yeers before this book of the Revelation of St. John was written and Onesimus probably the then Bishop the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Their Office Power and Commission are there intimated to have been Episcopall and charged upon them by Christ in that five of the Angels are charged as blameable and accomptable for the faults of both Presbyters and people and therefore surely were trusted with authority over Presbyters and people to have corrected and censured them Particularly Episcopall power is intimated there chap. 2. of the Revel. vers. 20. and that power of excommunication is sufficiently grounded on the 14 verse Mr. Perkins in locum affirmeth Their mission to that office also as it is there confirmed by the Sonne of God and by the holy Spirit So also to have been at first from God is in their title implied For Angels sent forth for the Churches sake are never said in holy Scripture to be any's Messengers but Gods and if his Messengers or Angels then sent by him That their superiority was fixed not weekly or annuall is clear as from the Ecclesiasticall History of Polycarp and Onesimus so also from the Text it self c. 2. 10. Where the Angell of the Church of Smyrna as Angell of the Church is bidden to be faithfull in his Office surely untill death b Nor was it personall onely but describing the Office of the Angell of any Church in like laudable or blame-worthy state unto the comming of Christ as it is implied v. 24. 25. of the second chapter For what is said to them so long as there is any that hath an eare to hear he must hear c. 2. v. 3. Nor did the personall blameworthy carriage of the Angell of the Church of Sardis c. 3. v. 1 c. or of the Angell of the Church of the Laodiceans v. 14. 16. hinder Christs approbation of their Office who are in regard of their Office not of their personall Excellency stiled the Angels of the seven Churches and the Stars in the right hand of the Son of man both which stiles that they are there singularly appropriated to these successours of the Apostles ought not to seem strange since the twelve Apostles are confessedly meant by the crown of twelve Stars Apoc. 12. 1. And St Paul the Apostle of us Gentiles speaks of himself received as an Angell of God Galat. 4. 14. Summarily therefore out of holy Scriptures thus we reason Many Presbyters and Preachers in one Church and one chief having eminency and power over all Presbyters and people therein proveth the Office of a Bishop but so holy Scripture witnesseth were in Ephesus many Presbyters Act. 20. 17. or if they were Bishops in the sense now disputed some of them at least as Irenaeus thought l. 3. c. 14. we need go no further in the argument and more afterwards surely and yet one chiefe Pastor or Bishop over all such as was Timothy in his time and the Angel of that Church whosoever he was mentioned Rev. 2. 1. So also in the Church of Pergamus there were divers Teachers true and false c. 2. v. 13 15. one Angel Governour in chief v. 1. For be it that all the Presbyters of each of the Churches might well have been called Angels c yet that one among them in each Church in such a compatible community of name is so called by way of eminency proves an eminency in the one so called which must either be of personall excellency above all the rest and this who can shew us in the Angel of the Church of Sardis Laodicea or Thyatira or else and rather of Office and power so as Iohn Baptist was called an Angel Malac 3. who was more then a Prophet and St. Paul received as an Angell Gal. 4. 14. who was more then a Minister and our Saviour Christ is called Michael Apoc. 12. 7. with his Angels fighting under him One objection more we shall take notice of viz. the pretended necessity of understanding by each of the Angels there a collective body from c. 2. v. 10. 24. But this is manifestly clear to be no necessity at all from the like manner of speaking of the holy Ghost 2 Chron. 28. 1. to the 5. Compare and judge And therefore it is not lawfull without any necessary reason to depart from the literall and determinate individuation of one chief spirituall Church-governour in each of the seven Churches for otherwise as Tertullian speaks lib. de carne Christi cap. 13. Omnia periclitabuntur alitèr accipi quà m sunt amittere quod sunt dum alitèr accipiuntur Yea there is not onely no necessity but much in the Text which doth resist such an interpretation of a collective body for it should be either an Angel put for the whole particular Church and this cannot be seeing the Angels and the Churches are accurately distinguished c. 1. v. 20. Or an Angel put for the whole collection of the Presbyters but neither may this be admitted inasmuch as in the same 20 verse the Angels are called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} seven no more and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} stars not constellations as Suidas distinguisheth the words You have our reasons from these Scriptures why to us it seems that to swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops is to swear to endeavour the extirpation of that whose Root is in holy Scripture and to swear to endeavour which we tremble to think of to wrest these Stars out of the right hand of the Sonne of man who is also the Son of God For in his right hand are they held the Angels of the Churches Revel. 