take him at his own words in granting that it was some way an Authoritative Prelacy and for the distinction of extraordinary it will by and by receive an ordinary but a true answer yet we do not so much presse his confession as we may do his Reasons thereof deducted from the Texts themselves concerning their Prelaticall power of ordering matters that were amisse Tit. 1. 5. of receiving Accusation against Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. and the like But our other Opposites will needs pose us requiring us to answer their first Objection videl That the Bishops whose pedegree was derived from the Apostles were no other then Presbyters then this is proved say they by two instances the first is The identity of their names which quoth they is a proof of no small consequence we answer yea rather of none at all Else was Master Beza but of small judgement when speaking of the Apostolicall Age be confessed that the Presbytery had then a President over them yea when the community of names So he of Presbyters and Bpâ— remained among them accordingly as Dr Reynolds hath said that the Presbytery had then one who was president over them when as yet the names of Bishop and Presbyter were the same who furthermore concerning the time of distinguishing the name of Bishop and Presbyter whither sooner or later here or there he saith The name of Bishop was afterwards appropriated by the usuall language of the Fathers of the Church to him that had the Presidentship over the Elders So he Hereby granting that the Presidentship by Bishops was of force before the title and name was appropriated and allotted unto them If our Opposites had acquainted themselves with these learned authors they would have spared their pains in oppugning Episcopacy How much more if they had consulted with Gods own Oracle in his word wherein we find which formerly we pointed at that Saint Peter intituled himself a Co-presbyter 1. Pet. 5. 1. Saint Iohn himself a Presbyter 1. John 1. And Saint Paul himself thrice he could then stoop no lower a Deacon Col. 1. 23. 25. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Yet notwithstanding all these inferiour appellations they held still the Authority of their Apostelship we end this point in hope that our Opposites will take out this lesson which Calvin learnt from the Divine Text in the Epistle of Titus what 's that Even our full conclusion in this cause We learn from hence that there was not then an equality saith he among the Ministers of the Church but that one was with Authority placed over others Their second convincing objection would be discuss'd XVIII THESIS That Timothy and Titus have had a Prelacy as Bishops over the Presbyters in the Apostles times notwithstanding the objection that they were called Evangelists according to consent of Protestants of reform'd Churches IN the next place we are to examine the second and only other objection which our Opposites enforce in this case to wit that Timothy and Titus with all other such Disciples of the Apostles the assistants and immediate successors did take care of the Churchs not as properly Bishops but as Evangelists who had no setled residence in any of the Churches So they but are encountred with other Protestant Divines of remote Churches in good number For Luther among his other Resolutions inserted this That Episcopacy was of divine Right grounding his judgement upon the Text specifying Titus his Government in Creete as being consonant to the judgement of Augustine 2. Their learned Scultetus sheweth that at this time they were not exercis'd in assisting the Apostoles for collecting of Churches at Evangelists but for Governing of them that had been collected as the generall praecepts given by the Apostles saith he do prove thereby to become the examples Types for the successours to follow and thereupon he concludeth them to have been the same who otherwise were called Evangeliste for preaching the Gospel although by their superintendency Bishops To the same purpose Master Moulin will have it known that whatsoever Timothy and Titus had whether as Bishop or Evangelist it was such as had a continual succession in the Church which is as others confesse as James had in Jerusalem and Marke in Alexandria which was Episcopall Titus saith Tossahus after his peregrinations with Paul was appointed Bishop of Creet and before these Zuinglius confess'd that Tim. at that very time when Paul advis'd him to pursue the work of an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4. was then Bishop in some place or other by all consequence Dr. Gerhard a late famous Theological Author is copious in this Argument who in the same sheweth that the word Evangelist given to Timothy when Paul wrote unto him was taken in a generall acceptation and not as properly belonging to him as he had been an Assistant even as Luther saith he understood it Besides he sheweth out of Scripture exactly the severall Stations which Timothy had with Saint Paul in exercising his office before that time that he was placed Bishop in Ephesus We forbeare the full allegation of the like Authours cited by others that we may hearken to our English Doctour Reynolds nothing inferiour to any of the rest even in the opinion of our Opposites themselves telling us of that very time when Paul assembled the Ministry at Miletum Act. 20. 28. One was chosen as chief in the Church of Ephesus to gâ—â—d it the same whom afterwards the Fathers of the Primitive Church called Bishop So he And for confirmation hereof sheweth that which must indeed be impregnable to wit A lineall succession of 27. Bishops as hath been proved from Timothy in the Church of Ephesus and for surplus age to all this we answer to the objected reasons propounded for Timothy's non-residence in Ephesus by that qualification which Calvin hath done in like cases namely that Pastours are not so strictly tied to their Glebe or charge as that they may not help other Churches upon necessary occasions As for the objected terme of Evangelists we moreover answer from Scripture where we find Philip preaching the word of God in Samaria Act. 8. 5. Called an Evangelist Act. 21. 8. And yet was one of the seven meaning Deacons Act. 6. 5. Our Quaere is why Timothy might not as well be called an Evangelist for preaching the word being a Bishop as Philip was for the same cause named in Evangelist being a Deacon We think all this should be satisfactory although no more were said But more we have XIX THESIS That Antiquity taught an Episcopacy both in Timothy and Titus OUr strongest Opposite Salmasius could not but confesse concerning Antiquity although he spurne against it That Chrysostome Epiphaneus Theophylact Theodoret and other Greek Commentatours have collected out of the words of Paul that Titus was verily Bishop of Creeâ—e and that there could not be divers Bishops in one City which is our
unequally in both whereas they should have labour'd to solve the doubt by some commodious and congruous interpretation Whether thus if by Candlestick be to understood the people then by people to conceive such of whom the Prophet spake like people like Pastour so that the irrepentant people adhering to the unpenitent Pastor may justly be involv'd in the same punishment Secondly or thus by taking the word Candlestick to signifie the Pastor himself for the Ministers of the Gospel are so called Mat. 5. 15 And that the same word should be diversly taken in the same sentence cannot be strange to him who is not a stranger to Scripture As where it is said He that shall save his life viz. Mortall shall loose his life to wit the Eternal And again 2. Cor. 5. 21. Of Christ He that knew no sin properly taken was made for us sin that is a sacrifice for sin or else not to seek further by distinguishing of the word place as here betokening mans estate and condition with relation to others in which sense might the Church of Ephesus be removed by altering the relation to that one Pastor both by not acknowledging him their Bishop and by withholding maintenance XXII THESIS That our Opposites third Exposition of the word Angel to signifie one onely Pastor in the Church of Ephesus is extremely new and naught THis mis-begotten brat namely an Exposition which before these dayes of distraction never saw print we might think should by and by vanish with its own novelty How much more for the safety thereof which we are rather to enquire after seeming to us to be very transparent For the reasons which these our Opposites might have read in Mr. Brightman viz. The City of Ephesus was more ennobled of all other by Pauls Triennial labour therein Next by the divine Epistle written unto the people there as also by that Timothy was ordained their Pastor and besides for John's laborious watring thereof for so many years together So he But how successefull were these then this was told us in the Acts of the Apostles concerning the Church of Ephesus whereof it is said so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed Act. 19. 20. Now that after Pauls long residence after Timothies Pastorship and after Saint Johns watering of that Church and so long a time and that with so admirable successe and yet here but one onely Pastor among them Is this credible What saith the Scripture The Harvest indeed is great but the labourers are few But here in the mightily great Harvest the labourers are fewer then few We ought not to be blamed for medling with such trifles in earnest but that our study hath been to weed out even the least scruples now that we are to expedite a matter of highest importance which is our proof of Episcopacy from the word of God and to that purpose from confutation of the negative part held by our Opposites we passe to the proofes and confirmations of our affirmative XXIII THESIS That by the word Angel of Ephesus to signifie a singular and individual Pastor having a Prelacy over Presbyters is proved by a large consent of Protestant Divines without exception judicious and ingenuous THe Divines which we shall produce shall be those whom our Opposites themselves cannot call Partialists in behalf of Bishops whether they be of remote Churches or as it were domestiques in our own Country Of the first kind we alleadge the last chief Pastor of the Church of Geneva Master Deodate who is to be cited out of his Book lately authoriz'd to be publish'd by Order of the House of Commons this Parliament The Text in the Revelations is Write to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus His paraphrase thus That is saith he to the Pastor or Bishop under whose person ought to be understood the whole Church The Church to be implyed or understood and the Pastor or Bishop under whose person which because person can be but one according to the Etymon of the word Angel Persona quasi per se una Or as it is defin'd in Philosophy A person is an individual intellectual Nature yet so in this place as he being to acquaint all with the contents of this Epistle all were understood to be concern'd in him as all the other following witnesses will acknowledge Before him in the same Church of Geneva was Theodore Beza by Angel saith he is meant the President who was admonish'd and his Collegues with him So he Bullinger although he as others affirm that the Epistle concerneth as well People as Pastors yet doth he consent unto us that the Epistle was inscribed to one by whom the Pastors and people might be enformed As punctually and pertinently Marlorat some things saith he were to be corrected as well in the people as in the Clergy yet doth not John address himself unto the people nor yet to the Clergy but to the chief of them which is the Bishop and that not without good reason So he Of our chief Gualther held the same opinion with further evidence of these other words Unto the Angel of the Church of Smyrna write that is saith he To the Bishop thereof as Histories do manifest Gaspar Sibilius having compared the divers Expositions confess'd saying This as spoken but of one Angel pleaseth me better Piscator briefly and consonantly to the Angel that is to the Bishop and to the Church namely Bishop expressely and Church consequently because of matters of concernment to them also Paraeus doubteth not to make his explanation as generally to be observ'd in these Epistles It is the word of Christ saith he that that which is meant to the Church should be inscribed to the Bishop of the place or Church Aretius is of no lesse esteem then the former and as punctuall altogether by Angel interpreting a speciall one Minister and Disciple of John by whom the writing might be commended to the whole Church Peter Martyr used to be reckoned among the first Worthies John saith he was commanded to write to the Angels who were the Bishops of the Churches But what do we multiply remote Authors when one of their Doctors may satisfy us both for the generall and for himself All the most learned Interpreters saith Dr. Scultetus by Angels expound the Bishops of the Churches nor can it be otherwise Interpreted without violence to the Text. So he After our so long peregrination in remote Churches it is time to haste home to try what our own English Divines have judged of this matter and lest now we be too numerous we shall single out three who will be held singular in the estimation of our Opposites themselves Dr. Reynolds Although in the Church of Ephesus saith he there were sundry Elders and Pastors to guid it yet among those sundry was there one Chief whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church Apoc. 2. So
he His words need no Paraphrase Dr. Fulke is one of them whom our Opposites have cited for their part who if he speak directly against them they may not be offended with us The Epistle to Pergamus saith he was directed to the Bishop thereof We have reserved Master Cartwright to the last that his Testimony may be more lasting in the memory of our Opposites as from one who useth to be most gratefull unto them The letters written to the Churches saith he were therefore directed to the Angel because he is the meetest man by office by whom the Church may understand the tenor of the letter So he and so they Although this Cloud of witnesses thus raining down aboundance of Testimonies for proof of an Apostolicall originall of Episcopacy may justly be held so convincent that nothing but selfenesse in any party can oppose any thing against it yet shall we furthermore fortify their proofes desiring that this one thing may be observed to wit the reason why all our Opposites have strugled against this our Exposition as a break neck to their whole cause but wee 'll go on XXIV THESIS That Antiquity held not the word Angel whereof we treat to be taken Collectively for a multitude of Pastours IF that our Opposites had not said that we cited no ancient Fathers for our exposition we should not have framed this Thesis only we cannot tell with what appetite they did it Is it that they hold the judgement of Fathers satisfactory in this case Why then have they not alleadged any one syllable out of them for their own collective sense But we list not to expostulate rather hoping the best we entreat them to spell the words of Ambrose they are but few I call Bishops Angels as I am taught in the Revelation What Ambrose meant by Bishops who can doubt Likewise Augustine the famous Bishop of Hippo saith of one of these Angels That he was set over the Church by the divine voice meaning the Scripture If Scultetus when he said that all the most learned Interpreters by Angels understood Bishops if among all he comprehend the Ancients we have not to seek more witnesses however we need not because there is but very rare commenting upon the Apocalyps among the Fathers much lesse upon these Texts All this notwithstanding we are sure of that what is wanting in their Commentaries they supply in their Historicall relations as will appear by and by rendring unto us one Polycarpus Bishop and Martyr to have been one of these Angells in the Church of Smyrna In the interim we will plead Reason with our opposites XXV THESIS That the word Angel in other places of the Revelation is commonly if not alwayes Individually taken BEtter reason they cannot expect then is the retorting of their own Argument upon them When they dislike this The word Angell is commonly if not alwayes taken Collectively ergo ought it to be so interpreted in the second and third cap. So they but altogether amisse as hath been shewen It will be our part to prove the contradictory whereof upon observation in reading Commentaries upon the Revelation we are the more confident our Opposites at their leisure may inquire to other Authors We for this present shall need but commend a special one unto them who in their opinion may stand for many because only now at hand He after these two Chapters as the Marginalls shew through his whole Commentaries upon the same Book taketh the word Angel so far individually as to enterpret it of some one person either expresly by name or else equivalently by an Individuum vagum as thus some not able one or the like In the second place we do appeale to the Texts themselves to give a sufficient taste for oftentime the Angels are reckoned seven and after distributed ordinatively into first second third and so till the seventh as plainly as one can reckon the seven dayes in the week Chap. 15. and 16. Afterwards we have recited one Angel having the Key of the bottomlesse pit Chap. 20. was there need of a Collectively understood multitude of Angels to keep one Key The like may be said of a mighty Angel for delivering a little booke Chap. 10. 