore it is much more probable that Caldonius was the Bishop of the Suppliants and that the Priest mentioned exercised his charge in some Village or Town in
turn charge the Donatists with the very same Arts. For Sumnius Episcopus Tiguallensis idem dixit praesto sum in Dioecesi mea duo sunt Gaianus Privatus Alypius Episcopus Ecclesiae Catholicae dixit animadvertat nobilitas tua etiam in nostrorum Dioecesi eos ordinasse Episcopos Sumnius Bishop of Tigualla said I am here there are two set up against me in my Diocess and names them Alypius Bishop of the Catholick Church said Your Honour may please to observe that they have set up several Bishops in single Dioceses of ours Marcellinus V. C. Tribunus Notarius dixit ibid. Talia ab utrisque partibus constat objecta si haec vultis diligenter inquiri ad hanc causam superflue venisse noscemur Marcellinus Tribune and Notary the moderator of this Conference said It is evident that these things are objected on both sides if this be the business you would examine I am come hither to little purpose for this is not the thing I came about This check had so much effect that we do not find any make this impertinent complaint for a long while together but the opposite Bishops own the knowledg one of another and so the subscriptions are read and passed with little interruption At last Alypius not being able to hold out longer would make his general remark upon a great number of Donatist Bishops Alypius Episcopus Ecclesiae Catholicae dixit Scriptum sit illos omnes in villis vel in fundis esse Episcopos ordinatos non in aliquibus Civitatibus Alypius said Let it be recorded that all these were made Bishops in Villages and Hamlets and not in any Cities Petilianus Ep. dixit Sic tu multos habes per omnes Agros dispersos immo crebros ubi habes sane sme populis habes Petilianus Answered And you have many dispersed in the Country and of those several without any people to govern And now the reader may perceive by wha methods the Dioceses of Africk came to be so numerous Subscribed 266 14 present that did not subscribe absent of the Catholicks 120. Brevic Col. It was not the example of the Bees that made Bishops swarm so much there but an unhappy Schism and the affectation of number to support the credit of it then a necessity that lay on the Catholicks to add number to their weight and to turn the ballance on their side no less in point of reputation than it inclined of it self as to the justice of their cause and yet after all this the Dioceses were not so little as our Parishes Câ—ll Carth. Cog. 1.212.215 for reckoning after the utmost computation there will be a great difference for the number of subscribers on the part of the Catholicks in this Conference was two hundred sixty six vacant Sees sixty four absent two hundred and twenty in all five hundred and fifity Dioceses The Donatists had two hundred seventy nine subscribers said they had more absent than the Catholicks Augustine writes but 120 which probably is the truth Brev. Coll. c. 12. besides vacant Sees but mention no number Augustine shews from the confession of the Donatists that they had not not so great a number absent as the Catholicks because they had confessed that all their Bishops young and old were there excepting only those that were hindred by sickness ibid. and since by this Conference it appears every Diocess had two Bishops at least one with another the Dioceses will not be found to be very small and perhaps if the absents and vacancies of the Catholicks were to be examined they would not all have proved effective or not far to exceed the number of the Dioceses of Africk as they were after reduction by the Emperours edict at the time of Hunnericus his conquest of that Country which I have mentioned before out of the Notitia Africa published by Syrmond And yet in all this division several Bishopricks in Africk had the fortune to remain intire Conc. Carthag 3. c. 39. and so large that they were not inferiour to our Dioceses in England for largeness of Territory For in the whole Province of Tripolis there were but five Dioceses Codex Can. 49. Aâ— 397. Tripolitaâ—a Provincia abortu habet aram Philenorum lineam ab ea ductam ad Lybicas gentes ab occasu Tritonem flavium quâ— dividitur a Bizacend à Septentrione terminatur mari Africo à meridie desertis Libycis Carol. à S. Paul p. 91. at the time of the third Council of Carthage and the Notitia Africae which was taken some years after sets down but one more for which reason the African Councils made several exceptions in their favour as that there should be required the presence but of one Bishop of that Province in any Council and that few Bishops might be allowed to ordain there in consideration of their number Besides there were several large Bishopricks in the other Provinces Codex Can. 56. for we find in the Canons of the African Councils that one Bishop had such extent of Territory as might be divided into several Dioceses and where it is permitted any part of a Diocess as a considerable Town and the Territory belonging to it to chuse a Bishop for themselves with the consent of him part of whose Diocess they were It is added ut â—adem Dioecesis permissa proprium tantum habeat Episcopum caeteras sibi non vindicet Dioeceses quia exempta de fasce multarum sola meruit honorem Episcopatus suscipere It is enough when a Bishop gives way that another Bishop should be set up in part of his Diocess that that part which he grants this to may have their own Bishop but this new Bishop is not to assume any right over the other parts of his Diocess Because his part being taken out of the bundle of several Dioceses i. e. such as would make several like his but belonging all to the same Cathedral was alone designed for this new Bishoprick And to the same effect he calls that ancient intire Diocess out of which another is to be taken Massa Dioecesium an aggregation of Dioceses or as we would now speak of Rural Deanries The same thing is supposed by the Canon that forbids a Bishop to leave his Cathedral and live in any other Church in his Diocess Con. Carth. 5. c. 5. Con. Carth. 4.36 And by another to this effect That the Presbyters who are Rectors of Churches in a diocess ought before Easter to repair to their proper Bishop for Chrism and not to take it of any other who perhaps may be nearer It would be endless to cite all the circumstances that imply the greatness of the African Dioceses even at this time I will select some Dioceses there whose extent is mentioned occasionally but without any remark of their being extraordinary in comparison of others The Diocess of Hippo Diaretorum Codex Caâ— 78. not Regia where St. Augustin was Bishop
But a Synod held at Rome about the same subject had but fourteen Bishops and several other Synods about this Controversy had not many more That of Jerusalem under Narcissus had but fourteen Papa Victor direxit Authoritatem not the language of that time Praecepta it aque authoritate praedictus Episcopus nonsolum de sua Provincia sed de diversis Regionibus omnes Episcopos evocavit And the famous Council under Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea had but twelve besides him Eusebius makes but one of both these Bede represents it as an extraordinary great Assembly for the Preface to it I conceive to be his he makes him to assemble not only the Bishops of his own Province but from several other parts The Council of Lyons under Irenaeus made up but fourteen That of Corinth under Bachillus eighteen That under Pasna or Palma the same number That of Osroena eighteen but the President of it is not known That of Mesapotamia which follows had the same number and it may be was the same Synod as that of Rome which follows is it may be the same with that which is mentioned before to have had the like number and the occasion of such mistakes as these is that when men find a Synod cited upon several accounts although it might be the same meeting that determined several things they are apt to conclude they were several Synods However it is plain from hence that there were but few Bishops in comparison of what they grew to within an hundred years after and that I take to be an argument of the largeness of their Dioceses But you will say there were but few Christians in these Parts The countrary is notorious to all the Word for these parts where most of these Councils were held were the best planted and furnished with Christians of any in the World But it may be there were but few in the world at this time It is not long after this that Tertullian wrote his Apology and what number of Christians there were then we have shewed already How then can this be imagined for every City if it have a Church must have a Bishop there is no absolute necessity of that that it should have its peculiar Bishop for we have seen already one Bishop as that of Milevis had more Cities than one in his Diocess and it had been so from ancient time or rather from the beginning antiquitus pertinuit And in this time we are now speaking of it is likely the Apostolick constitution of Bishopricks which in the beginning as Rabanus Maurus observed were very large did hold and it was the best suited to the infancy of the Church when one general visit our should take care of several Churches scattered as yet and incoherent and because a persecution might overthrow these little beginnings it was necessary there should be one whose office it should be to cultivate these new Plantations and where they were rooted up to set anew and to confirm those that were shaken with a competent district But when Christians multiplyed every where and most Cities had such numbers belonging to them as must be distributed into several Congregations the Diocess of the first constitution became too great and every City with some of the Territory belonging to it became a Diocess and had its proper Bishop And this seems to be most agreeable both to the Scripture History of the Church which we have made a deduction of before and to the progress of the Church in succeeding ages and particularly to the numbers of Bishops which are found in the first Synods But to proceed The Synod at Rome under Victor wherein Novatus was condemned was much more numerous than any mentioned before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 43. and consisted of sixty Bishops besides Priests and Deacons and Eusebius speaking of this observes the number to be very extraordinary consisidering the circumstances of those times and the numbers assembled in foregoing Synods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Libellus Synodicus reckons but eighteen which it may be was a small Synod previous to this greater one mentioned by Eusebius The Eastern Synods about Rebaptizing Hereticks were reckoned as for those times very numerous Euseb l. 7. c 5. Plurimi tractavimus Firmil Ep. ad Cypr. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 3. and yet that of Iconium the greatest of those of the East consisted of but fifty Bishops and these met together out of several Countries as Galatia Cappadocia Cilicia and other neighbouring Provinces St. Augustin despises the smalness of their numbers though Dionysius confesses these were mighty Synods in his time or rather before his time for they seem to be earlier than Baronius places them But what were these against so many thousand Bishops as were in the world then sayes Augustin I believe it would have been a very hard matter to have found so many thousand Bishops at that time I am sure the Acts of the Church discover no such multitudes of them and they must be very negligent if they should be so many and yet suffer things to be carried any way in Councils by a very few persons that Father judged of former ages by his own when Dioceses were exceedingly multipyed even to be the grievance and complaint of the African Church But Baronius goes to mend the matter by telling us that this opinion could find but fifty to countenance it among all the Bishops of the East One would imagine by this that the Councils of Iconium and Synadae An. Ch. 258 were but a small number of Bishops protesting against the general suffrage of their neighbour Bishops But if this were true Stephen Bishop of Rome had acted very extravagantly and upon ill information when upon the account of those publick resolutions taken by fifty Bishops he goes to excommunicate all the Bishops of Cilicia Galatia Euseb l. 7. c. 5. Cappadocia and the bordering Nations What number of Bishops France had at this time appears from the Council Vita 5. Pauli ap Bosquet Hist Eccl. Gal. par 2. where Paul Bishop of Narbonne was accused of in continence Evocatis paucis Episcopis Galliae quia nondum erant plures having called a few Bishops together for at that time Gallia had not many Nor do we find that Dioceses were much multiplyed in Spain as yet the famous Council of Illiberis which decreed so many things relating to Communion and such as all the Churches there must be supposed to consent to had but nineteen Bishops a number so small that Baronius takes occasion from hence to despise the Authority of the Assembly But what ever may be inferred from the smalness of their number surely one must infer that their Dioceses were Divided into Parishes from Canon seventy seven Siquis Dia conus regens plebem sine Episcopo vel Presbytero aliquns baptizaverit c. Conc. Illib c. 77. Hic regere posse plebem Diaconum hoc
est curam Parochiae habere Hispani Episcopi docent Baptizare posse Mendoza where it is ordered That if a Deacon who has the government of a Congregation or Parish without a Bishop or Presbyter shall Baptize any the Bishop shall perfect it by Confirmation or if in the mean time the party dyes we are to hope well of him The Council of Neocaesarea in like manner does signifie the same distribution of Dioceses into several Parishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Conc. Neocaes c. 13. where the Country Presbyters are distinguished from those of the City and the former are forbid to officiate in the Citie 's Cathedral in the presence of the Bishops or Presbyters belonging to them Now when Constantines conversion had made so great and happy a change in the affairs of the Church when the Civil power that hitherto used all means possible to destroy it took it not only into its protection but to special favour and kindness and studyed all means possible to render it great and honourable the number of Bishops and Dioceses were so far from being diminished that they soon after were exceedingly encreased partly by the Emperors multiplying Metropoles partly by the unhappy Divisions that soon after afflicted the Church as will appear by the progress of this deduction When Constantine Indicted the Council of Nice it appears from Eusebius that he us'd all means to have as great an Assembly of Bishops as could well come together Euseb â—e vita Constant l 3. c. 6. for which purpose he furnish'd many of them especially such as were at a great distance with convenience for Travail and there is no doubt but as many as could have any means of going would be carri'd thither by their curiosity to see and enjoy the Presence of a Christian Emperor that new Miracle that God had wrought in favour of his Church and accordingly they came from all parts of the Roman Empire and some from the Nations beyond it The Countries that lay next to Nice did doubtless send the greatest part of their Bishops as may be inferr'd by comparing the subscriptions of the Bishops of Palestine Phoenice Coelosyria Egypt and some other Countries either with the Ancient Notiâ—â—â— of the Dioceses of those Countries or the subscriptions of following Councils and it is observable that the Province of Bithynia where this Council was held had but 13 Bishops Present though the principal Bishop of the Province were extreamly concern'd and at last condemned by this Synod therefore we cannot but conclude that that Province had very few more Yet after all this care to make a full assembly the number of Bishops scarce exceeded 250. as Eusebius who was present does affirm 232. according to the MS. cited by Mr. Selden in Eutich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which Sandius takes to be Sabinus often mention'd by Socrates and one that exposed this Council as consisting of poor Illiterate men and Eustatius Bishop of Antioch reckons but 20 more though the Common opinion reckons 318. and yet how small a number is this in comparison of some succeeding Councils where we find without half the Apparatus that belong'd to the Nicene Council double the number meet together The Council of Sardica on the part of the Catholicks had near 300. the Hereticks had great numbers at the same time