1. 16 20. As Church-government by Bishops hath been evidenced by holy Scripture so was it also the judgement of the ancient godly Fathers that it was an institution Apostolicall and Divine {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} saith Theodoret l. 4. c. 18. by St. Cyprian ep. 55. the power of Episcopacy is exegetically called Ecclesiae gubernande sublimis divina potestas epist. 27. Dominus noster Episcopi honorem disponens in Evangelic And anon after ut omnis actus Ecclesiae per Episcopos gubernetur cum hoc itaque divina lege fundatum sit miror quosdam audaci temeritate c. epist. 65. Episcopos Praepositos Dominus elegit And anon after Deus Episcopos facit Athanasius epist. ad Dracontium saith that he who contemns the function of a Bishop {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that the Office is of those things {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} c. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Ignat. epist. ad Magnes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Idem Ignat epist ad Ephes. Oecumen. c. 9. in Tim. 4. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Theophylact. and Oecumenius found Bishops upon Ephes. 4.11 and on Hebr. 13.17 Oecumenius and
Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria in Prooem. in Matth. who died six yeers before Saint Peter or S. Paul saith Saint Hierom. though therein he dissent from Irenaeus lib. 3. 35. yeeres before Saint Iames the Apostle besides therefore nine recorded as Bishops in holy Scripture Timothy and Titus Bishops of Ephesus and Crete and the seven of the seven Churches in Asia besides two Apostles Bishops viz. Iames of Ierusalem and a Peter of Antioch b and one Evangelist Mark of Alexandria c there are also nine other in all 21. recorded in holy Scripture all which except two of the seven Angels are there registred for Saints who if we will beleeve as credible records of Christians as any other humane Records whatsoever were Bishops before they died viz. Clemens d and e Linus made Bishops of Rome successively by Peter and Paul Evodius f Bishop of Antioch by Peter and Paul Dionysius the Areopagite Bishop of Athens g Archippus h Bishop of the Colossians Epaphroditus i Bishop of the Philippians Epaphras k Bishop of the Colossians Gaius l also Bishop of the Thessalonians Trophimus m Bishop of Arles To which you may adde the two and twentieth Antipas Bishop of Pergamus if we will beleeve Paraeus in Apoc. 2. proving it out of Arethas Caesariensis in Apoc. 1. and Onesimus Bishop of Ephesus n if he were not the forementioned Angel of the Church of Ephesus when Saint Iohn wrote his Revelation To omit to speak here of other Bishops who were Schollars and Auditors of the Apostles Ignatius of Saint Iohn o made Bishop of Antioch by Saint Peter Papias p Saint Iohns Schollar Bishop of Hierapolis Publius and Qâ—adratus q Bishops of Athens Disciples of the Apostles Simeon the son of Cleophâ—â— r Bishop of Ierusalem after Iames and the Kinsman of our Lord This order of Bishops which began though the first we read of in Scripture be Timothy and Titus in Saint Iames of Ierusalem or Saint Mark of Alexandria continued thorowout all the following ages of the Churches of God in which Bishops have been the most reverend Martyrs such as Ignatius Polycarp Irenaeus Bishop of Lions Cyprian of Carthage and more then 30. of the first Bishops of Rome successively both in Episcopacy and Martyrdom Of Bishops also especially did consist the first four generall Councels received by all the reformed Churches the confounders of the maine heresies touching the second and third persons in the blessed Trinity and by an Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. cap. 10. next to the canonicall Scriptures made the rule of judging Heresies who also in Councell gave judgement for the inviolable practice of the Church in this order the generall Councell of Nice providing Ne in unâ civitate duo sint Episcopi Cant. 8. The generall Councell of Constantinople adjudging to Bishops the power of Ordination Can. 2. and Can. 4. in the case of Maximus The generall Councell of Ephesus distinguishing betwixt the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy Can. 7. and confirming the Bishops jurisdiction Can. 5. The generall Councell of Chalcedon determining Can. 29. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For as much then as in the first Article we are required to swear to endeavour the reformation of Religion according to the Word of God and the examples of the best reformed Churches surely we may not in the second Article swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops and so to forsake the government grounded on the Word of God and to forsake the example of all the ages of the Primitive Churches then which we conceive no late reformed Church will pretend to be more pure and to whose examples they do or ought to endeavour to reform themselves But after all this it will be said that this government by Bishops is ejured onely as it interprets Prelacy which word if it have been translated Regimen Tyranicum the Translation as farre exceeds the truth of Grammar as the Prelates are accused to have exceeded their lawfull power forasmuch as Prelacy in its originall and acception of ancient Authors Praelati we say not elati imports but lawfull preeminence and power So is Timothy called by Gregory de Cura pastor p. 2. c. 11. Praelatus Gregi and the word Prelate is often honourably mentioned in our Lawes 9 Ed. 2. 24 Hen. 8. and is no more then the Title Praepositi mentioned also with honour by St. Cyprian Epist. 10. 55. 65. Augustin de civitate Dei l. 20. c. 9. or Antistites S. Cypr. ep. 69. Sancti Antistites S. August ep. 162. and divers words in Scripture used signifying equivalently such preeminence but let it not be told indeed in other Churches that any other is here abjured then Regimen Tyrannicum But are we warranted by the following stile of Hierarchy Doth that word import originally and anciently any other then a sacred government was it not accepted and approved in it selfe by Mr. Calvin lib. de necessitate Eccl. reformandae Talem si nobis Hierarchiam exhibeant in quâ sic emineant Episcopi ut Christo subesse non recusent c. ut ab illo tanquam uno Capite pendeant ad ipsum referantur c. tum verò nullo non anathemate dignos fateor qui non eam reverentèr summâque obedientiâ observent Moreover how can we in the same Article abjure Church-government by Bishops with Heresie Schisme and Prophanenesse as there it follows yea Prelacy even before Schisme and Heresie c. when as Bishops have been in all ages the chief confounders of heresie and heretickes such was Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria of the heresie of Arrius Cyril of Alexandria of the Nestorian heresie Caelestine Bishop of Rome Augustine Bishop of Hippo Prosper Bishop of Rhegium Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspi of the Palagian heresie and many more in all ages of the Church before and since Nor was there found any one Christian thorowout all the Primitive and purest times of the Church for above five hundred yeers after Christ who thought it fit to abolish Church government by Bishops much lesse to ejâ—re it save onely one heretick Aerius so censured by Epiphanius Haeres 75. and by Saint Augustine Haeres 53. whose speech savoured of madnesse saith Epiphanius for he had said What is a Bishop differing from a Presbyter a and the occasion of it Saint Augustine lets us know lib. de Haeres c. in Aerium Aerius being a Presbyter is said to have been vexed because he could not get to be ordained a Bishop and thence arose his envy Epiphanius witnesseth as much Haeres 75. Secondly as to Schism Saint Hierom the one and onely Father alledged as denying the divine Institution of Bishops yet held them necessary to represse Schism and then surely most necessary when Schism doth as in these our dayes most abound For avoiding of Schism Saint Hierom witnesseth Episcopacy was
our Church-government as it now stands in aggregate whether might this Oath be taken had they also been included Lastly is not their practise for whose satisfaction this Covenant should be taken a added to the common sense of mankind in the like manner of speaking or understanding such speeches evidence enough to us that we cannot take this Oath and Covenant unlesse we will swear to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops If this be so we desire to know first whether it be lawfull for subjects to swear such a Covenant as directly contradicts the oath of their Soveraigne at his Coronation as this second branch of the Covenant doth binding us to endeavour the extirpation of the government of our Church by Bishops For that our Soveraign hath taken as contradictory Oath is evidently manifest by the last clause of the oath which the Kings of England take at their Coronation when after many other gracious promises wch the King makes to his people one of the Bishops reading to the King before the people concerning the Canonicall priviledges of the Church and beseeching him that he would be the Protectour and Defender of the Bishops the Churches under their government the King answereth in these words With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all canonicall priviledges and due Law and Iustice and that I will be your Pretectour and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government Then the King ariseth and at the Communion Table makes a solemn Oath in the presence of the people to observe the premisses and laying his hand upon the book saith The things which