1 2. Besides the Angel whom John is said to have worshiped Chap. 22. will they say this Angel also to comprehend a Multitude Then might the Angel reply have you forgot when I said to John I am thy fellow Servant but five words and every one an Individuall Thirdly to return to the questioned Text whereas some of the Angels are commended for notable vertues and as much condemned for some notorious vices they that think that all the same vices and vertues did as well imply every Pastour in all the Colleges of the seven Churches may as well conceive that where the deformities are noted in any Corporation therefore every person in it is equally flat-nosed crook't-legged bald-headed and the like Lastly the Angels and Churches being both reckoned distinctly seven times that there should be a Collective number of the Order of Pastours without so much as any insinuation of distinguishing them either from Angels or Churches have they any Key to unlock such a Mystery From this kind of reasoning we passe unto an evidence of no lesse importance Historicall Experience and Practice XXVI THESIS That by Angel is meant Individually one Bishop is demonstrated by Historicall learning without contradiction HIstory is the life of memory and memoriall of mens lives if it may be undubitably had it must necessarily seal up the verity of all that hath been said of an Apostolicall Institution of Episcopacy whereof we have had evident instances in the Episcopall Traditions from James in Jerusalem Mark in Alexandria Peter in Antioch and in Rome And now we are to insist upon examples of the descent from John in two of these Angelical Churches Ephesus and Smyrna For the first it hath been made good unto you out of Eusebius that Polycrates writ himself Bishop of Ephesus testifying withall a line of seven Bishops of his own kindred his Predecessours Whereunto may be added the Declaration made by Leontius the Archbishop of Magnesia in the general Councell of Calcedon of the succession of the seven and twenty Bishops from Timothy in the same Church of Ephesus which Timothy all antiquity with a large consent of most approved Protestant Divines have testified to have been Bishop there none will think but shame it self would have restrained Leontius from making such a publique Declaration in the hearing of six hundred Fathers assembled in this Councell if the matter it self had been liable to any contradiction The next instance as we are perswaded may be held satisfactroy and infringeable in it self in Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna in the dayes when Saint Iohn lived Our witnesses deserve your hearing we will begin with the veriest junior of all saying Polycarpus who had been Disciple to one that
Apostle would have them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Nay and out of the latter part it self where God had appointed that the Priests the Levits and all the Tribe of Levi should eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire doth not the Apostle by just analogy inferre from thence that for asmuch as they which waited at the Altar were partaker with the Altar even so had the Lord ordained that they which preached the Gospell should live of the Gospell With what shew of reason then can any man imagine that what was instituted by God in the Law for meere matter of Government and preservation of good order without all respect of type or ceremony should now be rejected in the Gospell as a device of Antichrist That what was by the Lord once planted a noble vine wholly a right seed should now be so turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine that no purging or pruning of it will serve the turne but it must be cut down root and branch as a plant which our heavenly Father had never planted But nothing being so familiar now a dayes as to father upon Antichrist whatsoever in Church matters we do not find to suite with our own humors The safest way will be to consult with Christ himself herein and hear what he delivereth in the cause These things saith he that hath the seven Starres Revel III. 1. he owneth then we see these Starrs whatsoever they be And the Mystery of them he thus further openeth unto his beloved Disciple The seven Starrs which thou sawest in my right hand are the Angels of the seven Churches Revel I. 20. From which words a learned man very much devoted to the now so highly admired Discipline deduceth this conclusion How great therefore is the dignity of true pastours who are both STARRES fixed in no other firmament then in the right hand of Christ and ANGELS He had considered well that in the Church of Ephâ—sus one of the seven here pointed at there were many PRESBYTERS whom the holy Ghost had made BISHOPS or Overseers over all that flook to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood And withall he saw that by admitting one Angel there above the rest all as well extraordinary Prophets as ordinary Pastours being in their own severall stations accounted Angels or Messengers of the Lord of Hosts he should be forced also to acknowledge the eminency of one Bishop above the other Bishops that name being in those dayes common unto all the Presbyters and to yeeld withall that such a one was to be esteemed as a starre fixed in no other firmament then in the right hand of Christ. To salve this therefore all the starrs in every Church must be presupposed to be of one magnitude and though those starrs which typified these Angels are said to be but seven yet the Angels themselves must be maintained to be farre more in number and in fine where our Saviour Saith unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write it must by no means be admitted that any one Angel should be meant hereby but the whole Colledge of Pastors rather And all upon pretence of a poor shew of some shallow reasons that there was not one Angel of Ephesus but many and among them not any Principal Which wresting of the plain words of our Saviour is so extream violent that M. Beza though every way as zealously affected to the advancement of the new Discipline as was the other could by no means digest it but ingenuously acknowledgeth the meaning of our Lords direction to have been this To the Angel that is to the President as whom it behoved specially to be admonished touching those matters and by him both the rest of his colleagues and the whole Church likewise And that there was then a standing President over the rest of the Pastors of Ephesus and he the very same as learned Doctor Rynolds addeth with him whom afterward the Fathers called Bishop may further be made manifest not only by the succession of the first Bishops of that Church but also by the clear testimony of Ignatius who within no greater compasse of time then twelve years afterwards distinguisheth the singular and constant President thereof from the rest of the number of the Presbyters by appropriating the name of Bishop unto him As for the former we find it openly declared in the general Council of Chalcedon by Leontius Bishop of Magnesia that from Timothie and so from the dayes of the Apostles there had been a continued succession of seven and twenty Bishops all of them ordained in Ephesus Of which number the Angel of the Church of Ephesus mentioned in the Revelation must needs be one whether it were Timothie himself as some conceive or one of his next Successours as others rather do imagine For that Timothie had been some time * the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the appellation that Justin Martyr in his second Apology for Christians Dionysius of Corinth not long after him in his epistle to the Church of Athens and Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra in his Letters to Julius Bishop of Rome do give unto a Bishop or Autistes or President of the Ephesine Presbytery is confessed by Beza himself and that he was ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians we do not only read in the subscription of the second Epistle to Timothy and the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius but also in two ancient Treatises concerning the martyrdom of Timothy the one namelesse in the Library of Photius the other bearing the name of Polycrates even of that Polycrates who was not only himself Bishop of this Church of Ephesus but born also within six or seven and thirty years after S. John wrote the fore-named Epistle unto the Angel of that Church as it appeareth by the years he was of when he wrote that Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome wherein he maketh mention of seven kinsmen of his who had been Bishops he himself being the eight I come now to the testimony of Ignatius whom Theodoret and Felix Bishop of Rome and John the Chronographer of Antioch report to have been ordained Bishop of Antioch by S. Peter in special Chrysostome who was a Presbyter of the same Church by the Apostles in general and without all controversie did sit in that See the very same time wherein that Epistle unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was commanded to be written In the Isle of Patmos had S. John his Revelation manifested unto him toward the end of the Empire of Domitian as Ireneus testifieth or the fourteenth year of his government as Eusebius and Hierome specifie it From thence there are but twelve years reckoned
the two sons of Zebedee Iames and Iohn to be chosen the peculiar Bishop of Ierusalem the then mother Church of the world After the death of Iames the Just Hegesippus declareth that Symeon the sonne of Clopas or Cleophas was constituted Bishop and so continued untill the dayes of the Emperour Trajan under whom he suffered a glorious Martyrdome about the same time that Ignatius did being then an hundred and twenty years of age and by that account borne before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour Where the observation of this prime Historian is not to be passed over that untill these times the Church was called a Virgin as being not yet corrupted with the overspreading of hereticall doctrine For howsoever heresies did spring up before yet they were so kept down by the authority of the Apostles and the Disciples who had heard our Lord himselfe preach that the authors and fautors thereof were not able to get any great head being forced by the authority of such opposites to lurk in obscurity But as soone as all that generation was gathered unto their fathers and none of those were left who had the happinesse to hear the gracious words that proceeded from the Lords own mouth the Hereticks taking that advantage began to enter into a kind of combination and with open face publickly to maintain the oppositions of their science falsly so called from whence they assumed unto themselves the name of Gnosticks or men of knowledge against the preaching of that truth which by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word had been ONCE delivered unto the Saints The first beginner of which conspiracy was one Thebûthis who had at the first been bred in one of the seven sects into which the people of the Jewes were in those dayes divided but afterwards because he missed of a Bishopricke unto which he had aspired this of Jerusalem as it may seem whereunto Iustus after the death of Symeon was preferred before him could think of no readyer a way throughly to revenge himself of this disgrace than by raising up the like distractions among the Christians Which as in the effect it sheweth the malignity of that ambitious Sectary so doth it in the occasion discover withall the great esteem that in those early dayes was had of Episcopacy When Hegesippus wrote this Ecclesiasticall History the ancientest of any since the Acts of the Apostles Eleutherius as we heard before was Bishop of the Church of Rome unto whom Lucius King of the Britains as our Bede relateth sent an Epistle desiring that by his means he might be made Christian. Who presently obtained the effect of his pious request and the Britains kept the faith then received sound and undefiled in quiet peace untill the times of Dioclesian the Emperour By whose bloudy persecution the faith and discipline of our Brittish Churches was not yet so quite extinguished but that within ten years after and eleven before the first generall Councell of Nice three of our Bishops were present and subscribed unto the Councel of Arles Eborius of York Restitutus of London and Adelfius of Colchester if that be it which is called there Colonia Londinensium The first root of whose succession we must fetch beyond Eleutherius and as high as S. Peter himself if it be true that he constituted Churches here and ordained Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in them as Symeon Metaphrastes relateth out of some part of Eusebius as it seemeth that is not come unto our hands But to return unto the Angels of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn by what hath been said it is apparent that seven singular Bishops who were the constant Presidents over those Churches are pointed at under that name For other sure they could not be if all of them were cast into one mould and were of the same quality with Polycarpus the then Angel of the Church in Smyrna who without all question was such if any credit may be given herein unto those that saw him and were well acquainted with him And as Tertullian in expresse termes affirmeth him to have been placed there by S. Iohn himself in the testimony before alledged out of his Prescriptions so doth he else-where from the order of the succeeding Bishops not obscurely intimate that the rest of that number were to be referred unto the same descent We have saith he the Churches that were bred by John For although Marcion do reject his Revelation yet the order of the Bishops reckoned up unto their originall will stand for John to be their Founder Neither doth the ancient Writer of the Martyrdome of Timothy mentioned by Photius mean any other by those seven Bishops whose assistance he saith S. Iohn did use after his return from Patmos in the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians For being revoked from his exile saith he by the sentence of Nerva he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus and being assisted with the presence of SEVEN Bishops he took upon him the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians and continued preaching the word of piety untill the Empire of Trajan That he remained with the Ephesians and the rest of the brethren of Asia untill the dayes of Trajan and that during the time of his abode with them he published his Gospel is sufficiently witnessed by Ireneus That upon his return from the Iland after the death of Domitian he applyed himself to the government of the Churches of Asia is confirmed likewise both by Eusebius and by Hierom who further addeth that at the earnest intreaty of the Bishops of Asia he wrote there his Gospel And that he himselfe also being free from his banishment did ordaine Bishops in diverse Churches is clearely testified by Clement of Alexandria who lived in the next age after and delivereth it as a certain truth which he had received from those who went before him and could not be farre from the time wherein the thing it self was acted When S. John saith he Domitian the Tyrant being dead removed from the Iland of Patmos unto Ephesus by the intreaty of some he went also unto the neighbouring nations in some places constituting Bishops in others founding whole Churches Among these neighbouring Churches was that of Hierapolis which had Papias placed Bishop therein That this man was a hearer of S. John and a companion of Polycarpus is testified by his own Schollar Irenaeus and that he conversed with the disciples of the Apostles and of Christ also he himself doth thus declare in the Proëme of the five books which he intituled A declaration of the words of the Lord. If upon occasion any of the Presbyters which had accompanied the Apostles did come I diligently enquired what were the speeches which the Apostles used what Andrew or what Peter did say or what Philip or Thomas or James or John or