in Philippopolis the Arrian Council of Sirmium had 300 Western Bishops besides those of the East that of Ariminum had 400. Bishops from the Western parts of the Empire for in the East there was another Council called at Seleucca and lastly that of Chalcedon had no less than 600. There can be no reasonable account given of this difference 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb vit Const l. 3.17 but that the multitude of Dioceses was strangely increas'd for Constantine design'd the Council of Nice to be as great and Magnificent as was possible and yet it was nothing in comparison with those that followed nay was outdone by some Provincial Councils of Africk And as the number of the Council of Nice shews that Dioceses in those times were not so many nor small as they became afterwards so the Canons of the same Council do suppose Bishopricks to be very large and forbid the dividing of them for one Canon orders that every Bishop should be ordained by all the Bishops of his Province Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And considering how large Ecclesiastical Provinces were then they cannot suppose all the Pastours of every Congregation to meet nor indeed the Ministers of every good Town or substantial Village which in several Provinces would amount to several thousands without making such an Assembly more numerous than any general Council that ever was in the world Can. â— another Canon provides against the dividing of Dioceses in case a Novatian Bishop shall happily be willing to be reconcil'd to the Church but that he should be content with the place of Presbyter unless the Catholick Bishop should think fit to leave him the title of a Bishop if not Inveniat eâ— locum ut sit in Parochia Chorepiscopus then to make him a Chorepiscopus i. e. the Rector of a Country Parish in his Diocese or a City Presbyter lest there should be two Bishops in the same City The African Councils took another course as we have seen and divided the Diocese in such a Case but when they consider'd the Authority of this Council we find them changing their Practice for Augustin when he had design'd his Successour yet would not suffer him to be ordain'd in his life time because he would not violate this Canon although his Predecessor had permitted his Ordination while he was alive August Ep. but Augustin makes his excuse that he did not know of this Canon then and yet his Diocese was large enough to hold two but he understood this one City with all its dependencies and thought that by vertue of this Canon there ought not to be two Bishops together in the Diocese of Hippo that was above forty miles in length The Diocese of Constantinople to which Constantine was so great a Patron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb vit Const l. 3. c. 46. was very considerable in his time for it had so far outgrown the measure of one Congregation that the Emperor thought it necessary to build a great many Churches and very large Temples or Martyria because they were dedicated to the memory of Martyrs and this not only within the City but in the Suburbs that is in the language of that time the Territory belonging to it And it is great pity there was no Bishop or Presbyter that could inform the welmeaning Emperor that this was mistaken devotion to submit all these Churches to one Bishop The Council of Antioch supposes Bishops to have large Dioceses An. Ch. 341. Can. 8. and therefore provides that Country Presbyters shall not give Canonical Epistles not so much as to the
next neighbouring Bishop but the Chorepiscopi may send such as were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for friendly correspondence and concord And the next Canon about the power of Metropolitans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 9. where it is forbid any Bishop to do any thing of great moment that may concern the whole Province without the concurrence of the Metropolitan does notwithstanding allow that he may govern his own Church and all the Regions under his jurisdiction Another Canon supposes more than one City in a Diocess and therefore Orders That a Bishop shall not Ordain a Presbyter or a Deacon in another City than his own * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Can. 22. or that is not subject to him Concil Agrippin An. 346. Non opinione sed veritate cognovi pro finitimi loci conjuncta Civitate The Council of Colen discovers the Dioceses thereabout to be very large for the Bishops assembled had most of them their Seats at a great distance from Colen Sêrvatius Bishop of Tongres in his Subscription adds something concerning his own knowledg of Euphratas Bishop of Colen and he gives for his reason that he was his next neighbour and yet their Cities are fifty or sixty English miles distant one from the other and the extent of the Diocess of Colen appears from the same Council where not only the people of the City exhibite their complaint against him but of all the Towns of the second Germany Subscriptio Servatii Cumque recitata fuisset Epifiola plebis Agrippinensis sed omnium Castrorum Germaniae secundae Ap. Conc. acta Provincia Germaniae secundae Metropolis Civitas Agrippinens Colozia Libel Provinciar whereof Colen was Metropolis and most of them belonged to that Diocess The Council of Sardica considering what course the Arians took to strengthen their party by increasing the number of Bishops as the instance of Ischyras Presbyter of Mareotes shews who was Ordained Bishop of a Village by the Arian Council of Tyre thought fit to declare against such proceedings as derogating from the dignity of a Bishop and therefore Decree That no Village or inconsiderable City shall have a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Sard. c. 6. or any place where a Presbyter may suffice and lest you may imagine this an innovation to favour the growing greatness of the Bishops they add immediately That the Bishops of a Province shall Ordain Bishops in those Cities where there were any before which supposes that there were several Cities after the Empire became Christian that had never yet had Bishops Nay they add farther That when a City grows very populous so as to be fit to receive a Bishop it may have one To the same purpose is the Decree of the Council of Laodicea held after that of Sardica and much later than is generally pretended That Bishops ought not to be made in Villages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitatores qui circumtant Isid Merca. or in the Country but Visitors who by the name they bear appear to be Diocesans because they have several Congregations under them which they are to visit and as for such Country Bishops as are already they must take care to act nothing of moment without the advice and privity of the City Bishops Yet all this while Dioceses do multiply against all means used to prevent it as we may perceive by the extraordinary numbers that met in Councils Acciti atque tracti 400 à mplius Episcopi Sul. Sev. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. Synod ap Athan. de Synod exceeding very much the greatest of those that had gone before Extraordinary numbers met at Sirmium and Ariminum at the latter all the Bishops of the West are said to have met for the Emperperors Officers were sent all over Illyricum Italy Africk Spain France to summon the Bishops to meet at Ariminum and all the Bishops are said to come thither from all the Cities of the West And now as we may observe the number of Bishops and Dioceses to increase so we may make some judgment concerning the occasion from that little light that is left in this particular We have but a very obscure account of the erecting of Bishopricks how and when most of them were founded but those instances that are preserved are sufficient to make us comprehend how the numbers came to increase so sensibly after the breaking out of the Arian controversy and in Egypt some time before upon the occasion of the Meletian Schism Epiph. Her 68. Meletius having left the Communion of the Catholick Church formed a separate faction and Ordained Bishops and Presbyters in every Country and in every place through which he passed nor was he content to set up only one Altar against another but to erect several in the same Diocess Nor is there yet any end of dividing Dioceses but these increase in proportion to the divisions of the Church Meletius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiph. Haer. 68. and as the Meletian Schism multiplyed Bishops in Egypt the Author of that Sect Ordaining Bishops in every Region and in every place that he passed through several in the same Diocess and as the Arian Controversy made Bishops where there never were any before so it is not to be doubted but the Controversies which followed Athan. Ap. 2. multiplyed Dioceses no less than these But besides this the multiplying of Metropolitans by the Christian Emperors contributed no less to multiply Bishops We have an eminent instance of this in the Province of Cappadocia in the time of Basil the Great The province being divided between two Civil Metropoles the Bishop of Tyana the new Metropolis thought that accordingly all that part of the Country that belongeâ—â—o the Civil jurisdiction of his City became no less subject to him as his Ecclesiastical Province which occasioned great disputes and animosities between the two Metropolitans Basil complains of the Bishops of the second Cappadocia that they presently renounced him in a manner Ep. 259. and when he made any difficulty of Ordaining any Bishop belonging to his Province Anthimus was ready to admit him as it happened in the case of Faustus Therefore to oppose the power of this new Usurping Metropolitan he betakes himself to the ordinary relief of making more Suffragans that by this means he might have some remedy from a Provincial Synod Epist 58. 195. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. de Vit. suâ Ep. 22 23. To this purpose Sasima a small Town belonging to Caesarea is made an Episcopal Seat and Gregory Nazianzen is preferred to it much against his will as a Person that might be of use to him against his Antagonist which he complains of in his Epistles to Basil and in his account of his own life and so sensible was he of Basil's ingaging him in this quarrel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Or. de Basil that he cannot forbear expressing his resentments even
in the Funeral Oratition of his friend where besides this new Bishoprick he shews that seâ—â—â—al others were erected upon that contention and that the Church had this advantage that By the increase of Bishops there would be a more exact and particular care taken of Souls and every City should be governed in all Ecclesiastical affairs within it self which before in that Country it seems they were not used to And Lastly That by this means the strife endeds After what manner he does not say perhaps this increase of Bishops carried the cause for Basil against Anthimus and so the controversy ended However Nazianzen commends Basil here for multiplying Dioceses yet in the Verses before cited he makes it a very unnecessary innovation for him to set up a Bishop at Sasima having no less than fifty Suffragan Bishops in his Province already 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet if we consider how far Sasima was probably from Caesarea we must conclude the Diocess of Basil out of which this is expresly said to be taken to have been very large for that this place was at some good distance from Basil we may perceive from Nazianzen's complaint as if he had been banished by this promotion into some remote place 2. If any guess may be made by comparing the itinerary from Constantinople to Jerusalem Printed â—â—th that of Antonius with the Tabulae Peuterigeranae Apud Itinerarium Antonini Sasus in finibus Ciliciae But this cannot be the same with Sasime in the other Itinerary the distance must be as great at least as between Hippo and Fussala for in that Itinerary there is reckoned sixteen miles from Sasima to Andavalis which in Peutingers tables is a great way from Caesarea 3. Sasima in the Ancient Greek Notitiae Printed with others by Carolus â S. Paulo Ordo Metropolitarum prout descriptus est in Chartophylacio is set down in the second Cappadocia which was under the Metropolis of Thyana and therefore it is not likely to be very near Caesarea the Metropolis of the other Cappadocia And one may observe that the Dioceses of Cappadocia notwithstanding this division were yet very considerable and far from being reduced into Congregational Churches It is plain from Nazianzen that Cappadocia had but fifty Bishops for so many he sayes Basil had under him and no doubt he owned him as Metropolitan of the whole Province and considering the extent of that Country the Dioceses must needs be large for the Country as Strabo computes Strab. l. 12. is near four hundred miles in length and little less in breadth as Causabon restores the reading of one thousand eight hundred furlongs in the twelfth book by a passage in the second where the breadth is made two thousand eight hundred And in this compass Bishops may contrive fifty Dioceses of very competent extent and not inferior to many of ours Basil writing to the Presbyteâ—â— of Nicopolis Salutes the Clergy of the City and the Clergy of the Diocess And in a Letter to the Citizens of the same place Bas Ep. 592. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desires them to shew a good example of affection towards their new Bishop to the rest of the Diocess Ep. 94. And in another to the Brethren of Colonia whence Euphronius was chosen to Nicopolis he tells them that he who was their Chorepiscopus before may take care of them still and continue to be their Bishop The same Father in another Epistle Ep. 72. Evasenis shews that Ancyra was a Diocess of good extent for Eustathius passing through the Territory of that City is said to have overthrown the Altars of Basilides the Bishop of it and to set up his own Tables which supposes several Country Churches under the jurisdiction of that Diocesan Bas Ep. 406. Amphilochio sub nomine Hâ—racleidae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And Lastly when Basil directs Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium to constitute Bishops in the Province of Isauria which at that time was it seems distitute upon what occasion I know not he enters upon a comparison between the convenience of large and small Dioceses and debates for sometime whether it were best to Ordain one Bishop of the Metropolis Seleucia I suppose who shall take care of the whole Province and Ordain more Bishops as he shall find expedient or else appoint a number of lesser Bishops first And here he confesses that if he could find one that would answer the character of St. Paul that were a workman who needed not to be ashamed such a one would go a great way and be worth many little Bishops would be of greater use to the Church and by that means we might with less hazard undertake the care of the Souls of the Province But if this cannot be done then let there be made Bishops in the lesser Cities and Villages where there were Bishops before and the matter be so ordered that the Bishop of the Principal City may not disturb us hereafter in point of Ordinations By which it appears that Isauria was then part of Basils Province and we may perceive the reason why he chose rather to Ordain the Country Bishops first to form an interest in the first place and to diminish the strength and power and to prevent the usurpations of the Bishop of the chief City Nor were these Chorepiscopi Country Bishops other than Diocesan as to the extent of their Church which consisted of many Congregations and those at a good distance one from the other for these were not as Rectors of a single Parish but Visitors of several Churches to the proportion it may be of our Rural Deaneries though like them they were more immediately related to a certain Parish or Town But their Episcopacy was in relation to the association of several Churches So Basil sayes he sent to the Chorepiscopus of those places not of one Country Town 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas Ep. 355. and therefore the Council of Laodicia calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Visitors and where Cities were not very thick some of them had the inspection of a large Territory But yet these were but the Deputies or Surrogates of the City Bishops in point of jurisdiction for they were to do nothing of moment without their Bishop and several Councils provide against their Usurpations Basil whose Diocess and Province we come from giving an account of is so resolute upon his prerogative that he will not endure they should ordain as much as the inferior Clergy as Deacons Subdeacons Readers and several others which the Church of that time reckon'd among the Clergy without his consent Bas 181. and if they do let them know sayes he that whosoever is admitted without our consent shall be reputed but a Layman What would he have said if they had pretended to ordain Presbyters or Bishops in opposition to them The Bishops of the Church of England desire no more than S. Basil assumed That none should be reputed Priests