I have before promised I shall perform and keep so help me God and the contents of this Book How can this Oath then for the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops be consistent with the Oath or Honour of our Soveraign which we have so solemnly protested to defend in the late Protestation How can we with a solemn Oath enter into such a Covenant to which we may neither swear without our Soveraigns consent nor yet can lawfully desire nor have his consent How sad were our condition were the King willing of himselfe to violate this Oath But what should we have to answer should we by taking such a Covenant this way necessitate so far as in us lies His sacred Majesty to violate his Oath so solemnly sworn at his Inauguration Secondly that to endeavour the extirpation of Church-government by Bishops is a sin against Divine Law all those Arguments and Authorities convince which prove that Bishops are of Apostolicall institution and unalterable and consequently Divine which we shall unfold in these Propositions First that their institution stands grounded upon our Saviours own Action and Institution of the Apostles Secondly that Christ and his holy Spirit by his Apostles appointed Bishops Thirdly that Christ the Sonne of God and the Holy Ghost afterward confirmed and approved Bishops and their Commission and power which the Apostles had appointed For the first we say their institution is grounded upon our Lords own instituting and ordaining twelve Apostles above seventy Disciples who saith to these his Apostles As my Father hath sent me even so send I you a St. Joh. 20. 21. As in other ends of his mission so how not in this which we know they did according to his pattern As he was sent by his Father therefore to ordain one order of Teachers of the Gospell superiour to another which we know because he did so ordain So also sent he his Apostles to ordain which accordingly they did and whatsoever they did by Christs example therein they did by his Commission here given in an imparity Bishops succeeding the Apostles above Presbyters subordinate as the seventy a That Bishops succeeded the Apostles in the ordinary part of their function as it is the judgement of the most ancient godly Fathers b that Bishops we say as contradistinct to Presbyters were the successours of the Apostles so is it manifest from Scripture since power Episcopall as it is now taken in this dispute which we shall prove to have been given by the Apostles to Bishops and to them onely after the Apostles was undeniably in the Apostles and for a while held in their own hands without communicating it to others That the Bishops were afterwards instituted by the Apostles themselves which so many ancient Authous have averred c And namely by the Apostolicall Authority of St. Paul and their institution part of holy Scripture is made good in that the power and Office of a Bishop as the word is now taken in the Ecclesiasticall notion is prescribed in the three Epistles of St. Paul to those two famous Church-governours Timothy and Titus particularly the Office and power of a Bishop as it is now taken contradistinctly to the Office of a Presbyter in these Texts 1 Tim. 1. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 19 20 21 22. 2. Tim. 1. 6. Tit. 1. 5 11. Tit. 3. 9. 10 and some others and these Texts thus interpreted by Antiquity d And as the office prescribed there is Episcopall so these two appointed to this prescribed office of a Bishop by St. Paul himselfe 1 Tim. 1. 3. 2 Tim. 1. 6. Tit. 1. 5. Yea by the holy Ghost say Chrysost. Theophyl Oecumenius by divine Revelation saith Theodoret of Timothy And that these two were Bishops according to the Ecclesiasticall notion of the word now used ancient Fathers plentifully witnesse b Moreover this superiority to office Episcopall to have been fixed and continued to the day of death is evident as from Church-history so also from 1 Tim. 6. 14. where {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is the same with {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the beginning of the Epistle 1 Tim. 1. 18. and includes in it the whole charge given by St. Paul to Timothy in this Epistle c From which Text also it is manifested that his Office prescribed was not personall onely but to descend by succession unto the comming of Christ d Thirdly this Office and power Episcopall that it was afterward approved and confirmed by the Sonne of God himselfe immediately and by the holy Ghost will be proved from Revel. c. 1. 2. 3. Where by the seven Stars the Angels of the seven Churches according to all reason from the Text it selfe and by the testimony of Antiquity e are seven Bishops of those seven Churches understood which Ecclesiasticall story mentions to have been in the Church long before this time as so many Angels and Apostles f of the Churches such as was Polycarp the Angell the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna made Bishop of that place by the Apostles themselves thirteen