CONFESSIONS AND PROOFES OF PROTESTANT DIVINES OF Reformed Churches That EPISCOPACY is in respect of the Office according to the word of God and in respect of the Use the Best TOGETHER With a brief Treatise touching the Originall of BISHOPS and METROPOLITANS Printed in the year 1662. TO The Pious and Religious Reader Grace and Peace in Christ Jesus THe matter subject of this Treatise being yet in suspense and to be determin'd de future viz. What Ecclesiasticall Government is to be judged to be according to the Word of God in respect of the office it self and also the Best in respect of its use After that upon more and more deliberation I had perfected my conlusion the saying of Augustine came into my mind He that concealeth a truth and he that teacheth a falshood are both guilty the first because he will not profit the other because he intendeth to hurt and delude which I apprehend as a double caution both of not publishing any Utopian Ecclesiasticall form of Government of mine own forging as also of not stifling by my silence a form truly Apostolicall Which Resolution notwithstanding I did not adventure to take before that I was fortified in my perswasion by a general consent of Protestant Divines of reformed Churches and among others in some principal points appealing to the Divines of the Church of Geneva Nor yet do we so much insist upon their Confessions as upon their Proofs especially being grounded upon two infallible foundations The first the general verdict of Antiquity as well Doctrinall as Historicall Though we should not name that general Council of Calcedon consisting of 630 Fathers which by one Canon decreed it to be a Sacriledge to presse down a Bishop into the degree of a Presbyter The same Council that did also ordain another Canon which was then the very break-neck of Romish Popedome 2. The Authenticall Texts of Scripture so far as thereby to demonstrate Christ his own approbation of Episcopal Prelacy after his Ascension in the Churches of Asia in one whereof without all contradiction was one Polycarpus Bishop and Martyr As for the Churches whereof we are to speak the Tractate hath been undertaken in behalf of Protestant Churches which practice at this day the same Prelacy under these two divers names of Episcopacy and Superintendency as much exceeding the number of those which are destitute of Bishops yet so as justly condemning the Romish Hierarchy rather Tyranny poysoned with most grosse Idolatry and not so onely but so far opposite to the Episcopacy which we defend that it is a false Usurpation that all Bishops be originally deduced from the Pope and dependant upon him Other Churches destitute of Bishops we differ from yet not so far be it from us as not to account them essential Churches of Christ but to whom as formerly we do desirously give the right hand of Brotherly fellowship to joyn against the common and grand adversary in the Romish Babylon Concerinng other points circumstantial we have provided that our Method be with coherence our Styl plain and even our Allegations direct and punctual our Authors justly approveable our Taxations toothless and our Inferencies brief pertinent and consectary As for you good Christian Reader his hope is that he shall not need the use of the Apostles Expostulation saying Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth And his prayer to God shall be to protect and blesse you to the glory of his saving Grace in Christ Jesus that he also will distribute to this our lacerated Church some portion of that his peerlesse Legacy left unto his Apostles when he said My peace I leave with you by vertue whereof we may with one heart and mind faithfully worship God in Spirit and in Truth The Contents of every THESIS I. THesis That our English Episcopacy hath been justified b the confession of the most learned Protestants of remot Churches in speciall by the Church of Geneva Pag. 1 II. Thesis That there was never any visible constituted Church in all Christendome since the Appostles time for 1500. years and more which held Episcopacy in it self to be unlawful 5 III. Thesis That Episcopall Prelacy is acknowledged by Protestant Divines of remote Churches to be according to the Word of God and their consent therein unto Primitive Antiquity 7 IV. Thesis That Episcopall Government in the Church is in respect of the necessary use thereof the Best by the consent of Protestant Divines of other reformed Churches 9 V. Thesis That the most Protestant Churches do professe and practise a Prelacy over Presbyters 13 VI. Thesis That the former Reasons of Confessions of Protestant Divines concerning the necessity of Episcopall Prelacy for preservation of concord and preventing of Schisme is correspondent to the judgement of Antiquity 14 VII Thesis That Bishops primitively were not only the chiefest Champions for the Christian Faith but also the greatest adversaries to Romish Popedome as have also our English 16 VIII Thesis That to be of Aposticall Institution argueth in it a Divine Right by the confession of excellent Divines of the reformed Churches 18 IX Thesis That no Ancient Father absolutely denyed the Aposticall Originall of Episcopacy no not the objected Hieròme who will shew himself a manifest Patron thereof 19 X. Thesis That Clement an Apostolicall Disciple to whose arbitrement both our Opposites and we offer to yeild our selves doth patronize Episcopacy as being Apostolicall 21 XI Thesis That other Primitive Fathers before Hierome did unanimously testifie an Apostolical Right of Episcopacy 24 XII Thesis That the Apostolicall Antiquity of Episcopacy is confessedly proved out of Ignatius 26 XIII Thesis That Antiquity hath given us Rules of Resolution for the knowledge of any Apostolicall practice which may serve in the case of Episcopacy 27 XIV Thesis That Protestant Divines of other Reformed Churches have held it most equall to be directed by the judgments of Ancients for a proof of a Practice Apostolicall 28 XV. Thesis That Mr. Beza himself is challengable to yield unto an Apostolicall right of Episcopacy from his own former confession 30 XVI Thesis That the testimonies of Nazianzen and Augustine are unworthily objected to the contrary 30 XVII Thesis That Timothy and Titus both had a Prelacy over Presbyters notwithstanding the objection of the Community of names of Bishops and Presbyters is sufficiently confessed by Protestant Divines of remote Churches 32 XVIII Thesis That Timothy and Titus have had a Prelacy as Bishops over Presbyters in the Apostles times notwithstanding the Objection that they were called Evangelists according to consent of Protestants of Reformed Churches 34 XIX Thesis That Antiquity taught an Episcopacy both in Timothy and Titus 36 XX. Thesis That our Opposites first Exposition which interpreteth the Angell to meane the whole Church and Congregation is notably extravagant 38 XXI Thesis That our Opposites second Exposition of the word Angell to signifie onely the Order and Colledge of Presbyters is erroneous notwithstanding the Arguments of
the Apostles and as antiquity it self teacheth and consent of Protestant Divines of Remote Churches will afterwards grant to have been in the dayes of Saint John the Evangelist the Bishop of Smyrna The other viz. Ignatius was also acquainted with those who had been the Disciples of Christ. Besides we have heard Scultetus resolving that Iames not the Apostle the Brother of our Lord was Bishop of Hierusalem from the plentifull testimonies of Antiquity it self We will conclude with this our proof from the same Antiquity but what even that which Bucer finds resolved upon as he saith before Hierom let us take his own words Divine Fathers more ancient then Hierom. Cyprian Ireneus Eusebius and other Ecclesiastical Historians shew That in the Apostles times there was one elected and ordained who should have Episcopal function and superiority over Presbyters so he instancing in Iames of whom we have spoken who was Bishop of Hierusalem XV. THESIS That Master Beza himself is challengable to yeild unto Apostolical right of Episcopacy from his own former confession MAster Beza hath already confessed concerning the famous Church of Alexandria that from Mark the Evangelist one was chosen to be placed in a degree above Presbyters called Bishop is according to the Testimony of Hierom. The Story hereof hath been of late published by Master Selden the Ornament of our Nation excellently conversant in ancient exotick Learning out of the Relation of Eutychâ—us that Mark the Ev. placed Anianus Patriarch or Bishop over Presbyters in the Church of Alexandria In which book also there is set down the full Catalogue of 18. Bishops successively unto Dionysius that possessed the same See which proveth as plainly an Episcopal and personal succession by an Apostolical Constitution from Anianus to Alexandria in a lineal succession as was the filiall and natural descent from Adam to Thara which makes up eighteen Generations What need then many words the most Theses which have been premised and almost all afterwards to be propounded do declare the same by joynt accordance of Protestant Divines of reformed Churches and suffrages of Antiquity We hasten to our last proof but are arrested in our way by our Opposites to answer two objected Testimonies of Antiquity XVI THESIS That the Testimonies of Nazianzen and Augustine are unworthily objected to the contrary VVE are urged to reckon these two excellent Bishops although in true Construction they have answered for themselves Nazianzen say our Opposites mustering up the evils that had hapned unto him reckoneth ejection out of his Episcopacy holding it a part of wisdome to avoid it wishing that there were no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place of President-ship or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tyrannicall Prerogative in the Church but that they might be known only by vertue We have alleadged Nazianzen according to the genuine sense So they But so as usually in an Heterogeneall sense to inferre a necessary abnegation of Episcopacy They who seek iugenuously the genuine sense of Sentences in Authors must be Janus-like faced looking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backward and foreward both which properties have been wanting to our opposites first because before the words objected they lay before their eyes this saying of Nazianzen there was a time when Episcopacy was had in great admiration and desired of wise and prudent men and the second as not considering that was then spoken only comparatively against the Tyrannicall Government of Bishops which by all Protestant Bishops hath been condemned in the Popish Hierarchie besides that this was but the breath of vexatious passion upon occasion of one Maximus whom Nazianzen calleth a Cynicke and doggish Philosopher because whereas he himself had the Generall esteem in the Church of Christ to be by way of excellence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine notwithstanding he was vehemently persecuted by the same unworthy Prelate and by his circumvention disturb'd out of his Bishopricke and therefore sensible of that iudignity did utter the language of his hearts grief But why did not our Opposites tell us that after this storme there fell a calme when the same godly Bishop was with generall applause received to his Bishoprick again but especially we may complaine that they have by their silence smothered Nazianzens judgement concerning the cause it self which is the right of Episcopacy and which he esteemed the most perfect kind of Government So he And is not this as much as to have held it the best Which he further declareth in his funerall Orations which he had of three famous Bishops Basil Athanasius and Cyprian Augustine writing to Hierome saith that custom hath obtained that Episcopacy should be higher then Presbytery according to the honour and dignity of the words Therefore saith Walo the distinction of Episcopacy and Presbytery was first constituted by the Church So he whose disciples our other Opposites have learned this lesson saying If Augustine had known the majority of Bishops above Presbyters to have been of Divine or Apostolicall institution he might have said so much nay he would have said as much And we answer if any of our Opposits had reguarded to search the judgement of Augustine they would not have said thus much because it is evident that Augustine did say as much as they require he should have said as hath been shewn saying of himself and other Bishops thus we succeed the Apostles in the same Power and that Christ instituted Bishops when he ordained his Apostles That we repeate not his condemning Aërius as Epiphanius did for denying Episcopacy to have been an institution Apostolicall and now whether our Reader think it more reasonable to yeeld to the supposition of what Augustine would have done or the manifestation what he did we permit to his judgement This obstacle thus removed we fall now upon the last proof Our last proof that Episcopacy is of Apostolicall right according to the word of God even from the Word of God it self To this purpose two places of Scripture are especially to be alleadged The Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus and the Epistles of St. John in the Revelation to the seven Churches in Asia which are to be discussed according to our foremer Method by the consonant Testimonies of ancient Fathers and consent of Protestant Divines of generall esteem and approbation XII THESIS That Timothy and Titus both had a Prelacy over Presbyters notwithstanding the objection of the community of Names of Bishops and Presbyters is sufficiently confessed by Protestant Divines of Remote Churches THere can none be held a more sufficient witnes with our Opposites then he who hath professedly pleaded this cause in their behalfe notwithstanding freely deerly granteth that Timothy and Titus were indeed Governours over their Provinces and places where the Apostle had appointed them and that they had over the Presbyters a kind of Apostolical anthority which he in his own judgement calleth extraordinary and we
Matthew or some other of the disciples of the Lord and the things that Aristion and John the Elder our Lords disciples did speak The two last of whom he often cited by name in the processe of the work relating the passages in this kind which he had heard from them Neither can any man be so simple as to imagine that in the language of Clemens Alexandrinus the name of a Bishop should import no more then a bare Presbyter if he consider that not the difference only betwixt Presbyters Bishops and Deacons is by him acknowledged but further also that the disposition of their three offices in his judgement doth carry with it an imitation of the Angelicall glory To say nothing of the Emperour Hadrian who hard upon the time of the fore-named Papias writing unto the Consul Servianus touching the state of things in Aegypt maketh distinct mention in his letter of the Presbyters of the Christians and of those who call themselves the Bishops of Christ. And thus having deduced Episcopacy from the Apostolicall times and declared that the Angels of the seven Churches were no other but such as in the next age after the Apostles were by the Fathers tearmed Bishops we are now further to enquire why these Churches are confined unto the number of seven in the superscription of that Apostolicall Epistle prefixed before the book of the Revelation Iohn to the seven Churches in Asia Grace be unto you and peace where S. Iohn directing his letters unto them thus indefinitly without any mention of their particular names cannot by common intendment be conceived to have understood any other thereby but such as by some degree of eminency were distinguishable from all the rest of the Churches that were in Asia and in some sort also did comprehend all the rest under them For taking Asia here in that stricter sense wherein the New Testament useth it as denoting the Lydian Asia alone of the circuit whereof I have treated elsewhere more particularly it is not to be imagined that after so long pains taken by the Apostles and their disciples in the husbanding of that part of the Lords vineyard there should be found no more but seven Churches therein especially since S. Paul that wise master-builder professeth that he had here a great door and effectuall opened unto him and S. Luke testifieth accordingly that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Iesus both Iews and Greeks so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed Which extraordinary blessing of God upon his labours moved the Apostle to make his residence in those parts for the space of three years wherein he ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears So that in all reason we are to suppose that these seven Churches comprising all the rest within them were not bare Parochiall ones or so many particular congregations but Diocesan Churches as we use to call them if not Metropoliticall rather For that in Laedicea Sardis Smyrna Ephesus and Pergamus the Roman governours held their Courts of justice to which all the Cities and Towns about had recourse for the ending of their suites is noted by Pliny And besides these which were the greatest Thyatira is also by Ptolomy expresly named a Metropolis as Philadelphia also is in the Greek Acts of the Councell of Constantinople held under Menas Which giveth us good ground to conceive that the seven Cities in which these seven Churches had their seat were all of them Metropoliticall and so had relation unto the rest of the Townes and Cities of Asia as unto daughters rising under them This Lydian Asia was separated from Caria by the river Maeander upon the banks whereof Magnesia and Trallis were seated to the Christians whereof Ignatius directed two of his epistles wherein he maketh mention of Damas Bishop of the one Church and Polybius Bishop or Ruler as Eusebius calleth him of the other whom they had sent to visit him at Smyrna adding withall in that to the Trallians his usuall admonitions Be subject to the Bishop as to the Lord and to the Presbytery as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ our hope He that doth any thing without the Bishop and the Presbyters and the Deacons such a one is defiled in conscience Fare ye well in Jesus Christ being subject to the Bishop and likewise to the Presbyters Wherein we may note that with twelve years after mention of the seven Churches made in the Apocalyps for then as hath been shewed were these epistles of Ignatius written other Episcopal cities are found in the same Lydian Asia and two such as in after times are well known to have been under the government of the Metropolitan of Ephesus But whether this subordination were as ancient as the dayes of Ignatius whose Epistles are extant unto these three Churches and Damas the then Bishop of Magnefia with Polybius of Trallis were at that time subject to One simus the Bishop of Ephesus might well be doubted but that the same Ignatius directeth one of his Epistles unto the Church which had presidency in the place of the Region of the Romans and in the body thereof doth attribute unto himself the title of the Bishop of Syria Whereby as he intimateth himself to have been not onely the Bishop of Antiock but also of the rest of the province of Syria which was under that Metropolis so doth he likewise not obscurely signifie that the Bishop of Rome had at that time a presidency over the Churches that were in the Vrbicarian Region as the Imperiall Constitutions or the Roman Province as the Acts of the first Councell of Arles call it What that Vrbicarian Region was I will not now stand to discusse whether Tuscia onely wherein Rome it selfe was situated which in the dayes of Ignatius was one entire region but afterwards divided into Tuscia Suburbicaria and Annonaeria or the territory wherein the Praefectus Vrbis did exercise his jurisdiction which was confined within the compasse of a hundred miles about the City or with that those other provinces also whereunto the authority of the Vicarius Vrbis did extend or lastly the circuit within which those 69. Bishopricks were contained that were immediatly subject to the Bishop of Rome and frequently called to his Synods the names whereof are found registred in the Records of that Church The antiquity of which number as it may in some sort receive confirmation from the Roman Synod of seventy Bishops held under Gelasius so for the distinction of the Bishops which belonged to the city of Rome from those that appertained to Italy we have a farre more ancient testimony from the Edict of the Emperour Aurelian who in the controversie that arose betwixt Paulus Samosatenus and Domnus for the house which belonged unto the Church of Antioch commanded that it should be delivered to them