Accomodation But whether it were upon the Authority of this Testimony or of something else more express so it is that the succeeding Historians deliver it for certain that Wales had but seven Bishops Jeffrey of Monmouth tells us that when Austin came over Hist Brit. li◠1. c. 12. Ed. Heid Gyrald de Eccles Men. dist 2. Itiner Camb. l. 2. c. 1. he found in the Province of the Ancient Brittains seven Bishopricks and one Arch-Bshoprick And Gyraldus Cambrensis gives the reasons why there were but four in Wales in his time since anciently there were seven Either sayes he there were more Cathedrals within the compass of Wales in former times or rather because Wales was of a larger extent heretofore than it was in his dayes and reached as far aa Severn And so indeed it was of much greater extent than it is now having all the Country of Hereford a good part of Glocestershire Worcester Salop and Cheshire belonging to it And Baleus gives this account of the Bishops assembled in that Synod mentioned before out of Bede That seven Brittish Bishops met there for in those dayes the Brittains had just so many under the Arch-Bishop of Menevia according to the number of the Bishops of Asia mentioned in the Revelation of St. John Baleus Script Brit Cent. 1. c. 70. and then gives their names Hereford Landaff Llanbaderne Vowr Bangor Asaph Worcester and Morganensis or Glamorgan though this was the same with Landaff And therefore Bishop Vsher thinks that either Chester must make up the seventh or Caer Ilyby i. e. Holyhead in the Isle of Anglesey and so perhaps it is Episcopus Monensis and not Morganensis But as to the number of the Welch Bishops at Austins coming over if any one desire to know any thing more particularly he may consult the learned Primate of Armach Usher de Primord Eccles Brit. 〈◊〉 87 seque who has exhausted that point But as to the form of the Brittish Church Government that it was Diocesan and not Presbyterian or Independent we have a modern Testimony which though it be of no great Authority for the Credit or Learning of the persons that give it yet it is something remarkable because they were professed enemies of the Church of England and of all Diocesan Churches It is the testimony of an Independent Synod assembled in the Savoy Preface to their Declaration of Faith near the end A. D. 1658. For Novelty say they for which we are both charged i. e. the Presbyterians and Independents by the enemies of both It is true in respect of the publick and open profession either of Presbytery of Independency this Nation has been a stranger to each way it is possible ever since it has been Christian And now having given an account of the Rise and Progress of Diocesan Episcopacy and the extent of Ancient Dioceses in several parts of the Christian World I shall conclude this Chapter with a general Testimony of St. Jerom concerning the custom of the Church in and before his time Jerom speaking of Confirmation makes the Orthodox person in the Dialogue say these words I do not deny sayes he this to be the custom of the Church Non quidem abnuo hanc esse Ecclesiarum consuetudinem ut eos qui longe in minoribus Urbibus per Presbyteros Diaconos baptizati sunt Episcopus ad invocationem S. Sprritus manum impositurus excurrat Hieron adv Lucifer for the Bishop to go about his Diocess to confirm by imposition of hands such as are Baptized in lesser Cities remote from the Episcopal Seat by Presbyters and Deacons And the same Father speaking to the same purpose that this was done rather to honor Episcopacy than by any absolute necessity adds Otherwise sayes he those are to be mightily bewailed In viculis Castellis re motioribus locis per Presbyteros aut Diaconos Baptizati who being Baptized in Villages Towns and places remote from the Bishop have dyed before they were confirmed Therefore it was the custom of the Church then nor does he speak only of his own time but of the constant practice of the Church that Bishops should have Presbyters and Deacons under their jurisdiction in places very remote from their Cathedrals and that little Cities Towns or Castles i. e. fortified Towns and Villages might be remote from their Bishops Seat and so Dioceses be then and before that time of a very considerable extent FINIS Books sold by Moses Pitt at the Angel in St. Paul's Church yard Are All that are Printed at the Theatre in Oxford a Cataloge of which he gives gratis to all that please to send to him for it As Bibles in Folio for Churches Bibles in Quarto Octavo and Twelves Testaments in Octavo and Twelves Common Prayers in Folio for Churches Common Prayers in Quarto Octavo Twelves and Twentyfours The English Atlas or a description of the whole Word the which will be twelve Volums in Folio The two first Volums whereof are published the third is now in the Press The price to subscribers is Forty shill a Volum in quires they paying Forty shill alwayes before hand on the delivery of every Volum Catalogue of the Books in the publick Library at Oxford Folio Historia Vniversitatis Oxoniensis Fol. Marmora Oxoniensia Folio Pocock on Micha and Malichi Folio Jamblichus de mysteriis Aegyptiorum Gr. Lat. Folio Charltoni Onomasticon Zoicon Fol. Sir William Dugdale's History of our Civil-Wars Fol. Dr. Henry Hammond's Sermons Fol. Dr. Cole's four Controversial Dialogues Quarto Lord Clarendon against Hebs Quarto Prideaux maimonidis Heb. Lat. Qua.
the supervising Care of many Churches as the Visitors had in Scotland and are so far Episcopi Episcoporum and Arch-bishops having no constraining Power of the Sword but a Power to admonish and instruct the Pastors and to regulate Ordinations Synods and all great and common Circumstances that belong to Churches for if one Form of Government in which some Pastors had such extensive Work and Power as Timothy Titus and Evangelists as well us Apostles had we must not change it without Proof that Christ himself would have it changed Let us compare this with Diocesan Episcopacy and see whether for all this mincing of the matter they will not amount to the same thing this supervising of many Churches does it not sound like having many Parishes under them And if this be impossible for a Diocesan how comes it to be otherwise in an Evangelist or an Apostle Nay how comes it to be allowed in a Scotch Visitor or Super-intendent The regulating Ordinations is no other in Scripture-Phrase than to appoint and ordain Elders in every Church and in every City the Diocesan Bishops desire no more in that point than to have such a Regulation and that it should not be accounted an Ordination that is done without or in Opposition to them The Evangelists might sometimes ordain Elders by their own single hands without the Assistance of any Presbyter sometimes together with the Presbytery our Diocesan Bishops never ordain any to that Order without the Assistance of their Presbyters the Evangelists and Apostles had the Direction of Church-censures 1 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 2.9 10 11. 1 Tim. 5.19 20 21. Tit. 2.15 as appears from frequent Instances in the new Testament as also an Authority or Elders as well as the People to admonish and rebuke and punish those that were negligent or disorderly The Bishops claim no more it is the same Authority it is the same Office hitherto and this is the same of what the Bishops in all Ages of the Church have pretended to succeed to they of the Presbyterian way make all this Power of the Apostles as extraordinary as their Gifts and to expire together with them but for this they never offer any Reason and if this Notion should obtain it would follow that neither Presbyters nor Deacons could be succeeded in their Offices because they also were inspired with extraordinary Gifts as well as the Apostles But Mr. B. allows all this and that they ought to be succeeded even in this Eminence and Extent of Work and Power Why then does he find Fault and exclaim against that which he cannot deny to be of divine Institution and of perpetual Use under the name of Diocesan Episcopacy From these men the ancient Bishops derived their Title to this Authority they pretended to succeed Act. Conc. Tholi Euseb l. 5. c. 24. Polycrates reckons himself the sixth from Timothy and Irenaeus gives us the succession of the Roman Bishops from St. Peter to his time and if it had been necessary to his Purpose did undertake to shew the same of the Governours of the most considerable Churches in the World which afterwards Eusebius has collected out of their several Registers Comment 1 Ep. ad Timoth. Schol. Graec. Theodoret does admirably explain the Original of this Title by shewing that the Apostolick Power was fully convey'd to their Successors Those that are now call'd Bishops says he were in the Beginning called Apostles and the name of Bishop and Presbyter were then of the same Signification but in Process of time the Title of Apostle was appropriated to those who were Apostles indeed that is to the 12. And the name of Bishops was taken up by those that were before called Apostles Walo Mess p. 35. sequent Salmasius a man that never looks behind him or regards any Consequence runs away with this Passage as if he had found the greatest Treasure in the World that Bishop and Presbyter signified the same thing in the Apostles time and is so transported that he cannot take any notice that at the same time there is a Distinction made between the Office of Presbyter and Bishop for the Name they anciently bore shews the Nature and Eminency of their Office that they were Apostles in Authority but the Title being too great and invidious they laid it down for an humbler name and were content with the Stile that was common to Presbyters in the Apostles time Hitherto we have an exact Agreement between these three sorts of Episcopacy and find the Members of Mr. B's most compendious Distinction to be without Difference But it must not be dissembled that there are some things in which they seem to disagree especially-these two first That the Evangelists or Apostles were unfixt but Bishops are determined to a certain Diocess Secondly That the Apostles and Evangelists had Bishops under their Jurisdiction which Bishops do not pretend to As to this Unsetledness of the Apostles there are some that look upon travelling to be so essential to their Office that their Commission is in danger to expire if they should reside any considerable time in any certain place Walo Mess de Epise Presb. And Salmasius makes so acute a Remark upon the Inscription of St. John's two latter Epistles as comes within a small matter of deposing him Before those Epistles he stiles himself John the Presbyter or the Elder or it may be in English no more than John the aged and what would you imagine so great a Critick would observe from this That St. John having fixt his Residence at Ephesus for some considerable time had lost the Eminence of his Apostleship and sunk into the common Level of Presbytery and therefore stiles himself Presbyter only as if he had been conscious his Apostleship had departed from him But how comes St. Paul to remain three years in the same place and remain his Title and much longer yet at Rome where he dyed in the Exercise of his Apostleship Clemens Alex. speaking of St. John tells us he went about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In some places he appointed Bishops where they were wanting and none but Apostolick men could do it and in some places he himself govern'd the Church entirely i. e. as their Bishop and probably appointed another when he left them to succeed in the Charge Vales did not see the Import of this Phrase but rendred it Partim ut ecclesias integras disponeret formaret The last is a Comment that destroys the Sence of Clement who by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 could not understand the setting of a Church under it's Officers which his former seems to imply but the ordering and governing of it by himself in Opposition to his setting up of Bishops in other places and though he had some Authority there by way of supervising the Bishops yet he did not take the Care of the whole which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now in whatsoever City they lived besides the general Care of
Truth is sometimes so miscall'd that no Doctrines are damnable because men have condemned one another for some that are not so Is there no Truth because Contradictions lay claim to it and because that every man honours his mistake under speciousness of that Title for all these confusions of terms the things are the same and a real Heresie is damnable and ought to be reproved and cast out of the Church nothwithstanding that under this pretence the greatest Truths have been discredited Mr. B. gives such an account of those Controversies that exercised the four first General Councils as seems in great measure to excuse those Heresies which were condemn'd by them and to blame their condemnation calling the Bishops in derision Hereticators and Damners because they pronounced Arrius Macedonius Nestorius c. Hereticks men of dangerous Principles and not to be tolerated in the Communion of the Church yet for all this I belive Mr. B's own Rule will absolve them for in his Book called The true and only way of Concord pag. 291. seq he makes a Catalogue of such Errours which men ought to be restrain'd from preaching and propagating now all those Errours condemn'd by the four first General Councils are laid down there not only in the Sense but in the very Terms they were condemn'd in these Doctrines are by him own'd to be dangerous and by no means to be suffered to be preach'd But what if men grow incorrigible and will preach them notwithstanding these Prohibitions and Restraints his Resolution is very moderate that every one should not be ejected or silenced that holdeth or preacheth any one such Errour what then must he be suffer'd to propagate the Infections and to teach these Opinions that are so confessedly dangerous nor that neither for there follows such an Exception in this Toleration as wholly overthrows it for those are to be cast out who consideratis considerandis are found to do more harm than good Now what if the Orthodox Bishops did find that consideratis considerandis those Hereticks they condemned did more hurt than good that they destroy'd with one hand much more than they edified with the other and that the propagating of one of these dangerous Doctrines was not compensated by all the other Truths that they preach'd there is no variety of wholsom food can countervail the Mischiefs of one envenom'd bit and that Physician is not to be trusted that puts in any one dangerous Ingredient though the rest of the Composition were very innocent and this was the Rule they went by the Hereticks in their Opinions were dangerous men they were obstinate in their Opinions industrious in propagating them and were mostly upon the vindication of these controverted Doctrines it was therefore necessary since they did more hurt than good that they should be cast out of the Church Nor is he less displeas'd with the Form than the Matter of this Condemnation and therefore he gives the Bishops the Titles of Hereticating Cursing Damning Bishops but what Antichristian words are these that can move a moderate healing-man to so great Indignation Anathema esto is the usual form of condemnation in Councils which he so frequently calls Cursing and Damning the word is St. Paul's 1 Corintâ— 16.22 If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema-maran-atha and he had borrowed it from the Jews which signifies no more than the separation of any thing from common Use and is used sometimes in a good sometimes in a bad sense In the first he denotes any thing consecrated or devoted to God in the latter any thing which we abhorr and separate our selves from for fear of Pollution so that the addition of it to those Errours which they condemn is dangerous As for Instance If any man shall say that there was a time when Christ was not let him be Anathema imports no more than that we declare our abhorrence of such Doctrines and will have nothing common with those that profess them but Mr. B. I know not out of what Dictionary translates it God damn you and calls it the Religion of the Bishops and their Councils Nay though this did imply so much they may plead the Example of St. Paul even in that case since they do no more than apply his general Sentence which he repeats more than once Gal. 1 9. If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed And that you may not think that this other Gospel does directly overthrow that which he had preach'd and teach men to deny and renounce our Saviour Jesus Christ we must understand that all this relates to the Legal Observances which some would introduce into the Churches of Galatia and their compliance with those Teachers is by the same Apostle called a turning away unto another Gospel and the preaching of those men the Perverting of the Gospel and so warm is the same Apostle against those Disturbers of the Church that he wishes that they were even cut off which troubled them chap. 5.12 Yet the Councils did not go so far in their Anathema's they did but declare the Leprosie as the Priest under the Law turn'd out the Diseas'd and gave warning to all People of the danger of the Infection and it was but fit that such should remain without the Camp till the Disease was heal'd lest it should spread and the whole Church become an Abomination and Anathema to him whose Faith it had suffer'd to be corrupted This was the Design of the Bishops and their Councils to this end they directed their Anathema's and if they have not always met with the Success that were to be wish'd we must not judge uncharitably and undervalue or deride their Endeavours And now let us consider their Acts and see what it is that they have done The first Councils about the time of the Observation of Easter he passes over with only mentioning for there is little of them remaining Pope Victor was doubtless to be blam'd for endangering the Peace of the whole Church Euseb l. 5. c. 24. upon so light an occasion Ch. Hist p. 34. Whether Victor did actually excommunicate the Churches of Asia or only threatned and endeavour'd to do it is not very clear from the Relation of Eusebius Valesius is of opinion and it seems the most probable that this proceeded no farther than Letters of Accusation Vales in locum which he sent to most Churches to represent the Asiaticks as unworthy of Communion but the generality of Bishops not approving it and advising to Peace it is likely the business went no farther so Schism was avoided by the peaceable counsel and disposition of the Bishops The Councils of Carthage Labese under Agrippinus and that of Arabia under Origen he does but just mention that of Rome c. 2. p. 35. after the death of Fabian held by the Roman Clergy in the Vacancy he makes some Remarks upon
Conc. Carth. 3. Can. 42. Codex Int. Eccles Affr. c. 53. Conc. Affr. c. 20. That since upon this occasion many ambitious Priests did seduce some Congregations to desire them for their Bishops for this very Reason Propter malos eorum cogitatus pravè concinnata Concilia hoc dico non debere rectorem accipere eam plebem quae in Dioecesi semper subjacuit Integ Cod. Can. 98. Conc. Affr. 65. nec unquam proprium Episcopum habuit This is made yet more difficult by other Canons that require that no People that have before had Bishops should have any but by the Approbation of a full Provincial Council with the Consent of the Primate and the Bishop of the Diocese He mentions several other Council of Carthage some whereof Ch. Hist p. 74. are Collections of Canons which Binnius mistook for particular Councils but there is little that he cites out of them that favours either his Model of Episcopacy or his design to disgrace Bishops some however I am oblig'd to take notice of as first That the Bishop's Cottage should not be far from the Church the Word is Hospitiolum not quite so poor as a Cottage for it was to be the Refuge of the Poor and the Inn of Strangers and a place fit for Hospitality but it is not hard to guess why this is particularly noted in the Margin for it may be that he may have a great Passion to have this Canon executed Envy is a Passion may slay the silly one but it is much more comfortable to be the Object of his Envy than Contempt There are others that order the Bishops to regard the Presbyters as his Brethren and they are much to blame that do not but there are others innumerable that command the Presbyters to observe their Bishops as their Governours as their Fathers as the Vicegerents of Christ 52. is something odd and shews the Poverty of the African Church that a Clerk or Clergy-man how learned soever in God's Word must get his Living by a Trade this is contrary to the usage of all other Churches even in their lowest times and to the third Council of Carthage Can. 15. which forbids it Item placuit ut Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi vel Clerici non sint conductores neque procuratores neque ullo turpi vel in honesto negotio victum quaerant quia respicere debeant scriptum esse nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis saecularibus This same Canon in some ancient Books runs thus Ut Episcopi Presbyteri Diacones non sint conductores aut Procuratores privatorum neque ullo negotio tali victum quaerant quo eos peregrinari vel ab Ecclesiasticis officiis avocari necesse sit And that we may not judge that this Canon only forbids them dishonest ways of Living which might be understood by Turpe inhonestum the Greek Translation does explain it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from any way that is mean or dishonourable but of this more than enough The Story of Theophilus § 73. p. 75. the great Patriarch of Alexandria comes next whom the succeeding Ages of the Church honour'd as a Saint but Mr. B. is in a strait whether he shall believe him to be a downright Knave or credible nay most credible Socrates and others gross Lyars p. 77. Yet there is no necessity of either for these Historians might be impos'd upon by false Reports and the Monks that were the Authors of them were it may be downright Knaves I must crave the Reader 's patience whilst I endeavour to relieve the Memory of this Great man from the Imputation of Knavery which Socrates and Sozomen Palladius and some others fasten upon it and with them Mr. B. who sets up their Evidence and Authority Sozomen having written this Story most particularly I will Translate those two Chapters out of him that contain the Accusation of Theophilus and add out of Socrates what the other has omitted The Story is thus At that time there was a Question disputed in Egypt Soz. l. 8.11 which had been started not long before Whether God ought to be conceived under a Humane shape Most of the Monks understanding those Places of Scripture which ascribe to God Eyes and Face and Hands grosly and literally fancy'd him as a man others who could penetrate farther into the meaning of those figurative Expressions were of the contrary Opinion and judg'd the other Party to speak blasphemously and unworthy of God Theophilus taught publickly in the Church that this Opinion of the Anthropomorphites ought by no means to be embrac'd and in his Paschal Epistle which he writ as his Custom was every year he declar'd That God ought to be conceiv'd Incorporeal and void of Humane shape The Egyptian Monks understanding this came to Alexandria and having got together made an uproar and would have murder'd the Bishop He comes out to them and endeavours to appease the Tumult by saying I see you as the Face of God This saying did a little asswage the Tumult and the Monks having abated something of their rage reply'd If thou think'st as thou speakest condemn Origen's Books that teach men to think otherwise of God This reply'd Theophilus I intended to do long ago and most willingly comply with you in for I dislike Origen's Opinions no less than you And having thus cajol'd those Monks he appeas'd the Tumult There is no downright Knavery in all this for those words Gen. 33.10 I see you as the Face of God are the words of Jacob to his Brother Esau and his condemning of Origen though not for that which these giddy-headed Monks fancy'd was nevertheless very just here was no Lye though there was a Deceit and the Danger he was in the Examples of Holy men in Scripture and Ecclesiastical History will Justifie or Excuse him And now let us pursue the rest of the Story This Controversie would likely have been at an end Soz. l. 8. c. 12. if Theophilus had not reviv'd it upon a Design of ruining Ammonius dioscorus Eusebius and Eutychius who were sirnam'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 long or tall These were Brothers and very eminent among the Monks of Scetis as we have shew'd before These of all the Monks of Egypt were the greatest Favourites of Theophilus who entertain'd them frequently at his House with great kindness and Familiarity Dioscorus he made Bishop of Hermenopolis but the ground of his Quarrel with them was his hatred of Isidorus whom heretofore he had endeavoured to have made Bishop of Constantinople after the death of Nectarius Socr. l. 6. c. 7. Some say that when a certain Woman had come over to the Church from the Heresie of the Manichees and had been receiv'd to Communion before she had made an abjuration of her former Heresie Theophilus charg'd the arch-Arch-Presbyter with this Neglect but he had a grudge against him before upon another account Peter for that was his name
here An. 1586. A National Synod was call'd to sit at the Hague by the order of the Earl of Leicester without the States and here they insisted upon their Ecclesiastical authority and excluded the Magistrate from any voyce in the chusing of Church Officers That a National Synod should meet every third year without the Magistrates leave and subscription was more strictly press'd upon the Ministers under pain of being turn'd out of their Churches But these were but slight differences in respect of that which follow'd that fatal Schism I mean occasion'd by the Arminian Controversie The seeds of it had lain in that Church from the beginning and Colhaes â—uyrhuis Herberts I'o â—hert and divers oâ—hers had declared themselves against the received confession and Catechism of those Churches long before Arminius But his authority and learning bore up against the Current of the contrary Doctrine that had overborn such as before that had oppos'd it See the preface to the Acts of the Synod of Dore. and now the condition of those Churches was most deplorable for several years together there was nothing but perpetual Dispute and Claâ—rour Conference after Conference and Synod after Synod Appeal upon Appeal At last it came to Tumult and Sedition to Confusion and blood-shed Ministers were turn'd out of their charges some Banish'd Vid. vit Episcopii others set upon by the Rabble and in danger to be torn in pieces Nothing can be imagined more distracted than the state of those Churches was for a long whâ—le together At last after all the interposing and good offices of other Reform'd Churches but without effect a general Synod was resolved upon where the Remonstrants were condemn'd and the Civil Magistrate seconded this sentence by another more severe whereby they Banish'd the Ministers that would not subscribe many of them were imprison'd and in short Bâ—shops could not have procur'd greater rigour and severity which here seem'd to be more grievous where every body else had liberty of Conscience and Jews were allow'd a publick exercise of their Religion And yet these very points in difference that not only rent these Churches in pieces but shook those of France who confirm'd the Decrees of the Synod of Dort and turn'd out such Ministers as favoured the condemn'd Doctrine and requir'd subscriptions to the contrary opinions of such as were to be admitted into the Clergy these points I say have not had the same unhappy influence upon some other Churches that were Episcopal Men in our Church have taught very differently of these matters and yet the Unity of the Church hath been still preserv'd notwithstanding this difference of opinions which shews that Episcopal government is not so subject to Schism as Mr. B. would make the world imagine and to say the truth ours has been troubled with no other such difference but what hath been made in opposition to the very form of Government it self and there is no wonder if it seems so difficult to heal it since the Church can no otherwise satisfie these men than by destroying the whole frame of its Government and order and it is strange any should expect it that did not believe all those under the rule of the Church to be Hypocrites These men talk much of Ceremonies and Liturgy but this is the least of the difference though it be most pretended because most useful to render the Governours of the Church odious for shutting men out of it for such Circumstances as these This makes most noise as a false Alarm commonly does but the real design is upon the Government Therefore those that fancy any Accomodation practicable upon any allowances in this part seem to my apprehension to mistake the disease for Alas It is not accomodation but Victory that these men aim at But to return to the Churches of Holland whose Schism gave occasion to this digression After the Synod of Dort though all means were us'd to suppress the Remonstrants yet they remain still in separate Assemblies and the unhappy breach continues to this day without any probability of being made up Vid. Spanbmite Ep. ad Amie When they had tir'd themselves and the world with this Controversie they were diverted with new matter of dispute the names of Voetius and Cocceius rather than any difference between their Doctrine disturb'd again the peace of those Churches And though the ground of the quarrel is scarce perceivable yet it is hardly to be imagin'd how great the Animosities are This indeed never came to a formal Schism yet it has divided those Churches into formal parties and in some occasions the quarrel seems of more than ordinary consequence and has great influence upon the Promotions of the Ministry and the Affections of several Cites are determin'd to this or that party And as these Presbyterian Churches have been afflicted with Schism and contentions so they have been sensible of the mischiefs of Heresie and labour more than any part of the Christian world under the Infamy of them Here the Ministers have no great Revenues nor dignities nor Power and here are no Patriarchs nor Bishops and yet Heresies makes a shift to thrive Arians Socinians Menonists Labadyists and diverse others they are neglected no general Councils disturb the enjoyment of their errors and yet they abound and are pertinacious Nor is it a wonder they take such deep root in Presbyterian Churches for of late like Storks they have affected a republican Church above all others and it is observable that in these last ages there have been no Hereticks that have not been likewise Anti-Episcopal and at the same time that they become enemies of the truth they declare war against the Bishops who are the Guardians of it If it be objected that our Country swarms with this Vermin too it ought to be considered from whence they came to be so rife among us It was the taking away of Episcopacy that opened such a door to errors and there were more Heresies started here in the space of four years after Bishops had been laid aside if Edwards reckons right than have been known in the Universal Church from the foundation of it to that time And those that fall into Herefie here do it commonly by degrees They begin with Schism and end in Enthusiasm and madness first they are Presbyterians and then if that dispensation be not spiritual enough they are improv'd in to Independents and from thence to the fifth Monarchy or Quakerism All the extravagant Heresies among us are but the spawns of the first Schism and the consequences of those Principles of Separation that draw them from the Communion of the Bishop The Church of Scotland has felt the Distractions occasion'd by this Parity of Ministers more than any of her Neighbours and though it has not been divided by a formal Schisin 'till of late yet from the first setting up of this Government it has been exercis'd with perpetual contentions and Tumults and Sedition about Church Discipline