our Opposites to the contrary 39 The Answer to the first Argument 39 To the Second 39 To the Third 41 To the Fourth 42 To the Last 43 XXII Thesis That our Opposites third Exposition of the word Angell to signifie one only Pastour in the Church of Ephesus is extremely new and naught 44 XXIII Thesis That by the word Angell of Ephesus to signifie a singular and individuall Pastour having a Prelacy over Presbyters is proved by a large consent of Protestant Divines without Exception judicious and ingenuous 45 XXIV Thesis That Antiquity held not the word Angell whereof we treat to be taken collectively for a Multitude of Pastours 48 XXV Thesis That the word Angell in other places of the Revelation is commonly if not alwayes individually taken 48 XXVI Thesis That by Angell is meant individually one Bishop is demonstrated by Historicall learning without contradiction 50 XXVII Thesis That Christ himself shewed his approbation of Prelacy which the foresaid Angels had in their severall Churches 52 The judgment of Protestant Divines of remote Churches as well such as were the first Reformers of Religion as others after them in behalf of Episcopal degree in the Church THis they perform both by their direct and ingenious confessions and after by sound and solid Proofs so far as to shew Episcopal Prelacy to be According to Gods Word as also to acknowledge the same for use to be the Best kinde of Ecclesiastical Government We are in the first place to try their plain confessions concerning the said Prelacy as well in special for our English as touching Episcopacy in generall in what Orthodox Church soever and afterwards to adjoyn the proofs 1. THESIS That our English Episcopacy hath been justified by the confession of the most learned Protestants of remote Curches in special by the Church of Geneva OUr Episcopall Prelacy we are sure was profess'd and practis'd by Bishops 1. In the dayes of King Edward the 6. who as they were the principal Authors of the Reformation of our Protestant Religion so did some of them seal the truth of their profession with their bloud and have therefore been with others thus extoll'd by that golden mouth of the French Church Master Moulin saying That they were for zeal nothing inferiour to the most excellent servants of God that Germany or France ever had which saith he none will deny is so if not wilfully stupid and blinded in day-light Yea and touching those then Archbishops and Bishops Beza for the Church of Geneva It happened in our memory that she speaking of our English Church hath had men of that calling not onely constant Martyrs of God but also excellent Pastours and Doctors 2. In the dayes of Queen Elizabeth Calvin the most illustrious star of the Church of Geneva doubted not to instile Archbishop Cranmer A most accomplish'd Prelate saith he who hath the cure not onley of England but also of the whole Christian world which he did to the dignifying of the Government of our English Church and no marvel seing that he durst professe to yeild in behalf even of Popish Bishops upon condition that renouncing the dependance upon the Pope and acknowledgment of Christ as their onely Head with profession of his Truth Then shall we professe all them saith he who shall not reverently and willingly submit to their Government to be worthy of whatsoever Anathema or curse So he even in his Tractate of Reformation of the Church at what time also Beza after his congratulating the restitution of our Protestant Religion in England earnestly desired the whole Clergy under the Government of Grindal then Bishop of London to submit unto him holding him worthy of much punishment who should despise his Authority Yea and so well did he approve of the then Government by Archbishops and Bishops as to wish it might be perpetual unto them Sadell likewise who is sufficiently commended by his excellent writings in defence of the Protestant Religion did joyn together with Beza in an Apology to vindicate themselves from a sinister report as if they had detracted from the Right of Government by Arch-bishops and Bishops avouching the same aspersion to have been a most impious slander And Bishop Jeuell how was he honoured by Peter Martyr calling him A most renowned Prelate and by Sibbrandus Lubbartus entitling him The Ornament not onely of England but also of the whole world Hierom Zanchee one in the opinion of our Opposites we doubt not worthily renowned in his Letters to Queen Elizabeth he exhorteth her Majesty with an imprimis and especially to extend her care power and authority to have godly Bishops skilfull in holy Scriptures of which sort saith he by the blessing of God you have already very many and to cherish and hear them Also in his Epistle to Arch-bishop Grindall upon occasion of his remove to Canterbury he expresseth his joy for that accesse of dignity as a testimony of Gods love towards him and a means whereby he might more and more promote Gods true Religion Our Opposites ought not to be offended with us although we offer unto them next an Author somewhat distastfull unto them at the first hearing namely D. Saravia because as he is a Religious Divineâ— and as un-Episcopall as any other so also is he as Orthodox every-where as they know inveighing against the Romish Hierarchie he confesseth himself to wonder at the wisdome of the Reformers of Religion in England So as not any where deviating from the antient Church of Christ and concludeth with this Epiphonema saying I hold it a part of her happiness that she hath retained with her the order of Bishops 3. In the raigne of King James that famous Isaack Casaubon whom we reckon as the fourth witnesse from the Church of Geneva had that estimation of our English Episcopall government as to confesse That no Church doth come nearer the form of the primitive Church then it doth so farre that even they who envyed her happinesse are notwithstanding constrained to extoll it He proceeds furthermore to blazon the worthinesse of it If saith he the essentiall part of the Church be enquired into and what either necessarily belongeth unto the Doctrine of Salvation or else to the decency of the Church then praysed and magnified be God no Church upon earth can be found which more professeth the faith and resembleth the form of the ancient Catholique Church then it doth So he But to return to our French witnesse again worthy Master Moulin in an answer to a Papist who upbraided him with the discipline of England doth avouch the dignity thereof telling him furthermore That their agreement is such that England saith he hath been a refuge to our persecuted Churches and correspondently the excellentest servants of God in our Churches as Peter Martyr Calvin Beza and Zanchee have often written Letters full of respect and amity to the Prelates of England
So he Lastly now under our Gracious Soveraigne King Charles in the time of Arch-Bishop Abbot Whose daily experience did testifie the reciprocall correspondence between him and with other Bishops and all reformed Churches beyond the Sea At what time likewise Cyrill late Greek Patriarch of Constatinople did so farre honour both him and our English Church as to professe his accordance therewith more specially then with any other And if our Bishops of later date had not been respected then surely would not the Divines about Breme in Germany have sent their controversies had among themselves onely unto certain Bishops in England as they did to have them moderated by their judgements not to speak of their dedications of some of their Books unto Bishops These last Relations nothing but the importunity of these times could have extorted from us Thus much of particular respects had in speciall to our English Episcopall Government by singular approved Divines of the reformed Protestant Churches In the next place as the thread of our method leadeth us we are to examine what they will say touching the unlawfulnesse or lawfulness thereof in generall II. THESIS That there was never any visibly constituted Church in all Christendome since the Apostles time for 1500. years and more which held Episcopacy in it self to be unlawfull WE are not ignorant that even at this time all Episcopacy and Prelacy of any one above Presbyterie is cryed down by some as unlawfull in it self notwithstanding our Opposites cannot but know what besides Epiphanius Saint Angustine recorded of one Aerius to wit that he because he could not obtain to be made a Bishop did therefore teach that there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop So he and for that cause they listed him among the erroneous Authors of that Age but he being excepted never any visible Church of Christ before him we adde nor yet any thus protested after him nor before these dayes of contradiction defended his opinion Now whether the humour of desire to rule others and the unwillingnesse to be subject unto others may not equally transport some Ecclesiasticks to oppose against Episcopacy they can best judge whom it most concernes We know beside infinite others who have acknowledged the lawfulnesse of Episcopacy some protestant Divines of remote Churches who have fully condemn'd the opinion of Aerius Three may suffice for three hundred if they be learned and judicious Authors and not interested in that which is now called Episcopall policy Master Moulin commeth on roundly I have since my infancy saith he abhorr'd the opinion of Aërius Tylenus also a Divine of the French Church as pertinently and plainly None ever before Aërius endeavoured the extirpation of Episcopacy nor yet after him any but some of Geneva What some he might meane we know not but whom he might not meane we have already shewn as Calvin Beza Sadle and Causabon who have given their ample suffrages for our English Episcopacy but only speak against the Romish Hierarchie And now for the generality of it Beza is again at hand saying If there be any as I think saith he there is not who altogether reject the Episcopall Order God forbid that any of sound brains should ever assent to their furies and besides protesteth his acknowledged observance and all reverence to all Bishops reformed Hitherto against the objected unlawfulnesse of Episcopacy in the Church of Christ. But this will not satisfie some men except furthermore the lawfulness thereof may appear in that degree which is called in respect of its right According to the Word of God It belongeth unto us to shew this by the Confession of Divines of remote Protestant Churches which we are ready to performe and more too III. THESIS That Episcopal Prelacy is acknowledged by Protestant Divines of remote Churches to be according to the Word of God and their consent therein unto Primitive Antiquity LVther may well be allowed for the fore-man amongst the Reformers of the Protestant Religion who proveth the Prelacy of Episcopacy above simple Presbyters for so he saith by Divine Right and this he doth in his Tractâ—te called his Reselution grounding his judgment upon Scripture whereof hereafter Accordingly Bucer against the Pope as Anti-Christ We see saith he by their perpetual observation of Churches and from the Apostles themselves that it seemed good to the holy Ghost that some singular one should be appointed among the Presbyters to Govern in so sacred an Order who hath for the same cause the Appellation of Bishop in Scripture Scultetus the Divine Professour at Heidelberg professing Episcopal degree to be of divine Right and professeth to prove it to be such by efficacious reasons who in the sequell of his discourse will be as good as his word with whom agreeth that admirable Schollar Isaac Casaubon the ornament of Geneva who held the same to be grounded upon the Testimonies of Scriptures These may serve for the present till we come to a larger consent All these and other the former confessions of Protestant Divines are the proper idiom and language of primitive Antiquity teaching thus Episcopacy is by the Ordination of Christ. So Ignatius and again Reverence your Bishop as Christ and the Apostles have commanded you Or thus To be a divine power the resistancè whereof is against God himself So Cyprian And thus God placed Bishops over His family So Origen And thus The Apostles were made Bishops by Christ who ordained others meaning Bishops in other places by whom the Church should be govern'd So Augustine Or thus Bishops constituted over Presbyters as the Word of God teacheh So Epiphanius And thus None can be ignorant that Bishops were instituted by Christ when he made His Apostles by whom others should be made Bishops whom we succeed and speaking of Bishops of whom Christ said he that despiseth you despiseth me So again Augustine Before we end this point we shall desire our Opposites to bethink themselves what they think may signifie the suffrages of the Fathers of the Synod of Calcedon for Antiquity one of the first four Generall and in this generality universally receiv'd throughout Christendom for amplitude consisting of six hundred and thirty Bishops and for aversenesse against the Pope of Rome that which undermin'd the very foundation of Romish Popedom which is a pretence of having been established by the divine Authority of Christ the universall Bishop of the Church and equalling another Patriarch with him and shewing that all the Primacy which the Pope of Rome had was but from humane Authority This Councell concerning Episcopacy ordain'd that To depose a Bishop down to the degree of a Presbyter is Sacriledge This so great a Harmony between the former Protestant Divines and those eminent Fathers how shall it not sound delightfull unto every docible and unpreoccupated hearer These confessions notwithstanding we have not discharg'd our
Assumption untill we produce their proofes which is to be perform'd according to our former promise after that we shall manifest the like confessions of Protestant Divines and accordance to Antiquity in acknowledging Episcopacy to be the best forme of Government in respect of the use thereof IV. THESIS That Episcopall Government in the Church is in respect of the necessary use thereof the best by the consent of Protestant Divines of other reformed Churches SOme peradventure will conceive that three at the least being required in the degree of comparison to make up a best Therefore our three must be taken either for Episcopacy which is a Prelacy of one above more or Presbytery which is an equality of moe among themselves or that which is called an Independency of one in each Parish without relation to any other Which mis-begotten brat was never heard of in ancient times or approv'd of any latter Church of Christ since and indeed is but the erecting of a Pope in every Parish whereof something hereafter It will be sufficient that we understand a best in the full latitude with comparison of whatsoever other Our Protestant Witnesses we ranke into two Classes First is the Church of the Lutherans who were the first Reformers of our Protestant Religion If our Reader will be pleased but to cast his eye upon the Marginalls he may find out these following observables viz. that Luther will be known when he complained of Bishops to have meant over tyrannous Pâ—pish Bishops and them as he saith who are unworthy of the Holy name of Bishop next that all Protestant Churches of Germany in their generall Confessions had as they say often protested their earnest desire to conserve the discipline of degrees in the Church by the Authority of Bishops whereby to remove dissentions and Schismes from the Church then that Melancthon by the perswasion of Luther was as much bent for Episcopall Government as any when he burst out into this expression I would to God it lay in me to restore the Government of Bishops for I see what a Church we shall have the Ecclesiasticall Policy being dissolv'd I foresee it will be far more intolerable then ever it was There is added to this the acknowledgment of Bucer holding it necessary that the Clergy have those speaking of Bishops to whom the Authority of the Church is committed His reason least that refractory and dissolute persons should be in the Church Prince Hanolt after he became a sincerely profess'd Protestant and faithfull Preacher of the Gospel speaking of Bishops that would be faithfull in Governing the Church How willingly and with what gladnesse of heart would we saith he reverence obey and yeeld them their ordination and jurisdiction the which we and Luther have very often protested both by word and writing We now passe unto the other Classes of Protestant Divines of Reformed Churches beginning with Calvin himself who hath a double intuition concerning Presbyteriall Government One as it may be considered is in an Independency so that every one have a Right of excommunication in himself this he calleth unprofitable odious and such as easily turneth into Tyranny and contrary to that which the Apostles taught Next beholding them in a joynt parity he relateth the reason of the first beginning of Episcopacy and saith truely that by the parity and equality among Presbyters as it useth to be Schismes and dissentions might arise among them This Parenthesis as it useth to be which he inserteth certainly hath in it a sting which pierceth into the Bowells of the cause Successour to Calvin was Beza who thus far succeedeth him also in his opinion as to confesse as he saith from experience this of the Presbyterian Government that it being not sufficient to repress vices choice was made of one to Governe the rest as was observed anciently saith he from the Evang. Mark in the famous Church of Alexandria Again speaking of the institution of Episcopacy whatsoever it was he will be known to abhore and reprehend it as erected by pride but why for none can deny saith he but that there was great use of it whilst that goodly and Godly Bishops were chief over others We may well presume as was said that the other part of the misquoted sentence of Zanchie is extant in some Impression of his Works wherein he did so symbolize with the forecited Sentence of Calvin Testifying before God for these are the words that he holdeth them Schismaticks who shall determine that in the restauration of Churches there ought to be no Bishops having authority over Presbyters where freely they may be had He proceedeth furthermore I think with Calvin saith he them to be worthy of whatsoever Anathema who will not be subject to their Government which submitteth it self to Christ So he Furthermore concerning the testimonies as I may so say of Ecclesiasticall Government Zanchie confessed Episcopacy to have been ordained for the best end to wit the edification of the Elect. The sentence of Calvin hath been formerly alleadged Unto these we adde the saying of the proloquutour in the Synod of Dort who is rendred unto us by them that heard him to have wished that the Church with them were so happy as our English by having an Episcopall Government among them This case was so evident to a late Advocat for Presbyters Salmasius by name that although he relucteth justly against an irregular Prelacy yet doth he freely and ingenuously grant that the preferring of one Bishop in every Church was instituted with best reasons Would any see more Then he is to observe the Protestation made by the German Divines in the Augustane confession protesting their desire for the conservation of Episcopacy whereof it is testified by a Theologicall professour that other Protestants were ready to subscribe to the Augustane Confession per omnia excepting only the Article of the Eucharist because it was not clearly explain'd among these Protestants he names Calvin Beza Vermilius Marlorat and Zanchius which probably could not have been altogether true if they had been adversaries to the foresaid Protestation Before we can conclude we return to Geneva to be satisfied in a main question which is whether the forme of Government in Geneva ought to be perscribed as a patterne to other Reformed Churches to be regulated thereby And when we consult with Beza about this very point he telleth us that this opinion was imparted to their Church but in the name of the whole Church of Geneva rejecteth it as a most false and impudent exprobration After this comparison made by weight and ponderation we seek to try what may be done by computation and numbring V. THESIS That the most Protestant Cburches do professe and practise a Prelacy over Presbyters MAny now look upon our English Bishops as birds upon owles yet not peradventure so as they for strangenesse or for reverence but with left eyes in an
opinion of singularity and onelinesse as a thing not acknowledged in other remote and reformed Churches of Protestants not considering what hath been published to the world long-ago that the word Superintendent is of the same signification with the word Bishop both from the same Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet some Protestant Churches practising a Prelacy vail it over with the word Superintendency If we would know what Zanchie will speak out and to the purpose in telling us that Episcopi whom we call Bishops and Superintendents are words of the same sense and signification and therefore where there is an agreement in the thing signified there ought not to be any altercation and strife about words But what will he say to the practice He distinguisheth Protestant Churches in this respect into three differences some whereof practise a superiority of one above the Clergy under the proper name of Bishops another sort the same but under the name of Superintendents and General Superintendents whom we call Arch-bishops Lastly he discloseth a third kinde a circumstance very remarkeable who although they avoid the Titles of Bishops or Superintendents yet use they to be such primarii as to say eminent in Prelacy as in whom for so he saith the whole Authority consisteth Now therefore our question must be whether the Church exercising Prelacy or the other that onely practise equality exceed in number The number of Churches which had Prelates under the name of Bishops and the other of Superintendents being in signification the same seemed to Greg. de Valentia the Jesuite so many that he thought all Protestant Churches to have Bishops An excellent servant of God Doctor Duraeus and a zealous hunter after the best game which is the general peace of Protestant Churches among themselves hath set down a Catalogue of the Churches reform'd on both Parties and reckoneth if he be not mistaken seven Bishops in the Kingdom of Swede in Denmark Bishops in other Lutheran Churches Superintendents and in all Imperial Cities among the Protestants besides divers other reform'd Churches the like which we suppose will rather keep their conformity with England then tast new wine with others seing that as the Text saith The old is better and whether the Episcopal form be not the onely and Apostolical cometh now to be discussed by inquiring into Antiquity VI. THESIS That the former reasons of Confessions of Protestant Divines concerning the necessity of Episcopal Prelacy for preservation of concord and preventing of schisme is correspondent to the judgment of Antiquity IT would be worth our knowledge to understand that the former Confessions of Protestant Divines are in effect but the ecchoings unto the sentences of ancient Fathers Among whom Hierome could tell us That the original of Episcopacy which is the placing of one Presbyter in a degree above others was decreed throughout the whole world for taking away Schisme which use thereof was held so necessary in the dayes of Antiquity that the said Hierome spared not to affirm That the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of a Bishop to whom except some eminent Authority be given there will be as many Schismes as there are Priests in the Church So he and before him Tertullian thus The Bishop is for the honour of the Church which being in safety our peace will be also safe But how Chrysostome and Gregory Nyssen do illustrate both affirming the same necessity of a Bishop in the Church as is a Precentor in a Quire a Governour in a Campe and a Pilot in a Ship By which Episcopal order saith Basil the Church is reduced as one soul into communion and concord yea and before all these Cyprian Bishop and Martyr complained of such insolencies of Presbyters against their Bishops as being causes of heresies and schismes against a divine power of Government So he These will some say are but their sayings and shall we therefore think that their sayings were not the symbolls and expressions of their meaning but we presume better of them that are ingenuous and the rather for their further satisfaction which may be had in the next Thesis VII THESIS That Bishops primitively were not only the chiefest champions for the Christian faith but also the greatest adversaries to Romish Popedome as have also our English BEfore we can begin the proof of this Thesis we are confronted by our Opposites against Primitive Fathers in strange termes Bishops by advancing the authority of Episcopacy did thereby say they but plead their own cause and made a stirrop for the Romish Antichrist to mount into his Pontificall saddle So they Which contumely against the reverend antiquity we are loath to call by its proper name being therefore not to reprove others but to prove what we have in hand which is that some of the ancient Bishops lived in the torrid zone of fiery persecution and others in a temperate Of the first sort we have it confessed That the persecuting Emperours did above all others make their Inquisition and exercises of their furies most especially upon Bishops we have it upon record in Cyprian but much more in other Ecclesiasticall Histories wherein as is confessed by Master Brightman although Dioclesian in his Edict did especially command the destruction of all that had taken sacred Orders yet in a further speciality the massacring of Bishops he relateth that one hundred and sixty of them were martyred in two places yea and in the Church of Rome it self is also reckoned the number of 160. Bishops who were martyrs of Christ in those primitive times To fancy that these afflicted and persecuted Members of Christ for their degree sake could pride it in their Episcopall office would be held to be but a dream they will rather think that if they should prelate it as Marriners use to frolike it rather in a calme of tranquility but for this also we shall easily subcribe to the judgement of Master Beza who when he was thus posed whether he should impute the note of pride unto these Primitive servants of God whose names have alwayes been celebrious in the Church of Christ to wit Basil Nysen Nazianzen Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose and Augustine who are known to have afterwards had Episcopall Government in their several Churches answereth saying I never heard any speak or read any write otherwise then honourably of those men as was meete So he of his time he could not prophesie of the future It were good that these who use this new and broad language had considered That Bishops were then almost the only ones who as occasion fell out either pulled the Romish Pope out of his Saddle when he was mounted or else pluckt away his Stirrop that in those times he could not get up For whereas Popedome being a double usurpation one of plenitude of Authority universall over Bishops and the other of an infallibility of judgement in
determining all Controversies of Faith it hath been evidently and copiously proved that the amplitude of his Diocesse was limited by three hundred Bishops in the Generall Councell of Nice His pretended right of Universall Authority was contradicted an 553. by six hundred Bishops in the Councell of Calcedon where we find it accounted to be but of Humane Authority against his pretended universall challenge of appeale to Rome it was twice contradicted by Bishops in two Councells in Africk and as for his pretended infallibility in judgement the 165 Bishops in the Councell of Constantinople condemned the Decree of Pope Vigilius aud in the sixth and seventh Councells consisting in all of 603. Bishops was Pope Honorius condemned for an Heretique We may not omit the mention of singular persons Bishops who have had their solemne oppositions against the Popes of their times Cyprian Athanasius Basil Cyrill of Alexandria Hilary of Arles and Augustine with many others But what talke we of Bishops in other Sees seeing we have in the See of Rome it self one who did prejudice the pretended and usurped dignity and authority of all his Successours in condemning the pretence of the highest Title and Prerogative which the Pope doth challenge which is to be called The Vniversall Bishop of Christs Church by judging it to be proud prophane and blasphemous and the Bishop we mean was Pope Gregory the first whom Mr. Brightman hath adorned with this Encomium The flying Angell mentioned Apoc. 8. 13. whose lustre saith he God would use for the Church As for our Church of England since the Reformation it hath been conformable to the Primitive Surely greater faithfulness could not be shown then in the seal of Martyrdom nor more opposition to Popedom then to cut off all dependence upon it by the neck ever since nor this more by any then in Bishops as our Ecclesiastical monuments have recorded not to mention the writings publique in confutation of all Popish Errours and Heresies onely let it be lawfull for us to point at the last Synod and Convocation was vehement against Popery as for this is spoken by him that was absent from it any one may read After these Confessions of Protestant Divines we are to ascend higher to our proofs for evincing the same to be according to the word of God as Apostolical first from Antiquity and after from the word of God it self Our first proof that Episcopacy is according to the word of God by manifesting it to have been of Apostolical Institution by necessary reasons VIII THESIS That to be of Apostolical Institution argueth in it a divine Right by the confession of excellent Divines of the Reformed Churches FRom the Church of Geneva we have before us Mr. Beza to deliver his own words Surely if Episcopacy had proceeded from the Apostles I would not doubt to ascribe unto it a divine Ordinance So he This is plain Secondly from the Churches within the Palatinate Scultetus by name argueth accordingly The Apostles placed Bishops above Presbyters and therefore is Episcopacy of divine Institution A third properly call'd Salmasius out of the University and Church of Leiden in the Low-countries one of great fame and a profess'd friend unto our Opposites and notwithstanding confesseth saying If the Institution of Episcopacy saith he be from the Apostles then it is of divine Right So they Certainly because what power was ordained by the Apostles proceeded from the Spirit of God like as was their decree against Strangled and Blood their Holy-kisse their Agapae and the like in their first Institution And although these were abrogated in time yet the necessity of perpetuating Episcopacy standeth upon two grounds one is the first reason of institution thereof which was for avoiding Schisme the other was the universal continuance thereof from age to age upon experience of the same reason Which as we have heard hath been held most reasonable to almost all Protestant Divines of remote Churches Now therefore that which we are to make good is onely our Assumption to wit that Episcopacy was of Apostolical Institution then which nothing almost can be more evinceable if testimonies from Antiquity evidences out of Scriptures and upon both these the confessions of Protestant Divines of the Reformed Churches may be held satisfactory our first endeavours concerning Antiquity for this performance must be to remove objections which our opposites cast in our way The onely peremptorily objected Ancients are these two Hierome and Clement both whom we are now to salute IX THESIS That no Ancient Father absolutely denied the Apostolical Original of Episcopacy no not the objected Hierome who will shew himself a manifest Patron thereof THe objected sentence of Hierome saying concerning Episcopal Prelacy That it is rather by the custom of the Church then by the Lords disposal is confessed by the Theological Protestant Professour in the University of Heidelberg to be understood by the decree of the Lords disposal the immediate ordinance of Christ in his dayes upon earth and affirming the custom happily to have meant the Apostolical custom after they began the forming and framing of the Churches However for this one place objected against us we have many most evident Testimonies out of Hierome himself to prove the first institution of Episcopacy to have been indeed Apostolical First is from the original occasion whereunto he alludeth even the contention in the Church of Corinth when some held of Paul some of Appollo some of Cephas whereof it is confessed by the foreceited Palatinate Doctour That the words of the Apostle will not suffer me saith he to doubt but that alteration was made in the dayes of the Apostles and his confirmation is as doubtlesse namely because no man can produce any other original of the questioned Schisme and contention This is a chief point and therefore we desire to hear what Videlius the Divine Professour in Geneva will say unto it He handleth the matter accurately which is to be reserv'd to its proper place In summe out of Ignatius the disciple of the Apostles he sheweth the difference of Bishop and Presbyter begun timely in the Church even presently after the contention to the Corinthians whereof it is say'd some held of Paul and some of Apollo and some of Cephas Secondly Hierome granteth in general yet distinctly of Bishops That they are the Successors of the Apostles Thirdly yea he sheweth who were Successours in the very dayes of the Apostles reckoning among others Timothy Titus Polycarpus and Euodius Fourthly He relateth who were first Bishops of all others after them to wit James of Jerusalem and Marke of Alexandria Fifthly he alleadgeth the Analogy between Aaron and his sonnes in respect of the Levites with Bishops and Presbyters from as he saith Apostolicall tradition Sixthly the Episcopall part of Excommunication against Vigilantius he calleth His Apostolicall Iron Rodde So Hierome It were incredible if that