the deprivation of Communion is a sorer punishment to those who have known the value of the Ordinances of Christ and have tasted the grace of God in them than any other that can be inflicted on mens bodies or estates And here can be no other relief but by Separation and Schism 2. When a Pastor is turned Heretick and has seduc'd his Congregation into a good opinion of his Doctrine they have no relief because they have no judge to examine the Doctrine and to remove the evil from among them 3. If a Congregation shall conspire to be wicked turn Libertines and Antinomians who shall censure them for it the Magistrate may not be a Christian or may not take notice of it But the inconveniences of this way may be farther observ'd by looking into the several forms whereby this Congregational Supremacy either is or may be Administred 1. Suppose the Pastor invested with this whole power without any appeal to be made from his sentence what temptation would this independence be to abuse that unaccountable power since no superior Court could revise his Acts And if this man sâ—â—uld prove imprudent and wilful in the Administration of so great a power what peace could be expected And yet we must expect this power should fall often into the evil hands and it must be a wretched constitution that should not make some provision against it But in the Congregational way the first thing is extremity But I will not urge this because the Independents will not allow the Pastor any such power and therefore let us consider this way as managed by the Pastor and a select Presbytery the inconveniences are rather greater For 1. In many Congregations the Church power must come into the hands of such as have little capacity or experience and by that means would become contemptible 2. Suppose they should not all agree upon a Sentence of Excommunication must the majority conclude it and against the opinion of the Minister This would be something hard for him to pronounced sentence against his own judgment and condemn a person he believes to be innocent if he does refuse then he resists the Authority of the Church and that must needs produce a Rupture 3. They of the select Presbytery must be supposed to have a mixture with the rest by way of dealing and commerce and this begetting differences and feuds between them it cannot be â—voided but that Church censures will be abused to revenge private Animosities and those upon whom they are to be executed will be more loth to submit when they recollect that they proceed from persons they had disoblig'd and instead of reflecting upon their guilt they will be apt to ascribe all to private grudge upon which reason in common Law he that is supposed to be judged by his neighbours has the liberty to reject any with whom he has had any falling out 4. This would probably degenerate into a civil Tyranny when a poor man should refuse to comply with some of his Ecclesiastical Judges to his own disadvantage they would find some advantage against him and by disgracing him in the Congregation ruine him consequently in his livelyhood 5. The exercising of such censures within so little compass as that of a Congregation by the members of it one on the other must in a little while ingage the whole body in parties and factions without any hopes of uniting the sufferers will be discontented and when they grow numerous will not conceal their resentments but bend them to the disturbance of that Congregational unity But lastly if we suppose the whole Congregation concerned to declare it self in every act of Excommunication few of the inconveniences before mentioned will be removed and there will be others yet greater For 1. It cannot well be avoided but upon many causes the Congregation will be divided and when it happens to be upon the subject of removing from or restoring to Church communion such differences do lead them into Schism for since there is no judge between them every party will likely stand by its own opinion and will hardly submit their judgments to the majority of the other side that out-votes them but by a few voices Those that were fierce for turning a Member out of Church fellowship because they are offended with him will likelier quit the Congregation and set up for themselves than endure the Communion of that which they cryed out upon as so great a scandal 2. The wisest and best men who are generally the fewest will be of no use for they will be overborn with number 3. It will make a constant trade of Faction and making of parties To conclude therefore If the Church hath been afflicted with Schisms and Heresies under Diocesan Bishops we have seen that it has suffered the same things under other sorts of Government but that which Mr. B. offers as a remedy of disorders has been the least able to preserve the Church from divisions nor were those infinite breaches accidental only as the best Government in the world cannot prevent all inconveniences but were the natural fruit of that constitution which would not be able to preserve peace between the Churches of one City how much less between the numerous Congregations of a Kingdom and is such a form as destroyes it self and pulls even particular Congregation in pieces by unavoidable feuds and factions first and then by formal Schism and Separation CHAP. II. Of the Rise and Progress of Diocesan Episcopacy Mr. Baxter in a Book published since his Church History Treatise of Episc Part 1. c. 3. gives us such an account of the Original of Bishops and Diocesans as would make one suspect he had had some late Revelation for he speaks so particularly of such things which no body else ever heard of and shews all the first causes of the rise of Episcopacy after so new a manner that it must be either new Revelation or some new Authors found out But because nothing of these appears in the Margin I am apt to believe it was rather a Dream For he tells us That in the beginning there were but few Scholars and Philosophers converted who were able to Preach and these men of parts Overtop'd the rest and where such as these were found they were highlier esteemed than the rest and these in some time became Bishops being made first Arbitratours and then as more learned Judges of true and false Doctrine nay being wiser than all the rest it was fit he should have a negative voice and Fourthly they understood their own value well enough and that made them proud and desire preheminence And Lastly one Bishop was set over some Churches for want of more able men and he having got the start of the others that came after made them truckle to him Mr. Blondel had a quite contrary dream and for my part I do not know a better way of Answering one Dream but with another he Dream'd I say for he had
But those of the Congregational way indeavour to diminish the numbers by making a great part of these new Converts to be strangers and to return home when the Feast was over To which I Answer 1. That the Scripture gives no countenance to this conjecture but sayes all those strange Nations were q Acts 2.5 14. Inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Original word inclines most on this side But 2. Suppose they were some of them Strangers yet how shall we be assured that they returned home The Scripture seems to say thâ— contrary v 47. For as soon as it sets down thâ— number it adds That they continued stâ—â—â— fastly in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in Prayers They i. e. the three thousand in the Verse going before besides there is no probability of their leaving the Apostles it is not suitable to the zeal and devotion of the first Converts who despised all Earthly concerns and left Houses and Land and Families for Christs sake And these Proselytes sold all and had all things in common which takes away the necessity of their returning home Nor did the Church cease to grow and multiply but proselytes came over every day For the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved But among these daily accessions some are very great and remarkable for not long after we find no less than five thousand more added to the Church at one time v. 47. Many of them that heard the word believed and the number of the men that is plainly of those that heard the word and believed was about five thousand Acts 4.4 and besides these that were Converted the generality of the people favoured the preaching of the Gospel so that the Magistrates durst not deal over rigorously because of the people v. 21. This general good disposition was improved by the Apostles into a perfect conversion of great numbers For believers were the more added to the Lord Acts 5.14 multitudes both of men and women And the Christian Congregations were now so thronged that they brought out their sick and laid them in the Sreets that the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them And now the Church of Jerusalem grew too numerous for the Apostles to take the whole charge of it upon them for when the Number of the Disciples was multiplyed c. 6.1 their arose a murmuring of the Grecians that their Widows were neglected and the Apostles desired the multitude to chuse seven men whom they might appoint over this matter And in the mean time they would give themselves up continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word and the twelve it seems had enough to do in this particular for they declare that they cannot look after Tables but they must neglect their more peculiar duty â— 2. leave the word of God And we do immediately find the success of this Counsel â— 7 The word of God increased and the number of the Disciples multiplyed in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Faith And now after all these accessions Acts 8.1 we find but one Church in Jerusalem a great persecution is said to have been raised against that Church Now what manner of Church shall we imagine this to be a Congregational one shall all those thousands make but one Assembly for Communion in Prayer and the Sacraments It is incredible There was no place large enough no hold them and considering the opposition that was made against them they cannot be supposed to have the use of any publick meeting place the Synagogues were taken up by the Jews and if we may guess at their bigness by their number we must conclude they could not be very capacious since in Jerusalem there were as Sigonius delivers from the Records of the Jews no less than five hundred and eighty Car. Sigonius de Rep. Heb. l. 2. c. 8. Lightfoot Hor. Hebr. cap. 36. prooem Evang. Mat. the number more generally argeed is four hundred and eighty In short the multitude of Believers as it is represented by St. Luke must be granted to exceed the measure of one or two Congregations and considering their circumstances might probably make up more than twenty Congregations This Church then in the singular containing more than one Assembly was no other than a Diocess governed by the common Council of the Apostles in which Peter may be supposed to preside without doing the Pope any Service To this the Assertors of the Congregational way make several exceptions Grand Debate concerning Presb. and Independ in the Answer to the reasons of the Diss Breth and Mr. B. among the rest but so frivolous that I wonder after the Answers made to them by the Divines of the Assembly any can be so obstinate as to insist upon them They Except 1. That the first three thousand Converts were not all of Jerusalem but returned home after the Feast was over but of this no other proof than that there were dwelling in Jerusalem devour men of several Nations or as they render it sojourning and it is not very significant how we understand it since the Scripture sayes expresly that they continued in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship But of this already 2. That the five thousand is not to be added to the other three but includes them There needs no other Answer to this than to refer them to the place which is clear enough of it self The miracle wrought on the Cripple that sate in the Gate of the Temple and the Sermon that seconded it was altogether occasional and there can be no reason to imagine the whole Church then to be met together in that place 3. That in those Countries there were much greater Congregations than can be with us as some of those that followed our Saviour who Preached to Myriads and the reason is offered because the air is more pure and thin That at Charenton the Congregation consists of many thousands This is manifestly to trifle and to Libel their own cause by reasons that are impertinent or ridiculous 4. Mr. B. Adds they had better Lungs in those times and places he might have said as well that they had better Ears and a quicker hearing or that they could understand a mans meaning by his gaping 5. They say that this being the first Church and under the joyn'd care of all the Apostles might soon arrive to the greatest measure of a Church What is this in effect but to yield the question How they came to that number we see well enough but the thing contended is that their number did exceed a Congregation besides they cannot be supposed so well to have multiplyed so very soon if the Ministry of these Apostles had not been divided and some Preached in one Assembly and others in another 6. They say there was liberty till Sauls persecution And what then Under that liberty the
Church might exceed the measure of a single Congregation in less time 7. Mr. B. sayes this is no precedent And why The Mother Church gathered and governed by all the Apostles together which is a circumstance that perhaps no other Church can boast of Why shou'd not this be a precedent The truth is it spoils a notion of Congregational Independent Churches and because it cannot be made to comply it must be protested against that it be not brought into a Precedent Besides these exception Acts 2.26.5.1.6.5 6. they offer testimonies to prove rhe Church of Jerusalem no more than could meet in one place because all the multitude is sometimes said to meet together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against these proofs there lies one great exception The number of Converts on one side are specified and it plainly thence appears that there was no possibility they should all meet together for all acts of worship but on the other side all the proof is in general expressions the whole multitude and the all may denote only those that were present and not all that believed as it is said Luke 1.10 The whole multitude of the people were without Praying i.e. not all the people of Jerusalem but the whole multitude that was present so the meeting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be said of several Congregations meeting for the same purpose as well as of one But the Independents in the Assembly of Divines did seem to give up this point and to grant that before the dispersion there might be more than one Congregation of Christians but that after they were scattered there remained no more than could meet in one place Suppose all this what advantage can it be to their cause if there were more once than might meet in one Assembly and so were forc'd to divide into several and this notwithstanding to retain the name but of one Church because under one common Government it follows that wheresoever the Christians should afterwards increase in the same manner they might likewise be governed after the same manner and in several Congregations still preserve the Unity of the Church If there were no more afterwards than one Congregation it is plain that it was only casual if I may so speak of the circumstances of the Church Nor is that true in fact which they affirm of the Church of Jerusalem after the dispersion for though they are all said to be scattered besides the Apostles Acts ◠1 yet it cannot be understood of all the Believers because afterwards we find Saul entring into houses and haling out Men and Women We find good men believers doubtless taking care of Stephens Funeral Hist Ecc. l. 2. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nid Lorin Cajet Calvin Bez. in Loc. and thus Eusebius understood it where he sayes all the Disciples i. e. the Disciples of Christ mentioned Acts 1. that conversed with Christ and so the generality of Expositors nor is it to be imagin'd that the Apostles should remain alone at Jerusalem when the whole Church had been forc'd thence and the fury of the Persecution was so great that there was no opportunity to Preach publickly Nor is it unlikely that the Preachers were more particularly mark'd out for destruction for in Stephen's case we find it was his publick Disputing and Preaching that brought him under the lash of that Persecution and his Indictment was made up of what was delivered by him in his publick Discourses though besides it cannot be deny'd but that other Converts Men and Women were also hal'd to Prison But whatsoever numbers were forc'd away by that Persecution it is likely they return'd most of them after it was over and it did not continue long for immediately after the the Conversion of St. Paul Acts 9.31 The Churches had rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and multiplyed And it is a strange conceit of Baronius That these are the Jews of the Dispersion that St. Peter and James directed their Epistles to An. 35. and that they were scattered into all the Parts of the World After this Persecution the Church of Jerusalem Acts 8.14 Acts 11.22 as the metropolitan of the rest takes care of them sends some Apostles to Samaria and Barnabas to Antioch and these as soon as they had fulfilled their ministry return home to their Mother Church which could not but thrive much more in proportion than the rest whether we reflect upon the number and abilities of her Pastors or the advantage of its scituation For the place it self was a most convincing witness as of some very remarkable actions of our Saviour so particularly of his Death and Resurrection here the vail of the Temple was rent here Rocks cleft in sunder here the empty Sepulcher preach'd with no less efficacy than the Apostles and though they should hold their peace the Stones would become Apostles and be Witnesses of the Resurrection This Church being thus considerable in all its circumstances Apud Eusib Ecc. Hist l. 2. c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ap Eusch l. 2. c. 23. when the Apostles were call'd away was committed to James the just the Brother of our Lord If not before for as Clemens reports the matter he was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem presently after our Savious Ascension and mentions it as an instance of the humility of the Apostles that would not contend about it but chose one that was no Apostle and Hegesippus one of the Ancientest Ecclesiastical Writers co-temporary with Justin Martyr and Athenagoras gives much the same account with Clemens as to the time of his promotion unless we shall take Jerom's Translation which if the words would bear it is much more commodious Hegesippus writes That James took upon him the Episcopacy of the Church of Jerusalem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the Apostles Post Apostolos Hieron Catal. in Jacobo Jerom renders it but against all Grammar and therefore Sophronius who translates him into Greek is forc'd to change the case and write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is very probable Jerom read so in his copy though Rufinus who translated the same passage confirm the Greek reading However certain it is that James was Bishop of Jerusalem whether with or after the Apostles is not so material not only from Hegesippus and Clemens Alex. but also from St. Paul who mentions him as one of the Apostles that he had conversed with in Jerusalem and it is likely there were no more there at that time but he and Peter But when they were at last dispersed Ecclesiastical History makes James the Ordinary Bishop and Diocesan of the place As for his Episcopacy it will not be disputed by any man that has left himself any freedom of understanding and belief and it is strange to see Salmasius run his head so violently against such solid Testimonies as those of Hegesippus and Clemens But for his Diocess that I
they believed they were Baptized both Men and Women Now the Apostles who remained in Jerusalem when they heard of this success send Peter and John thither who confirm the believers by imposition of hands and why could not Philip do this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphan he could dispossess unclean Spirits and heal all manner of diseases he could Preach powerfully so as to Convert in a manner a whole City and why could not he do all other Acts that were useful to the Church but that these Apostles must be taking Authority upon them in his Church it is something like Diocesan Prelacy to reserve any Acts of Order or Discipline to themselves yet so it was that the holy Ghost was not given 〈◊〉 by their hands and what kind of Government they established there Chrysost Oecumenius Theophylact. does not appear and some pretend to give reasons why they did not appoint a Clergy there as afterwards they did in other places because they say that Samaria was near enough to Jerusalem where the whole Council of the Apostles did reside and thither their Bishop or Presbyters might repair for more solemn Ordination And that we may not think meaner of the success of the Apostles Ministry than we ought and measure it by the progress of Sectaries as Anabaptists and Quakers as Mr. B. does with too much disparagement to the first Planters of Christian Religion St. Luke gives us a short account of loâ—e visitation of St. Peter that lets us see hoâ— wonderfully the Gospel prevail'd at first for when that Apostle passed through 〈◊〉 quarters and came to the Saints that dwelled at Lydda Acts 9.32 33. c. Saron Tractus quidam Regionis non procul à Caesaria 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Antiq l. 20. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph de Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 37. Lydda Civitas Palestinae quae diospolis appellatur Hieron de 〈◊〉 Heb. and healed miraculously a Person that had been long bed-ridden 〈◊〉 that dwelled at Lydda and Saron saw him and turned unto the Lord and this Town anâ— Territory mentioned with it was large enough for a considerable Diocesan Church nor is there any likelyhood it was divided under several Church Governments Mr. B. confessing that no City with the villages aâ—joyning had any more than one Bishop 〈◊〉 a long time after this and in the time 〈◊〉 the Council of Nice It was an Episcopaâ— seat for we find Aetius Bishop of the place among the subscriptions of thâ— Council The next considerable Church that waâ— founded was that of Antioch the greated City of all the East and the Church dâ—â— soon bear a good proportion to the greatneâ—â— of the City Acts 11. â—1 For the hand of God was wâ—â— them the scattered Disciples and a greâ—â— number believed and turned unto the Lord anâ— when Barnabar had come from Jerusalem assist in this work v. 24. Much people was added unto the Lord and when Barnabas had brought Paul to Antioch they assembled themselves with the Church v. 26. and taught much people It is not unlikely that all these Proselytes mentioned hitherto were Jews or such as were Proselytes of the Gate and had reâ—ounced Idolatry and such must the Greeks be to whom those of Cyprus Preach'd the word at Antioch v. 20. for Paul and Barnabas sometime after tell the Church of Antioch as an extraordinary thing Acts 14.27 that God had opened the door of Faith to the Gentiles and there is no doubt but they were â—ncouraged by that success to Preach to the Gentiles at Antioch too while they abode â—here a long time with the Disciples and the â—ultitude of these Gentile Converts made â—equestion about Circumcision of so great â—â—portance as to require a determination of all the Apostles and the whole Church of Jerusalem assembled in Council for before that there were not only several Congregations probably but separate Churches and the people were not only distributed but diviâ—ed Gal. 2.12 compared with Acts 15.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rent into separate â—ssemblies unless we shall â—â—terpret this separation â—o be rather a scruple reâ—â—ting to Conversation and â—â—iet than to publick and Church Communiâ—â—â— as it is most likely though even this must â—ave likewise an evil influence upon their Communion too for it is not likely the Jews if they stood so much upon the Law about choice of meats should care much for the Communion of the Gentiles when they fansied to be prophane and polluted by the transgression of that Law Barnius makes two Bishops of Antioch together aâ— this time upon the account of these dissersions Martyrolog Rom. Feb. 1. Evodius and Ignatius the one choses by Paul the other by Peter but the misery is that the Author that gives this light is confessed to mistake Clemens Const l. 7. c. 46. Orat. in S. Ignat. by making Paul 〈◊〉 chuse Ignatius and Peter Evodius whereas Chrysostom sayes the contrary that Ignaâ—â—â— was ordained by Peter and to speak freely I believe this no better than what Barâ—â—â—â— would forbid his reader to imagine a fiâ—â—â—â— which he was forced to make shift with iâ— reconcile the contradictions of Eusebius aâ—â— Chrysostom Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 22. Ed. Valâ—sâ—i Euseb Chronicon the former making Peter to be dead before Evodius to whom he makes Ignatius to succeed the latter expressly afirming that Apostle to have ordained him For my part I believe that the traditionâ—â— Chronology of Eusebius and the preciâ—â— time of the Succession and Government 〈◊〉 the first Bishops was no otherwise known to him is not a Foundation firm enouâ—â— to build any Opinion upon Vid. Dissert Spanhemii Blond Praesat Apol. pro sent H. especiaâ—â— when we consider that the place as we as time of St. Peters Martyrdom is questioned not without some appearance 〈◊〉 Reason and the whole business is involveâ— in so many difficulties Blondel takes greaâ— pains to confute the conjecture of Baronius but advances another of his own more strange and improbable and what is yet worse draws important consequences from it and pretends by these seeming contradictions to discover the nature of Primitive Episcopacy and the ancient Law of Succession But all that is trifling It is plain of Chrysostom that he thought Ignatius the immediate successor of Peter and therefore makes no mention of Evodius at all unless one shall say that Peter might ordain Ignatius as he did Timothy or Titus as an Evangelist and that afterwards he became the fixed Bishop of Antioch though Chrysostoms words will hardly bear that sense and refer to the Episcopal Office at large But however it fare either with Baronius his divided Episcopacy or Blondel's Succession by seniority it is highly probable that the Bishop of Antioch even at this time was a Diocesan having the oversight of a Church that was distributed into several Congregations for if we reflect
upon the multitudes said to be converted the number of Apostles and extraordinary Labourers commonly residing in this City the conjunction of Jews and Gentiles under the common title and profession of Christianity we must conclude that the Church of Antioch was too great for one Congregation especially before the place of assembly can be imagin'd very capacious and I believe Mr. B. does not imagine such vast Cathedrals as Pauls to be very Primitive Orat de S. Ign. But what ever number of Christians there might be at that time Ignatius his Bishop-rick was never the less Diocesan in its constitution and design or else Chrysostom mistakes one Topick of his commendation He reckons five things that were much to his honour whereof two bring him under suspition of Diocesan Prelacy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatness of his Authority or Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatness of the City whereof he was Bishop The first I suppose refers to his metropolitan Power the second to his peculiar Diocess but if this Bishop were to have but one Congregation what would the greatness of the City signifie how many more would have the same honour with him Or what so great difference is there between a full Congregation in the heart of the City and another as full in Chelsey at leastwise what honour does the greatness of the City do the Minister of that single Congregation And now to pass by the Church of Corinth where St. Paul Preach'd for a Year and six Months upon a Divine assurance of extraordinary success and that God had much people in that place Acts 18.8 9 10 11. and where many effectually believed and were Baptized where Peter and Apollos Preached with that effect as to leave many Disciples 1 Cor. 3. who called themselves by their names And to say nothing of Ephesus where a numerous Church is said to have been gathered by St. Paul who preached there for two years and not only they that dwelled at Ephesus but all that dwelt in Asia Acts 19.10 heard the word of the Lord and the progress of the Gospel was so considerable that the shrine-makers apprehended the ruine of their Trade when they saw and heard that Paul not only at Ephesus but throughout all Asia had perswaded and turned away much people v. 26. To pass by these and several other eminent Churches Let us consider the Diocess of Rome as it was yet in the Apostles time It is very uncertain who laid the first Foundations of this Church though certain it is that before Pauls coming there the Gospel was not only received Rom. 1.13 15 17. seq but their Church was very considerable for St. Paul in his Epistle written long before his coming there as he himself witnesses sayes that their Faith was spoken of through the whole World and by the multitude of salutations in the end of that Epistle he makes appear the numbers of Christians in that City Salute Priscilla and Aquila Rom. 16. Ostendit Congregationem Fidelium Ecclesiam nominari Hieron in loe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coetum Fidelium nec mirum est in tam am plâ Civitate distinctos fuisse Fidelium coetus Beza with the Church that is in their house This was one of the Congregations of that Church which is occasionly mentioned and it is not improbable that several that are mentioned with all the Saints that are with them may be the Officers of several Congregations For it appears that most of these were of the Ministry and such by whose means the Romans believed and that they were strangers come thither from other parts where Paul had known them Congregationem vert Eras Istos amats quos satutat intelligimus ex nominiâ—us suiffe peregrinos per quorum exemylum atque Doctrinam non absurde existimamus credidisse Romanes Hieron for as yet he had not seen Rome And this number was afterwards increased considerably by the coming of Paul who converted some of the Jews and afterwards received all that came whether Jews or Gentiles and Preach'd to them the Kingdom of God for the space of two whole years no man forbidding him And the progress of the Gospel in this City may be farther observed from the Persecution of Nero who is said to have put an infinite multitude of them to Death Ingens multitude hand perinde in Crimint ineendii quam odio bumani generis convicti sunt Tac. H. l. 15. upon pretence that they had fired Rome and the Heathen Historian sayes that they who confess'd were first laid hold on then a vast company were convicted by their indication where by the by besides the multitude of the sufferers we may take notice that the words seem to be mistaken generally as if the Christians some of them had confess'd the Fact and accused the rest Lipsius thus understanding the passage gives Tacitus the lye but he does not say they confessed the fact but they confessed without expressing the particulars but what did they confess then If it were this Crime that theâ— own'd themselves and charg'd others with how comes he to add that they were not convicted so much of this Crime by this Indication as by the hatred of all mankind therefore this confession was no more than owning themselves to be Christians and the hatred they were in made this sufficient conviction To these instances of the great numbers of Christians in some more considerable Cities Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I shall add only the general account which Eusebius gives of the success of the Christian faith immediately after the first discovery of it That presently in all Cities and Villages Churches abounding with innumerable multitudes were assembled and the Granary of Christ was fill'd up to the top with the Wheat that was gather'd in Hitherto I have observ'd chiefly the growth of Christianity under the Apostles and that there was in some Cities such a number of Christians as could not meet together in one Assembly for personal Communion in Doctrine and Worship The next thing we must shew in order to Diocesan Episcopacy must be that such numbers of believers made but one Church Govern'd by one Bishop As to the Church of Jerusalem we have shew'd already from the most ancient Ecclesiastical writings that James the Just was Bishop of that Church i. e. of all the Believers in Jerusalem Nor is that Tradition without ground in the Scripture it self for St. Paul reckons James the Lords Brother among the Apostles of that Church Sal. 1.19 though he were none of the Twelve and in another place he mentions him as a person in Eminent place and authority there one that had sent several Brethren to Antioch before that certain Brethren came from James â— 12 Here we find the style of the Scripture to alter in favour of Episcopacy for hitherto the Messengers who were sent from one Church to another were