all these Apostolicall Relations concerning Episcopacy should not amount unto so much as to make up an Apostolicall Institution thereof The second objected Father is Clement whereof their successe will be no better if not much worse X. THESIS That Clement an Apostolicall Disciple to whose arbitrement both our Opposites and we offer to yeeld our selves doth patronize Episcopacy as being Apostolicall WE are earnestly called upon to hearken unto Clement talking of a prophecy of a future contention which should happen about the name of Bishop Next That there is no peece of Antiquity of more esteem then the Epistle of Clement unto the Corinthians Then That this was brought to light by a learned Gentleman Mr. Patrick Young and lastly for the matter it self That there is a common and promiscuous use of the word Presbyter and Bishop We shall answer punctually to every one viz. The Prophecy maketh for us the Epistle much more the Publisher also as much as can be desired and that Objection of the indifferency of the Words of Bishop and Presbyter is scarce worthy the mention We begin with the Prophecy The Prophecy was only that there should be in time to come a contention about the word Bishop If we should ask our Opposites when this contention was first known in times of old they would be loth to tell us knowing right well that it was first raised by one Aerius of whom Epiphanius and Austin have told us that he broke out into Schisme and because he could not obtain to be made a Bishop did therefore spurne against Episcopacy teaching saith St. Austin that there ought to be no difference between Bishops and Presbyters therefore thus they may see the Prophecy fulfilled both when and in whom if they like it But if any shall boast that it is fulfilled now by their present Opposalls against Episcopacy after that it hath had approbation with a continuall use universally in the Churches of God Then have we nothing else to reply but what the spirit of God from the pen of the holy Apostle putteth in our mouth If any be contentious saith he we have no such custome nor the Churches of God whereby the wilfully contentious maketh himself an adversary to the Churches of God and consequently no way acceptable to God himself The second point which we are to discerne is that which they call identity of names of Bishops and Presbyters they should have called it community of names especially knowing that there is no more identity in the words Presbyters and Bishops then there is between the letters of P. and B. But this was a lapse Therefore to our matter in hand We answer that meer names and words make but verball consequences to which we oppose a reall and Logicall consequence à paribus thus For of the very Apostles of Christ one instiled himself Co-presbyter another himself Presbyter a third himself Deacon who are all common names with others that were not Apostles and notwithstanding the Apostles themselves in respect of their offices and Functions were Governours over Presbyters which sheweth that the enterchangeablenesse of names cannot conclude an indifferency of degree But this â—rambe will be sodden once again when we shall be occasioned to give further satisfaction As for the present it may well be said what shall we need words when we see Acts and deeds namely concerning this Clement Not only that he maintained the distinct degrees of Episcopacy but that also he was distinctly above Presbyters a Bishop himself Yet should not our Opposites pose us in that where Vedelius a Professour of Geneva gave them if they have read him some satisfaction shewing that as soon as Clemens remained the sole Adjutour of the Apostles after Linus and Cletus the name of Bishop was given unto him and not attributed to any Presbyter or Presbyters in the Church of Rome So he Is not this to the point the distinguishing of times doth solve many doubts It is meet now at length we hear Clemens himself speak Clement immediately after his relation of the aforesaid Prophecy addeth saying concerning the Apostles for this cause they having a perfect foreknowledge constituted the aforesaid and left a description of Officers and Ministers in their course who after that they themselves should fall asleep other Godly men might succeed and execute their function So Clement Whence it is evidently collected that Bishops were the successours of the Apostles because a Role and Catalogue of Bishops is frequently had in Ecclesiasticall stories lineally deduced from the Apostles as the most of the learned Protestants of the Reformed Churches have ever confessed But if our Opposites cannot prove the like Catalogue of Presbyters of a primitive and right line of descent then are they wholy to yeeld the cause and that even by the judgment of Clement which is now ready to be furthermore confessed by the exact learning of the Publisher of Clement This Gentleman our Opposites call Learned we owe him an higher Title even one exquisitely learned he commenting upon the same Epistle of Clement now objected against Episcopacy teacheth that the right word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agreeth with the word census in Tertullian by whom it appeareth that it was a custome in Apostolicall Churches to make a Role for this word he held not unfit of the order of Bishops to bring them unto their first originall even as saith Tertullian Polycarpus was from John the Apostle in the Church of Smyrna and Clemens in the Church of Rome from Peter speaking even of this our Clemens and addeth of others and others saith he whom the Apostles constituted Bishops from whom others might deduce their traductions and offsprings what is if this be not an inexpugnable convincement of our Opposites to prove Episcopacy to be of an Apostolical Ordination Yet is not this all Clement is further represented unto us by the same learned Publisher as one register'd and enroll'd by antiquity as Bishop of Rome in the Catalogue of the same Bishops lineally descended from the Apostles whether in the first second or third rank it matters not and the doubt such as it is is solved in the Margent by our foresaid Geneva Professour And for witnesses hereunto are cited Optatus Hierome Ruffinus Eucherius and Photius set down expressely in the same Book which our Opposites have objected against us which if you would not see or seing not regard all we shall say is We are sorry for it Yet after this our retorsion of their objected Authors upon themselves we shall endeavour to give them further satisfaction from our selected and expresse suffrages of Antiquity for the truth of Apostolicall succession of Episcopacy XI THESIS That other Primitive Fathers before Hierome did unanimously testifie an Apostolical right of Episcopacy NOthing can be more manifest for the first three Ireneus Tertullian and Origen to which we add Augustine do all professe themselves ready to deduce
the succession of Bishops in the principal Sees from the dayes of the Apostles Next they instance in some Apostolicall Church as namely from Ja. the B op of Hierns Mark in Alexandria What say our Opposites to this a principal one Salmasius by name calleth this alleadgment of James a Bishop false and foolish his reason was because James was an Apostle and therefore not to keep residence in one See First be it known that whatsoever this James was all Antiquity rendereth him unto us a Bishop of Hierusalem viz. Eusebius Epiphanius Hierom Egesippus Chrysostom and Ambrose the Synod of Trullo How then shall it become us but of yesterdayes birth thus to pull reverend Antiquity by the beard and give them the fool Yet we may not restrain rational men from reasoning and therefore we answer that were it that Ia. had been an Apostle yet other Protestant Divines of the reformed Churches were no fools as Dr. Scultetus zuinglius and Mr. Moulin each one can answer that notwithstanding the proper functions of the Apostles in visiting of Countries after Countries for conversion of people and founding of Churches yet whether enfeebled by age or upon extraordinary occasions they might fix themselves to one Province But yet are we not costrained to this answer but furthermore tell our Opposites that which hath been judiciously proved at large that this was not Iames that Apostle but Iames the Brother of our Lord and onely an Apostolical Disciple which may satisfie our Opposites untill we come to speak of their objected Timothy and Titus called Evangelists As for Mark if in the line of succession of Bishops of Alexandria he only be taken exclusively yet must the Ordinance of that See be necessarily held Apostolicall XII THESIS That the Apostolicall Antiquity of Episcopacy is confessedly proved out of Ignatius VEdelius that learned Divinity Professor in the Academy of Geneva in his most elaborate work of Exercitations upon the Epistles of Ignatius for vindicating his Doctrine from the false glosses of Bellarmine Baronius and other Romish writers is copious in manifesting the direct judgement of Ignatius in many notable points Concerning Ignatius himself he rendereth him unto us a Disciple of the Apostles a Bishop of Antioch an holy man aud a faithfull Minister of Christ. 2. Concerning the cause against Bellarmine and others who will have Bishops the first under the Pope of Rome as the Apostles were under Christ this he confuteth out of Ignatius who taught that Presbyters should be subject to Bishops and Bishops to Christ. 3. Against Papists who proclaime the Pope to be Bishop of Bishops he confesseth Ignatius holding the Bishop in every Church to be the next under Christ and chief therein 4. The distinction between Bishops and Presbyters was in the dayes of the Apostles and lastly professeth for himself and others that if they had a Bishop such as was Polycarpus a Disciple also of the Apostles they as Ignatius required of the Smyrnaeans would willingly yea necessarily obey him So he In this Maxime we behold two Disciples of the Apostles Ignatius and Polycarpus both Bishops distinctly from Presbyters and Governours and this in the Apostles times As well therefore may our Opposites deny themselves to have depended naturally from their own parents as Bishops originally from the Apostles We are to pursue this yet a little further XIII THESIS That Antiquity hath given us Rules of Resolution for the knowledge of any Apostolicall practice which may serve in the case of Episcopacy THe rule given by Antiquity was alwayes held Catholique throughout all Christian Churches of ancient times St. Austins rule may be our first direction thus Whatsoever the Vniversall Church holdeth and was not instituted by Councels but alwayes kept that must most rightly be judged to have been from Apostolicall Authority So he which for our purpose is as much as Dr. Scultetus most judiciously and ingenuously confess'd that if no Interim can be shewn between the Apostles times and the dayes immediately succeeding when there was no Episcopall Government over Presbyters in the Church then must the same have proceeded immediately from the Apostles We hold this most reasonable even as if the Question were what the practice is of the Country adjoyning unto us Our next bordering neighbours to it would be the most competent witnesses of their manners such have been hitherto our proofes even from such Ancients as either had seen the Apostles or else from such as had been conversant with the immediate Disciples of the Apostles Our Opposites not able to instance in the practice of any one Primitive Church to the contrary onely object a community of names of Presbyters and Bishops which shadow will vanish as soon as we shall give light by proofes of the Apostolicall Oâ—â—giâ—all of Episcopacy in diverse Theses following by expression confession and Authorities XIV THESIS That Protestant Divines of other Reform'd Churches have held it most equall to be directed by the judgements of Ancients for proof of a practice Apostolical WE plead no other equity in this cause then what Calvin held necessary against Anabaptisticall Revelations arguing negatively in this manner These lyes saith he are easily confuted because many were then living who had been conversant with the Disciples of the Apostles So he concerning Doctrines How much more convincent must this Argument be when our Question shall be of the practice of the Church in the dayes of the Apostles even as is daily done by all Christian Churches for pâ—oof of the practice of baptizing of Infants against the same Anabaptisticall Faction yea why not also for the like Originall practice of Episcopacy even by the confession of Protestant Divines of excellent judgement Beza must not be neglected telling us that he ought not to neglect the Ordinance of a higher degree of a Bishop above a Presbyter because this was an ancient custome in the famous Church of Alexandria So he This is well but he hath not quite told out his tale which he doth elsewhere out of the words of Hierome saying namely that in Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist one was elected by the Presbytery and placed in a higher degree whom they named Bishop which was done for a remedy against Schisme Be it then that touching this Series and order of Succession as it was said of Saint Mark the Apostle be it taken inclusively or exclusively it necessarily implyeth that the Original of Episcopacy was in the dayes of the same Apostles Master Moulin giveth us a lowder Accent saying that he was never so hard faced as to censure these Bishops Ignatius Polycarpe Augustine Chrysostome and other great lights of the Church to have usurped an unlawfull function in the Church of Christ So he Alleadging among his ancients Polycarpe and Ignatius the first of which as all the learned know lived in the dayes of
more eminent ranke So he If that our Objectours had according to Master Meade's direction but cal'd to minde his own explanations they might have easily perceived he said no more then as if we may grant that under the word Angell to whom the Epistle is in speciall directed are implyed all those who are concern'd therein But how Not by alteration of his person but by communion of interest for which cause Master Beza accknowledged him the President over others even as many other Protestant Divines are ready to do and that as exactly as either we can desire or our Opposites mislike when we come to discharge the affirmative point Two Answers we wish our Opposites to take into their second thoughts One as they have presented him by way of comparison as better skill'd in the Book of the Revelation then his adversary the other as he is to be singly respected and in his own worthinesse To the first we say that comparison might well have been forborne which now provoketh us to another comparison between him and one as dear to our Opposites as any other whom they know to have been as conversant in the Book of the Revelation altogether wherein he notwithstanding after the second and third Chapters hath been so far from the collective interpretation of the word Angell that he hath not any where as we can find set it down as comprehending any Multitude nay in many places he expresseth by name the individual persons themselves or some Individuum Vagum signified thereby some singular notable one The consideration of Master Meade his worthinesse and judgement touching Episcopacy would be had the rather because we have read the Translation of his Book authoriz'd in this manner It is Ordered by the Committee of the Commons House in Parliament that the Book entituled The Key of the Revelation be printed So they Which Key doth unlock unto us his judgement in behalf of Episcopacy to be so fully according to the word of God that part 1. c. 4. v. 67. p. 35. The four and twenty Elders saith he compasse next about the throne which represent the Bishops and Prelates of the Churches and do answer both in place and order to the Levites and Priests in the Camps of Israel c. Thus Master Meade so commended by our Opposites themselves who if they shall approve his Key in this point it is well we in imparting thus much unto them have but done our duty The third Argument Our third Argument say they is taken from the word Angel as it is a common name to all Ministers and Messengers and surely if Christ had intended to point out any individuall person he would have used some distinguishing name as to have called him President Rector Superintendent So they As if by this their surely they would assure us it is a Truth if we shall take their own word for it contrary to the judgement of all the Learned who have every where taught that ever since Angelical Spirits were revealed to the world the word Angel spoken in the better part hath been used to expresse the dignity of their Office and accordingly of the Ministers of God whensoever it is applyed unto them Otherwise our Opposites I think would have gratified us with the allegation of some one Author that ever fancied the contrary whom notwithstanding we shall endeavour to satisfie by a parallel in the word Apostles signifying Messengers whereof Mr. Calvin This word saith he according to its Etymon agreeth to any Minister of Christ yet was it entituled upon the twelve Apostles because they were the immediate Embassadours of Christ. So he And yet we presume that our Opposites would not because of the Community thereof call either every Minister of Christ sent to preach the Gospel an Apostle or every Cobler sent on a message an Angel Their fourth Argument Our fourth Argument say they standeth thus Our Saviour saith that the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches but he saith not likewise that the seven Starres are the seven Angels but in mentioning Angels omitteth the word seven which is not done without a Mystery to wit that the Angels do not signifie seven individual Pastours So they Whose Tenents are two First that the ommission of the word seven argueth a Mystery Secondly that the Mystery signified thereby is this that the word Angel is not individually but collectively taken We cannot but deny both and so will any even with wonderment at the Objectours boldnesse in uttering such their conceptions for first to call that a Mystery which by all Grammar learning is in every Language most common by that which the Grecians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a word not expressed following upon course in the understanding of any rational Reader As for example If any one of our Opposites writing to any of his Servants to bring him his two Horses the black Horse and the white omitting in the second place the word Horse which word doth follow in course of common understanding yet his man should bring only the black but not the white might his excuse have been It was a Mystery Secondly were it that a Mystery should be imagined therein yet that denial of the word Angel to be an individual person in the Text contradicteth the Context The Context standeth thus cap. 1. 26. The Starres are said to be the seven Angels of the Churches cap. 2. 3. The same Angels being reckoâ—ed prove accordingly to be seven In the Context we have Numerum numerantem in the Text Numerum numeratum that that which maketh up a number should be said not to refer unto a number which was before express'd by Christ. He that hath a perfect natural hand is said to have individually every finger although he reckon them not to be five Their last argument answered This Argument say they is taken from Christs denunoiation against the Angel of the Church of Ephesus to remove his Candlestick out of its place if he did not repent where by Candlestick is meant the Church or Congregation But if there by Angel were signified one individual person then the congregation and people should be punished for the offence of that one Pastour So they Who would not have thus argued if they had considered that by thus oppugning our Exposition they have as utterly undermin'd and overthrown their own As for example their tenent hath been that by the word Angel is signified the Order and Colledge of Pastours in the Church of Ephesus Now then to return their own engine upon them if the Candlestick signifying the Church should be removed out of its place except those Pastours should repent then should the people and congregation be punished for the fault of those Pastours Therefore all the odds that is between both these consequences is no more than this viz. the punishing of people for the fault of the Pastour and for the faults of the Pastours in extremity equally
heard the Lord and afterward burnt a Martyr of Christ was ordained Bishop of Smyrna by Saint Iohn So Hierome Another Polycarpus Bishop and Martyr was placed by John Bishop of Smyrna So Eusebius A third before him By John was Polycarpus constituted Bishop of Smyrna So Tertullian And before him a fourth testifieth as one that had seen this Polycarpus That after that he had been instructed by the Apostles of Christ with whom he had been conversant he was made by them Bishop of Smyrna So Ireneus We ascend somewhat higher to one who write an Epistle to the same Polycarpus intituling him the Bishop of Smyrna and in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna saluting him as their Bishop Ignatius in these Epistles and sayings which Vedelius the Professour in the Church of Geneva and an exact discerner and discoverer of the corruptions crept into his writings doth hold as genuine and legitimate Can our Opposites require a greater confirmation of any historicall point which they themselves maintain as more amply testified then this is whereto as many of our former Protestant Divines did subscribe so is there not one to our knowledge from this Saint Iohn that ever did contradict it XXVII THESIS That Christ himself shewed his approbation of the Prelacy which the foresaid Angels had in their severall Churches THere was yet never either favourites to Episcopacy nor opposites against it but have granted that whatsoever the Government was meant in these seven Churches it had the approbation of Christ by the tenour of his Epistles written unto them First from the words of the Chap. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ sent by his Angel to his Servant John to acknowledge the Epistles to have been dictated by Christ himself conveied by an Angel to Iohn and as it followeth in the second and third Chapters distributed by Iohn to the severall Angels and communicated to the Churches After this by the vertue of the same letters an inquisition is made as it were a Visitation kept upon every Angel of the Churches concerning the discharge of their offices wherein two of them are found of weight and commendable the other five more or lesse criminally deliquents yet so as to manifest a justification of the Offices The approbation of the function is seen not only which reason none can deny by Christ his commending their diligence zeal and faithfullnesse but even likewise in his processe of convictions reprehensions and denuntiations against their remissenesse dissolutenesse and faithfulnesse of others but how certainly so that the condemnation of their vices and abuses argued an approbation of their Offices and Functions because it was done not with an absolute intent to remove them at the first but onely to reforme them and continue them upon their Reformation therefore was it said from Christ to one Repent or else c. Chap. 2. 5. 16. to another Repent if not I will come against thee and the like this we see was no deprivation of the Officers at first much lesse abolition of the Offices which were to continue from age to age The last poynt will be our Assumption from all these premisses which is that these Angels being so amply evidently and with so unanimous consent of the most and best approved Protestant Divines agreeable to Historicall practise of Apostolicall Churches proved to have been such Bishops as had a Prelaey over the Clergy with Christs own approbation a truth which the evidence of these Scriptures did expresse in part from Beza himself his sentence is large consisting of these briefes First that the Episcopacy which seemed to him to be regulate was to be collected out of this Scripture of the Apocalyps Secondly that the same was a Presidency and Prefectureship of one Presbyter over the rest Thirdly that it was a Prelacy of Authority Fourthly that Hierome was of judgement Fifthly that to hold otherwise were to doate and play the foel all which prove the difference of Bishop and Presbyter both to have been of Apostolicall Institution because under Iohn in the Church of Asia and to have had the approbation of Christ because of Christ his commendation of the faithfull discharge of this Function which fully makes good unto us both our conclusions That Episcopacy for the Office and Function it self is according to the word of God and in respect of use therefore the Best The Originall of BISHOPS and METROPOLITANS briefly laid down by James Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH THe ground of Episcopacy is derived partly from the patterne perscribed by God in the Old Testament and partly from the imitation thereof brought in by the Apostle's and confirmed by Christ himself in the time of the New The government of the Church of the Old-Testament was committed to the Priests and Levits unto whom the Ministers of the New do now succeed in like sort as our Lords-day hath done unto their Sabbath that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet touching the vocation of the Gentiles I will take of them for Priests and for Levits saith the Lord. That the Priests were superiour to the Levits no man doubteth and that there was not a parity either betwixt the Priests or betwixt the Levits themselves is manifest by the word of God wherein mention is made of the Heads and Rulers both of the one and of the other 1 Chron. XXIV 6. 31 and Ezr. VIII 29. The Levits were distributed into the three families of the Gershonites Cohathites and Merarites and over each of them God appointed one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruler Num. III. 24. 30. 35. the Priests were divided by David into four and twenty courses 1 Chron. XXIV Who likewise had their Heads who in the History of the New-Testament are ordinarily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief of the Priests and clearly distinguished from that singular one who was the type of our great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Yea in the XI of Nehemy we find two named Bishops the one of the Priests the other of the Levits that dwelt in Jerusalem The former so expresly tearmed by the Greek in the 14. the latter both by the Greek and Latin Interpreter in the 22 vers and not without approbation of the Scripture it self which rendreth the Hebrew word of the same originall in the Old by the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New-Testament Of Levi it was said by Moses the man of God They shall teach Jacob thy judgements and Israel thy law they shall put incense before thee and whole brunt sacrifice upon thine Altar Because this latter part of their office hath ceased with them and the Leviticall Altar the truth prefigured thereby being now exhibited is quite taken away May not we therefore conclude out of the former part which hath no such typicall relation in it that our Bishops and Presbyters should be as the
unto the tenth of Trajan wherein Ignatius in that last journey which he made for the consummation of his glorious Martyrdome at Rome wrote another Epistle unto the self-same Church of Ephesus In which he maketh mention of their then Bishop Onesimus as it appears both by Eusebius citing this out of it and by the Epistle it self yet extant In this Epistle to the Ephesians Ignatius having accknowledged that their numerous multitude was received by him in the person of their Bishop Onesimus and blessed God for granting unto them such a Bishop as he was doth afterwards put them in minde of their duty in concurring with him as he sheweth their worthy Presbytery did being so conjoyn'd as he saith with their Bishop as the strings are with the Harp and toward the end exhorteth them to obey both the Bishop and the Presbytery with an undivided minde In the same journey wrote Ignatius also an Epistle unto the Church of Smyrna another of the seven unto whom those letters are directed in S. Johns Revelation wherein he also saluteth their Bishop and Presbytery exhorting all the people to follow their Bishop as Christ Jesus did his Father and the Presbytery as the Apostles and telling them that no man ought either to administer the Sacraments or do any thing appertaining to the Church without the consent of the Bishop Who this Bishop and what that Presbytery was appeareth by another Epistle written a little after from Smyrna by Polycarpus and the Presbyters that were with him unto the Philippians And that the same Polycarpus was then also Bishop there when S. John wrote unto the Angel of the Church of Smyrna who can better inform us then Irenaeus who did not only know those worthy men who succeeded Polycarpus in his See but also was present when he himself did discourse of his conversation with S. John and of those things which he heard from those who had seen our Lord Jesus Polycarpus saith he was not only taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church which is in Smyrna whom we our selves also did see in our younger age for he continued long being very aged he most gloriously and nobly suffering Martyrdome departed this life Now being ordained Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles who had finished their course and departed out of this life before S. John the last surviver of them did write his Revelation who but he could there be meant by the Angel of the Church in Smyrna in which that he still held his Episcopal office unto the time of his Martyrdome which fell out LXXIV years afterward may sufficiently appear by this testimony which the brethren of the Church of Smyrna who were present at his suffering gave unto him He was the most admirable man in our times an Apostolical and Propheticall Doctor and Bishop of the Catholick Church which is in Smyrna Whereunto we may add the like of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who lived also in his time and in his neighbourhood affirming Polycarpus to have been both Bishop and Martyr in Smyrna So saith he in his Synodica Epistle directed unto Victor Bishop of Rome about 27 years after the Martyrdome of Polycarpus he himself being at that time 65 years of age About the very same time wherein Polycrates wrote this Epistle unto Victor did Tertullian publish his book of Prescriptions against Hereticks wherein he avoucheth against them that as the Church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John and the Church of Rome Clement ordained by Peter so the rest of the Churches also did shew what Bishops they had received by the appointment of the Apostles to traduce the Apostolical seed unto them And so before him did Irenaeus urge against them the successions of Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the charge of the Church in every place For all the Hereticks saith he are much later then those Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the Churches And we are able to number those who by the Apostles were ordained Bishops in the Churches and their Successours unto our dayes who neither taught nor knew any such thing as these men dream of For proof whereof he bringeth in the succession of the Bishops of Rome from Liuus unto whom the blessed Apostles committed that Episcopacy and Anacletus by others called Cletus and Clement who did both see the Apostles and conferred with them unto Eleutherius who when Irenaeus wrote had the charge of that Bishoprick in the twelfth place after the Apostles Concerning whom and the integrity which then continued in each other succession from the Apostles dayes Hegesippus who at the same time published his History of the Church saith thus Soter succeeded Anicetus and after him was Eleutherius Now in every succession and in every City all things so stand as the Law and the Prophets and our Lord do preach And more particularly concerning the Church of Corinth after he had spoken of the Epistle written unto them by Clement for the repressing of some factions wherewith they were at that time much troubled which gave him occasion to tell them that the Apostles of whom he himself was an hearer had perfect intelligence from our Lord Jesus Christ of the contention that should arise about the name of Episcopacy he declareth that after the appeasing of this tumult the Church of the Corinthians continued in the right way untill the dayes of Primus whom he did visite in his sayling toward Rome Which Primus had for his successour that famous Dionysius whose Epistle to the Church of the Athenians hath beene before nominated wherein he put them in minde of the first Bishop that had been placed over them even Dionysius the Areopagite S. Pauls own convert a thing whereof they could at that time have no more cause to doubt then we should have if any question were now made of the Bishops that were here in King Edward the VI. or Queen Maryes dayes I might also say in the middle of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth her self if with Baronius I would produce the Areopagites life unto the government of the Emperour Hadrian This Hegesippus living next after the first succession of the Apostles as Eusebius noteth and being himself a Christian of the race of the Hebrews was carefull to record unto posterity the state of the Church of Ierusalem in the dayes of the Apostles and the alteration that followed after their departure out of this life Where first he sheweth that Iames the brother of our Lord surnamed the Iust did governe that Church together with the Apostles yet so as Clement of Alexandria who wrote some twenty years after him further addeth that he had this preferment even before the three prime Apostles Peter and