him and that being in his particular Diocess only it follows that this great Province was no other than his own Diocess or Parochia as he calls it also in the same passage Nor were the Dioceses of the West generally any thing inferior to those we have been speaking of Italy indeed had the smallest not only by reason of the great multitude of Cities there but by the policy of the Bishops of Rome who having alwayes had some Authority over the greatest part of the Country strengthened themselves by making as many Bishops as they could within the dependance of their City and by that means secured themselves from all such dangers as might threaten them from general Councils having a strong party of Bishops at hand to send whither the Popes occasions should require their service What effect this policy of multiplying Bishops in Italy had we see in the History of the Council of Trent whither several Bishops came from France Spain and Germany with design of reforming most of the grossest abuses in the Church and to moderate if not wholly to remove that insupportable Yoke of the Papacy But the Italian Pensioners being too many for the well-meaning Bishops that Yoke was setled more grievous than before and weight added to the oppression No remedy being left but vain complaints and Dudithius makes a very lamentable one to the Emperor and then submission Yet after all this the Italian Dioceses were never reduced to a single Congregation and some of them remain still of a very considerable extent The Bishopricks of Spain were at first very large as may be observed from the small numbers of Bishops that met in the Councils of that Country The Council of Eliberis had but nineteen Bishops and the first of Toledo had the same number Hinc colligo Nationale fuisse Concilium cum to tempore sedeâ— Toletana tot Suffraganeos non haberet Episcopos Similiter de Eliberitano statuo cum eodem Episcoporum numero fuisset celebratum adde etiam quod in subscriptionibus Marcellus subscribit qui suit Episcopus Hispalensis Gar. Loyasa from whence Garsias Loyasa infers that these were general Councils of all Spain because the Province of Toledo sayes he had not so many Suffragans at that time and that Marcellus Bishop of Sevil who was a Metropolitan of another Province was there But the extent of the Spanish Dioceses does appear not only from the number of Bishops in their Councils but also from the Canons made in them As that of the Council of Toledo is very express about the making of Chrism that it belonged only to the Bishop Quamvis paene ubique custodiatur ut absque Episcopo Chrisma nemo conficicat tamen quia in aliquibus locis vel Provinciis Presbyteri dicuntur Chrisma conficere placuit ex hac die nullum alium nisi Episcopum Chrisma facere per Dioecesin destinare ita ut de singulis Ecclesiis ad Episcopum ante Diem Paschae Diaconi destinentur ut confectum Chrisma ab Episcopo destinatum ad diem Paschae possit occurrere Conc. Tolet. 1. Can. 20. Fratri autem Ortygie Ecclesias de quibus pulsus fuerat pronunciavimus esse reddendas Exemplar Defin. sent and that all the Churches of his Diocess should send before Easter every year for it to the Bishop who was to be put in mind of it by the Arch Deacon And in the same Council there is a definitive sentence whereby Ortygius is restored to his Bishoprick out of which he had been unjustly ejected that shews that his Diocess consisted of several Churches for so the Sentence runs That he be restored to his Churches Nor can any one think it strange that these should be general Councils of all Spain when he considers the numbers that usually met in Provincial Synods of that Country For the Council of Saragossa had but twelve and that number is extraordinary compared with some following Councils Concilium Gerundense had but seven Bishops that of Ilerda eight whereof one was present but by Proxy that of Valentia seven And lest we may imagine the Bishops of Spain neglected their Synods the sixth Canon of the Council of Arragon which consisted of ten Bishops Orders That if any Bishop having received Summons from his Metropolitan Si quis Episcoporum commonitus à Metropolitano ad Synodum nulla gravi intercedente necessitate Corporali venire contempserit sicut statuta Patrum sanxierunt usque ad futurum Concilium cunctorum Episcoporum Charitatis Communione privetur Conc. Tarracon c. 6. shall neglect to come to Council being not hindred by sickness shall according to the Decrees of the Ancient Fathers be excluded the communion of the other Bishops untill the next Council following And the same Council by another Canon signifies the extent of the Dioceses in Spain Multorum casuum experientia magistrante reperimus non nullas Dioecesanas Ecclesias esse destitutas ob quam rem hac constitutione decrevimus ut Antiquae consuetudinis Ordo servetur annis vicibus ab Episcopo Dioeceses visitentur siqua Basilica reperta fuerit destituta Ordiâ—atione ipsius reparari praecipiatur c. Can. 8. where it Orders every Bishop once in a year to visit his Dioceses according to the ancient usage of that Church and see what Churches there were out of repair and ordered them to be repaired out of the Revenues of those Churches there being a third part reserved for that purpose by ancient custom and tradition and the thirteenth Canon of the same Council makes a distinction between the Presbyters of the Cathedral and those of the Diocess Non solum è Cathedralis Ecclesiae Presbyteris verum etiam de Dioecesanis ad Concilium trabant Can. 13. and that the Metropolitan take care to summon some of both sorts to the Council of the Province And this was the state of the Dioceses in Spain from the time of the first Council of Nice to the latter end of the fifth and the beginning of the sixth Century The Churches of France as they had a near correspondence with those of Spain in several other things Bona de Reb. Litur l. 1. c. 12. and as Bona conjectures had anciently the same Liturgy before Pipin's time so they were not unlike in the extent of their Dioceses For Gallia before the time of the Council of Nice seems to have had but very few Bishopricks although it is to be supposed the number of Christians there was much greater than in any other part of the Empire Constantius the Father of Constantine the Great having favoured the Christians in the Provinces under his Government Euseb de vit Const l. 1. c. 13. while his Collegues used all manner of Violence and Arts to root them out every where else vid. Conc. Arelat 1. apud Sirmond Conc. Gall. Yet when Constantine the Great called a Council at Arles to resume the cause of the Donatists the Gallican
and one Parish has diverse Chappels for the aged and weak that are unfit for Travel Every one of these Churches then had one Bishop and was in his Opinion all the Diocess of apostolical and ancient Bishops If in any City or Town the number of Christians should exceed what might meet in one Congregation that then they were to imitate the Commonwealth of Bees who when they grow too numerous for one hive send out new Colonies commanded by their own Officers so when Christians grew too many for personal Communion in Doctrine and Worship they must resolve themselves into several Churches and have as many independent Bishops as they have Congregations But this model of a Church I am afraid is like to please no Party for the Dissenters are of Opinion we have too many Bishops already but this Project would make more Bishops in this one City than are now in the three Kingdoms Mr. B. has elsewhere endeavoured to take away this Prejudice Disp 1. of Ch. Gov. Ch. Hist part 2. by saying that those many Bishops he is for are not of the same sort with ours 't is true indeed Dioceses are not to be so large yet their Power within their own Church is to be equal to the others within their Diocess and the Church would fare no better in this Case than the Empire did in the times of Galienus when the People generally discontented with his Government because it was too remiss found themselves immediately enslaved by no less than thirty Tyrants The Presbyterians would never endure that the Power of their Classes and Synods should be settled in congregational Bishops and the Independent's Principles will as little admit this Project the Erastian Party will allow this Bishop no Power of Censures or Church Discipline Lewis Moulin Paraenesis who seems to speak in the name of all the English Independents explodes the use of Excommunication in a Christian State and will have no Ruler but the Civll and some of the greatest men of that party in their Recommendations before his Book though they speak something cautiously yet do not disapprove his Notion What some others of them have writ of the Nature of a Church is so mysterious and seraphical that one must be verè adeptus to understand it the plainest thing I believe can be made of it is that they are above Ordinances and that these Saints on Earth have as little need of Discipline and Censures as those in Heaven The Episcopal men are content with the present Form and do not desire the Bishops should be multiplyed at least not according to this Project for this in their Judgment would lie heavier than the Burden of Issachar So that I cannot see what party or principles this would suit besides the Authors own nor since he is so subject to Change is it likely to please him long However if it be the Primitive Platform it is Reason that all Churches notwithstanding their Prejudices should conform to it and therefore it is not equal it should be rejected though all the World were against it before that great Evidence of History which he alledges in Favour of it is consider'd For this Evidence he refers us to another Book of his 1 Disput of Ch. Government and Worship p 1659. and dedicated to R. Cromwel p. 87. Grotius his Opinion he rejects himself p 6. Edict Vossii Disp p. 88. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 § 22. where the Proofs are set down at large the first Authority he mentions there after the Scriptures is that of Clemens Romanus who mentions only Presbyters and Deacons but this is besides the present Question As for the Pseudo Clement which Mr. Thorndike mentions and is alledg'd by Mr. B. though it may be to the Purpose yet 't is of no Authority The next and the plainest as he confesses is Ignatius out of whom he cites several Passages the first out of his Epistle ad Smyrn Vbi itaque apparet Episcopus illic multitudo sit quemadmodum utique ubi est Christus Jesus illic Catholica Ecclesia as in B. Vshers old Translation with which Vossius's Greek Copy does agree from whence Mr. B. urges That this Plebs or Multitudo is the Church which he ruleth and not only one Congregation among many that are under him for this does without distinction bind all the people one as well as another to be where the Bishop is or appeareth viz. in the publick Assembly for Communion in Worship It is plain therefore there that there were not then many such Assemblies under him otherwise all save one must have necessarily disobey'd this Command To which I answer first That Antiochus cites this Passage quite differently and more at large than it is in the Text and to this Effect § Wherever the Bishop appears Antioch Ser. 124. there let the Multitude be as wheresoever the name of Christ is call'd there let a Church be assembled it is not permitted the Flocks of young Lambs to go whithersoever they please but whither the Sheepherds lead them those that remain out of the Flock the wild Beasts destroy and devour all that which goes astray which Words do not at all imply whether there were one or more Congregations under that Bishop and their design is to prove that Christians ought not to assemble themselves where they please without the Leave of or in Opposition to their Bishop this appears plainly from the Context to which Mr. B. does refer us these are the Words that immediately precede the Passage alledg'd Nullus sine Egiscopo aliquid operetur eorum quae conveniunt in Ecclesiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illa firma gratiarum actio reputetur quae sub ipso est vel quam utique ipse concesserit So that here is a plain distinction between a Congregation under the Bishop that is where he is personally present and a Congregation assembled by his Permission and Allowance and these Expressions of Ignatius can have no other Occasion than the Usage of the Church even in his time to have several Congregations under one Bishop The next Proof is out of Ignatius's Epist to the Philadelphians where he exhorts them to come all to the same Eucharist and these are his Motives Vna enim Caro Domini nostri Jesu Christi unus Calix in Vnionem Sanguinis ipsius unum altare unus Episcopus cum Presbyterio Diaconis conservis meis Disp p. 89. And thus the old Translation which is word for word according to the Florentine Greek Copy The Passage as Mr. B. cites it is in this Epistle interpolated but making more for his purpose he preferr'd it to the Genuine Reading where there is no mention of unus Panis unus Calix toti Ecclesiae but that which he lays his greatest stress upon is Vnum Altare unus Episcopus and this all Copies do agree in from whence he concludes Here it is manifest that the particular Church which in those dayes was
who were the Authors of the death of Hypatia Some says he fasten it upon Cyril others upon the Alexandrians the most seditious of all mankind as may be seen by their murdering some of their own Bishops all which I suppose are the words of this Damascius Then he goes on to give a more particular account of this Woman and makes Cyril to conceive this envy against her because on a certain time passing by her house and seeing what great resort there was to her and what a number of Coaches were at her door he resolved to make her away This whole story is altogether improbable for Hypatia was an Alexandrian born and bred and so publickly known that Cyril who was bred in the same place could not be so great a stranger to her as that story makes him to be after he was a Bishop He could not be ignorant of her or her School without being the greatest stranger in Alexandria In short this is no other than a calumny invented by this Damascius to render the Christians odious which he endeavoured to do upon all occasions as Photius tells us Bibliotheca l. 180. For this is the character he gives of this Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that frequently snarls at our religion though he be afraid to discover his malice too plainly After this to render Cyril more odious yet our Author reproaches him with that unhappy quarrel with Chrysostome 〈…〉 Atâ—â—â— and his opposition to the restoring his name to the diptychs of the Church and his harsh expression that compares that holy man with Judas This quarrel was it seems hereditary to him and he did prosecute it beyond all equity or decency against the memory of a dead man This was a fault and he that is without any or without any particular animosity especially if he be in any eminent place let him cast the first stone But our Author does charge him with some things injuriously as his calling Alexander Bishop of Antioch that perswaded Atticus to restore Chrysostoms name a bold-fac'd man the word though us'd by Cyril in his Letter to Atticus is indeed the expression of Atticus in his Letter to Cyril and therefore if there be any indecency in it it 's to be imputed to the first Author But however Cyril had behaved himself in this affair it is a little unchristian to blast his memory with those faults he had corrected in his life time for though our Author affirms that no credible Historian tells us that either Theophilus or Cyril ever repented of this yet I believe there is sufficient evidence to the contrary to perswade any reasonable man For besides that Socrates affirms Theophilus before his death to have been reconcil'd to those Monks upon whose account he had quarrel'd with Chrysostome Cyrils Letter to Gennadius shews him to have been satisfy'd in the business of Chrysostome's Honourable Restauration to the Diptychs Gennadius was a Presbyter of the Church of C. P. and refus'd to communicate with Proclus his Bishop for receiving the Bishop of Elia into his communion contrary to the Canons Ep. Cyril ad Gennad which do not own that Bishop as Palaestinae praepositum Here Cyril urges very peaceably that the rigour of the Canons must oftentimes give way to peace and expedience whence it appears 1. That he had chang'd his mind as to the necessary maintenance of the Canons rather than remit any point that would conduce to peace which was his arguing with Atticus 2. It appears from hence that he held communion with Proclus else he had never been so urgent with this Presbyter to communicate with his Bishop 3. That this communion with Proclus supposes him satisfy'd in the restitution of Chrysostom For this Proclus had not only kept his name in the Diptychs but fetch'd home his bones and so ended that Schism of the Joannâ—â—â— so that Cyril must by this have chang'◠〈◊〉 judgement concerning Chrysostom Nâ—â—â—â—is Letter to Atticus which our Authâ—â— cites lays the greatest stress upon this argument that it will be dangerous to restore his name because it may divide the world again since the greatest part had expung'd it out of their Diptychs and could not easily be brought either to re-admit it or to communicate with those that did But finding the contrary it seems he follow'd the examples of other Churches The fiction of Nicephorus about Cyril's Vision was I suppose invented to salve the reputation of Cyril For since after so great opposition he chang'd his mind to remove from him the imputation of levity and to shew that he was carry'd away sincerely and by an invincible mistake he must be reconciled by a miracle However it were whether Cyril repented of this fault or no our Author cannot forbear exclaiming upon the occasion of Cyril's restoring the name of Chrysostom by the authority of a Synod O ductile Synods O unhappy Churches whose Pastors must grow wise and cease destroying after so long sunning and by an experience which costeth the Church so dear It had been doubtless much better there never had happened any difference between the Pastors of the Church but what Church has been so happy what government can secure this uninterrupted Peace Surely our Author cannot pretend to exempt himself from the lash of his own exclamations for I know no man deeper engag'd in the contentions of the Church or that has writ with greater bitterness on all such occasions The writing of a great part of his 80 books being but like so many pitch'd battels he has fought and most commonly in the dark when he was hardly able to discover friend from foe if he scorns to be so ductile as these Synods and to recant his mistakes when they are discover'd to him I pray God give him a better mind and make him to have a more honourable opinion of repentance The last part of Cyril's accusation is taken out of Isidore's Epistles §. 6. some of which are very sharp yet I believe when the Reader shall have weigh'd the circumstances duly this will be no great offence to him Isidore was certainly a good man but very easie to take any impressions and hot in his reproofs this may be evidently seen in his dealing with Cyril For he reproves him in one place for prosecuting his private quarrels against Nestorius l. 1. Ep. 310. under pretence of Zeal for the faith yet the same Author in another place advises him not to betray l. 1. Ep. 324. and give up the cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rather to suffer any evil that might befal him than to endure so much as to hear false and pernicious doctrines So that the same Isidore who reproaches this man upon a false information retracts afterwards and gives him commendations no less extravagant than the reproofs he us'd towards him before for he is very large and passionate in his commendation when he recommends to him the miserable estate of the Church of
Pelusuim l. 2. Ep. 126. into which it was brought by the covetousness and ambition of one Martinianus a Presbyter If. Pel. l. 2. Ep. 126. O thou best of men it belongs to thy Wisdom and Authority to rescue the poor Church of Pelusium from the Hands of evil Governours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor is this only a general complement but he goes on to mention particular instances of his integrity against this Martinianus who after he had robb'd the Church of Pelusium sent some part of the money to Alexandria to endeavour to procure himself the Bishoprick Cyril having intimation of this practice rebukes him sharply and threatens if he go on any further in this base course so dishonourable to Religion that he will not only excommunicate but have him banish'd Whereupon Isidore applys himself to him in expressions of the greatest admiration of his integrity and does not know how to call him by a title good enough What Compe'lation shall I use that may be suitable to so great worth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever is the least acquainted with the Spirit and temper of Isidore will hardly suspect him of flattery but that he was the real Convert of this great Bishop and by these commendations of him endeavoured to make honourable amends and to wash off the dirt he had before rashly cast upon his name If I should take the pains to gather the hands of the Fathers and to set down the glorious testimonials they give of Cyril I believe few Saints could shew greater evidence of their merit towards the Church Gloriosissimus fidei Catholicae Defensor Prosper contra collat c. 41. Celest Ep. ad Nest §. 5. and Cyrillus Alexandriae Episcopus vir omni sapientia Sanctitatis exemplo clarissimus probatissimus Sacerdos c. But Theodoret it seems was never truly reconcil'd to him for in his Epistle to Johannes Antioch he looks upon the death of Cyril as a deliverance of the Church from a turbulent enemy of Peace But God only knows says our Author Yes sure there are men that know it too though not Mr. Baxter They that are a little more vers'd in the writings of the Fathers know very well Baron An. 44016. that this Epistle is spurious and that John to whom it was directed was dead four years before which Theodoret could not but know And it is very well known that the Nestorians forg'd several Letters in the name of Theodoret. Leont de Sect. Sect. 5. In short nothing can be a plainer confutation of this Fiction than Theodorets own Letter to Dioscorus the successor of Cyril where besides that he does shew John to be dead seven years before the time of the writing of that Letter Theod. Ep. ad Diosc he does also make it appear that there was a full and sincere reconciliation between him and Cyril before his death That Cyril when he had written his Books against Julian the Apostate and another about the Scape-Goat before he publish'd them sent them to John Bishop of Antioch to communicate them with the greatest Scholars of the East He sent them to me says Theodoret and I read them and sent him an account of them and I received Letters from him after that Ad Flavian which I have still by me And the same man in another Letter gives an account of this to Dioscorus that he had sent to him to acquaint him that he persevered still in that league that had been made between Cyril of happy memory and the Eastern Churches And now let any man judge whether this forg'd Letter that goes under the name of Theodoret be not as great an injury to him as it is to Cyril But with our Author that weeds Church-History any fiction or imposture is authentick that does but contain some scandalous reflections upon great Bishops and this seems to be the mark that directs his choice all along I have been more particular in the Vindication of this great Bishop from those calumnies our Author raked out of all the Libels of his Enemies because all this seems to be brought in on purpose to lessen the reputation of the Council of Ephesus that was chiefly directed by the authority of Cyril and that you may not take this for an uncertain conjecture of his design he explains himself But pardon truth or be deceived still ignorance and pride p. 94. sect 20. and envy and faction and desire to please the Court made Cyril and his party by quarrelsome Heretication to kindle that lamentable flame in the world Can any man that has any ingenuity or knowledge of those times affirm this How could this gratifie the Court since the Emperour was so highly offended with the contention that he ordered Cyril to be imprison'd and was extreamly dissatisfy'd with both parties Or how can that be the effect of Cyril's Envy or Ambition which he himself did endeavour to prevent by all the amicable methods imaginable as may be seen by his Letters to Nestorius But if the Reader will not blindly engage in all the groundless jealousies and malicious suggestions of our Author then he has much ado to forbear calling him Fool but however he dismisses him with that which is equivalent Let him be deceived still as if every one that had any more charitable opinion of Bishops and Councils than he that seems to have read little more than what Binnius has of them lov'd to be deceiv'd and shut his Eyes against the greatest evidence in the World Before we enter upon the Council of Ephesus it is fit some notice should be taken of our Authors account of Nestorius The worst thing he can say of him is That he was hot against Hereticks and desired the assistance of the Civil Magistrate to suppress them that he went about to pull down the Church of the Arians and they set it on fire themselves and then call'd him Firebrand when themselves were the Incendiaries he vex'd the Novatians c. After all we have this Remark Thus Turbulent Hereticators must have the Sword do the work of the Word When our Author lays about him he never minds where the blow falls and deals alike to friends and foes What Hereticators were hotter than the Presbyterians in the year 1646 the Inquisition is not more severe than their Ordinance against Heresies Ordinance against Heresie and Blasphemy presented to the House of Commons which they desir'd should be made Felony and punish'd by death And of other opinions that were to be punish'd by imprisonment were there not many that are yet in dispute between the Reformed themselves Nay he that vindicates that Bloody Ordinance as the Independents call'd it does complain against the Bishops for not being severe enough in the eradication of Heresies Vindication of the Ordin against Heresie p. 23. Impr. James Cranford I will set down the words because they are something remarkable In the Bishops times there were some Arians and
or Deacons that were ordained in their Dioceses without their consent and that by simple Presbyters who were never Chorepiscopi or had any character to distinguish them from other Presbyters Therefore the case ought not to be reckoned so hard as it is commonly represented by the more moderate Nonconformists who pretend this point of Reordination the only bar that keeps them out of the Church since there was never any other Church not any in Ancient times would have received them upon any other terms and they must have remained Nonconformists under Basil Athanasius and all the ancient Bishops whose names are and alwayes have been had in veneration with all Christians not one of these would have ever been perswaded to own a Pastor that his Presbyters had ordained in opposition to him nay hardly could they have been prevailed with to admit such as any other Bishop should Ordain within their Diocess so extream punctilious they were in this matter and there is hardly any one thing that caused so frequent and dangerous contentions between them as the point of Ordination Nor was this Province singular in the extent of its Bishopricks or the manner of their Administration but all the parts of the Christian World went by the same Rule as to Diocesan Episcopacy and most of them had much larger Dioceses than these we have been speaking of The Frontier Provinces of the Empire towards the East being more remote from the contentions that afflicted the Church were not cantoned into so small Dioceses as other Countries and being likewise less divided in their Civil Condition because it might render them less defensible against Invasion the Ecclesiastical Dioceses likewise remained intire in the the measure of their first Constitution The Diocess of Edessa seems to be of extraordinary extent Conc. Chal. Act. 10. even at the time of the Council of Chalcedon when the ambition of some Metropolitans and the contentions of Hereticks and Schismaticks had reduced Bishopricks to be very small For 1. some of the misdemeanors charged upon Ibas Bishop of this place shew that Diocess to be extreamly rich 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Collection for redemption of Captives amounted to fifteen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tho' it is not easy to reduce that summ to our money yet we must conclude it to be a considerable sum when we reflect upon another accusation of Daniel Brother to Ibas as if he had bestowed on Calloa the money of the Church for she had let out to use two or three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be a considerable summ since it 's taken notice of as an argument of her wealth Besides the Church of Edessa had six thousand more of these Numismata besides its ordinary Revenues and one of its Mannors called Lafargaritha is mentioned there and two hundred pound weight of Church Plate 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The City of Battina was in the Diocess of Edessa for Ibas is accused of having endeavoured to make one John Bishop of it who was suspected of Magick But Ibas his Arch-Deacon of that place opposed it 3. Maras who was one of Ibas his accusers was Excommunicated by another Arch-Deacon of his 4. The Clergy of the City of Edessa was above two hundred persons not reckoning that of the Country within his Diocess and this was a Diocesan Bishop to purpose who besides a large Diocess had Excommunicating Arch-Deacons and a great Revenue And if Mr. B. or his Brethren had been of that Diocess we might have found them among his accusers The Diocess of Cyrus whereof Theodoret was Bishop was yet larger Theodor. Ep. 113. containing eight hundred Churches as he writes to Leo Bishop of Rome The exceptions which Mr. B. makes against this Epistle are so fully answered by the incomparable Dean of Pauls that nothing can be added But if Mr. B. should quarrel with any writings of this time for mentioning great Dioceses we must have a new Critick and disgrace a great deal of the Fathers that have hitherto been received by a general consent It is a very hard matter to convince men that imagine all that time for them whereof we have little or no account and reckon silence of Antiquity for consent and then if any thing shall appear against what they have once fanfi'd though it be never of so good credit it is spurious it is all Imposture because it makes against them who would ever be convicted if it shall be Defence enough to say the Evidence is a Lye Petavius mistaking a passage in Epiphanius Not. in Epiph Haeres Arr. Epiph. Ep. ad Joh. Hieros ap Hieron thought the Dioceses of Cyprus to be very small but from Epiphanius his Letter to John Bishop of Jerusalem it appears that his Diocess was of good extent John had a quarrel with him for having Ordained a Presbyter in his Diocess though it was only for the use of a Monastery and he excuses himself by shewing how common a thing this was and how frequently it was done in his own Diocess and he was so far from taking offence at it that he thought himself obliged to some of his neighbouring Bishops for using that liberty and therefore commends the good nature and meekness of the Cyprian Bishops who never quarrelled with one another upon this account and then adds That many Bishops of our Communion have Ordained Presbyters in our Province that we could not take because they fled from us on purpose to avoid that honour which was the modesty of those times Nay I my self desired Philo of blessed memory and Theophorbus that they would Ordain Presbyters in those Churches of Cyprus which were near them O vere benedicta Episcoporum Cypri mansuetudo bonitas multi Episcopi communionis nostrae Presbyteros in nostra ordinaverunt Provincia quos nos comprehendere non poteramus ipse cohortatus slim b. m. Philonem sanctum Theophorbum ut in Ecclesiis Cypri quae juxta se grant ad meae autem Parochiae videbantur Ecclesiam pertinere to quod grandis esset late patens Provincia ordinarent Presbyteros and belonged to my Diocess because my Province i.e. my Docess was very large Now that this Province which is here said to be of so large extent was no other than his Diocess appears from the nature of the thing For if we shall imagine that it was his Province as Metropolitan the words will have no sense for then are not there Bishops enough dispersed through this great Province who may Ordain within their respecture Dioceses and to them belonged the Ordination of Presbyters and not to the Metropolitan If we shall take this Province for a Civil division there will be yet greater absurdity for there may be other Metropolitans as well as he and by what Authority could he dispose of their Dioceses or Provinces In short there he gives leave to Ordain Presbyters where the right of Ordaining them belonged to