to whom the Bishops of Italy and Rome should by their letters declare that it ought to be given Which distinction aswell in the forecited Acts of the Councell of Arles as in the Epistles of the Sardican Synod and Athanasius may likewise be observed the name of Italy being in a more strict sense applyed therein to the seven Provinces which were under the Civill jurisdiction of the Vicarius or Lieutenant of Italy and the Ecclesiasticall of the Bishop of Millaine And it is well worth the observing that the Fathers of the great Councell of Nice afterwards confirming this kinde of primacy in the Bishops of Alexandria Rome and Antioch and in the Metropolitans of other Provinces do make their entrance into that Canon with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the ANCIENT customes continue Which as it cleareth the antiquity of the Metropoliticall jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome so doth it likewise confirm the opinion of those who conceive the Metropolitan of Alexandria to be meant in that passage of the Emperour Hadrians epistle unto Servianus Even the very Patriarch himself when he commeth into Egypt is by some compelled to adore Serapis and by others to worship Christ. As if upon his returning into Egypt either from his visitation of Lybia and Pentapolis which this same Nicene Canon sheweth to have of old belonged unto his care or from his flight in that present time of persecution he should suffer this distraction the heathen labouring to compell him to the worship of Serapis and his own Christian flock on the other side striving to keep him constant in the service of Christ. For that either the Heathen had will or the Christians power at that time to force the Jewish Patriarch of whom some do understand the place to the adoration of Christ hath no manner of probability in it That part also of the Canon which ratifieth the ancient rights of Metropolitans of all other Provinces may serve to open unto us the meaning of that complaint which some threescore and ten years before the time of this Synod S. Cyprian made against Novatianus for the confusion which by his schisme he brought upon the Churches of God that Whereas long since in all Provinces and in all Cities Bishops had been ordained in age ancient sound in faith tryed in affliction proscribed in persecution yet took he the boldnesse to create other false Bishops over their heads Namely subordinate Bishops in every City and Metropolitans in every Province In Africke at that time although there were many civill Provinces yet was there but one Ecclesiasticall whereof Cyprian himself was Archbishop as the Fathers of the Trullan Synod call him It pleased saith he in one of his Epistles all the Bishops constituted either in our Province or beyond the Sea intimating thereby that all the Bishops which were on his side the Sea did belong unto one Province For our Province saith he in another place is spread more largely having Numidia also and both the Mauritaniaes annexed unto it Whence that great Councell assembled by him for determining the question touching the baptizing of those that had been baptized by Hereticks is said to be gathered out of the Province of Africa Numidia and Mauritania For howsoever in the civill government the Proconsular Africa wherein Carthage was seated Numidia and both the Mauritanies Sitifensis and Caesariensis were accounted three distinct Provinces yet in the Ecclesiasticall administration they were joyned together and made but one Province immediately subject to the Metropoliticall jurisdiction of the prime See of Carthage Some threescore years before this African Councell was held by Cyprian those other Provinciall Synods were assembled by the Metropolitans of sundry nations fot the composing of the Paschall controversie then hotly pursued and among the rest that in our neighbour country out of the Parishes for so in the ancient language of the Church those precincts were named which now we call Dioceses of which Irenaeus had the superintendency whence also he wrote that free Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome in the person of those brethren over whom he was President At which time and before the most famous Metropoles of that Country and so the most eminent Churches therein were Lyons and Vienna in the one whereof Irenaeus was then no lesse renowned a Prelat then Cyprian was afterwards in Africa Dionysius the famous Bishop of Corinth was elder then they who among many other Epistles directed one to the Church of Gortyna and all the rest of the Churches of Crete wherein he saluted their Bishop Philip. Whereby it appeareth that at that time aswell as in the ages following Gortyna was the Metropolis and the Bishop thereof the Metropolitan of all the rest of that whole Island Which kinde of superintendency there Eusebius the ancientest Ecclesiasticall Historian now extant deriveth from the very times of Titus whom out of the histories that were before his time he relateth to have held the Bishoprick of the Churches in Crete With whom the Grecians of after times do fully concurre as appeareth both by the subscription annexed by them unto the Epistle of S. Paul to Titus ordained as there they say the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians and by the argument prefixed by them before the same speaking of him to the same effect that he was by Paul ordained Bishop of that great country and had commission to ordain the Bishops that were under him which they gather out of those words of S. Paul unto him For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Out of which M. Calvin collecteth this doctrine unto us for the generall We learn out of this place that there was not then such an equality betwixt the ministers of the Church but that there was some one who was president over the rest both in authority and in counsell And S Chrysostom for the particular of Titus Had he not been an approved man he would not have committed that whole Iland unto him he would not have commanded him to supply the things that were defective he would not have committed unto him the judgement of so many Bishops if he had not had very great confidence in the man And Bishop Jewell upon him again Having the government of many Bishops what may we call him but an Archbishop Which is not so much to be wondred at when we see that the Bishops of another Iland stick not and that without any controll to deduce the ordination of their Metropolitan from the Apostolick times in the face of the whole generall Councell of Ephesus For whereas the Patriarch of Antioch did claim an interest in the ordaining of the Metropolitan of Cyprus the Bishops of that Iland prescribed to the contrary that from the time
of the holy Apostles it could never be shewed that the Bishop of Antioch was ever present at any such ordination or did ever communicate the grace of ordination to that Iland and that the former Bishops of Constantia the Metropolis of Cyprus Troilus Sabinus Epiphanius and all the holy and orthodoxe Bishops which were before them ever since the holy Apostles were constituted by those which were in Cyprus and therefore desired that as in the beginning from the times of the Apostles and by the constitutions and canons of the most holy and great Synod of Nice the Synod of the Cyprian Bishops remained untouched and superiour to privy underminings and open power so they might still be continued in the possession of their ancient right Whereupon the Councell condemning the attempt of the Bishop of Antioch as an innovation brought in against the Ecclesiasticall laws and the canons of the holy Fathers did not only order that the governours of the Churches which were in Cyprus should keep their own right entire and inviolable according to the Canons of the holy Fathers and their ancient custome but also for all other Dioceses and Provinces wheresoever that no Bishop should intrude himself into any other Province which had not formerly and from the beginning been under him or his predecessours The beginning of which kind of subordination of many Bishops unto one chief if it were not to be derived from Apostolicall right yet it is by Beza fetched from the same light of Nature and enforcement of Necessity whereby men were at first induced to enter into consociations subjected one unto another and by Bucer acknowledged to have been consentaneous to the Law of Christ and to have been done by the right of the body of Christ and by all men must be confessed to be conformable to the pattern delivered by God unto Moses For having set apart the three families of the Levites for his own service and constituted a chief as we have heard over every of them he placed immediately over them all not Aaron the High Priest but Eleazar his son saying Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the Sanctuary In respect of which oversight as he hath by the Septuagint warrantably enough by the Word of God given unto him the name of a Bishop so the Holy Ghost having vouchsafed to honour him with the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the President of the Presidents of the Levites none that without prejudice did take the matter into consideration would much stick to afford unto him the name of an Arch-bishop at least he would be taught hereby to retain that reverend opinion of the primitive Bishops of the Christian Church who so willingly submitted themselves not only to the Archiepiscopal but also to a Patriarchical government which Calvin professed he did that in all this they were far from having a thought to devise another form of Church-government then that which God had prescribed in his Word The Writers which in the next age after the Apostles have here given testimony for Episcopacy IN the XIIII year of Domitian about the XCV year of our Lord according to the vulgar account S. John wrote his Revelation and in it the Epistle directed by our Saviour to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia No longer then twelve years after that time Ignatius S. Johns Schollar writeth his Letters unto the same Church In the beginning whereof he giveth this testimony unto their Bishop that he knew him to have been promoted not of himself nor by men unto that Ministery pertaining to the publick weal of the Church which is every whit as much as if he had called him their Angel Afterwards he telleth them that there is but one Bishop joyned with the Presbytery and the Deacons and that he delivered this as the voice of God Take heed unto your Bishop and to the Presbytery and the Deacons calling him to witnesse for whom he was bound and for whom he went then unto his last martyrdome that he had not this from humane flesh or from the mouth of men but that the Spirit spake it Without the Bishop do nothing So that from S. Johns time we have this continued succession of witnesses in the age next following for Episcopacy In the year CVII Ignatius Bishop of Antioch where first they were called Christians CXXX Hadrian the Emperor touching the Bishop◠of Aegypt CL. Justin Martyr from Samaria CLXIX The Church of Smyrna CLXXV Dionysius Bishop of Corinth CLXXX Hegesippus from Judea Irenaeus Bishop of Lions near unto us CXCV. Tertullian from Africk Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus CC. Clemens Presbyter of Alexandria The Apostolicall Institution of EPISCOPACY deduced out of the premises by W. C. IF we abstract from Episcopall government all accidentals and consider onely what is essentiall and necessary to it we shall find in it no more but this An appointment of one man of eminent sanctity and sufficiency to have the care of all the Churches within a certain Precinct or Diocesse and furnishing him with authority not absolute or arbitrary but regulated and bounded by lawes and moderated by joyning to him a convenient number of assistants To the intent that all the Churches under him may be provided of good and able Pastours and that both of Pastours and people conformity to lawes and performance of their duties may be required under penalties not left to discretion but by law appointed To this kind of government I am not by any particular interest so devoted as to think it ought to be maintained either in opposition to Apostolick institution or to the much desired reformation of mens lives and restauration of Primitive discipline or to any law or precept of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for that were to maintain a means contrary to the end For obedience to our Saviour is the end for which Church Government is appointed But if it may be demonstrated or made much more probable then the contrary as I verily think it may I. That it is not repugnant to the government setled in and for the Church by the Apostles II. That it is as complyable with the reformation of any evill which we desire to reform either in Church or State or the introduction of any good which we desire to introduce as any other kind of government And III. That there is no law no record of our Saviour against it then I hope it will not be thought an unreasonable motion if we humbly desire those that are in authority especially the High Court of Parliament that it may not be sacrificed to clamour or over-born by violence and though which God forbid the greater part of the multitude should cry Crucifie Crucifie yet our Governours would be so full of Justice and courage
as not to give it up untill they perfectly understand concerning Episcopacy it self Quid mali fecit I shall speak at this time only of the first of these three points That Episcopacy is not repugnant to the government setled in the Church for perpetuity by the Apostles Whereof I conceive this which followes as clear a demonstration as any thing of this nature is capable of That this government was received universally in the Church either in the Apostles time or presently after is so evident and unquestionable that the most learned adversaries of this government do themselves confesse it Petrus Molinaeus in his book De munere postorali purposely written in defence of the Presbyteriall government acknowledgeth That presently after the Apostles times or even in their time as Ecclesiasticall story witnesseth it was ordained That in every City one of the Presbytery should be called a Bishop who should have preheminence over his Colleagues to avoid confusion which oft times ariseth out of equality And truly this form of government all Churches every where received Theodorus Beza in his Tract De triplici Episcopatus genere confesseth in effect the same thing For having distinguished Episcopacy into three kinds Divine Humane and Satanicall and attributing to the second which he calls Humane but we maintain and conceive to be Apostolicall not only a priority of order but a superiority of power and authority over other Presbyters bounded yet by lawes and canons provided against Tyranny he clearly professeth that of this kind of Episcopacy is to be understood whatsoever we read concerning the authority of Bishops or Presidents as Justin Martyr calls them in Ignatius and other more ancient Writers Certainly from these two great defenders of the Presbytery we should never had this free acknowledgement so prejudiciall to their own pretence and so advantageous to their adversaries purpose had not the evidence of clear and undeniable truth enforced them to it It will not therefore be necessary to spend any time in confuting that uningenuous assertion of the Anonymus Authour of the Catalogue of Testimonies for the equality of Bishops and Presbyters who affirmes That their disparity began long after the Apostles times But we may safely take for granted that which these two learned Adversaries have confessed and see whether upon this foundation laid by them we may not by unanswerable reason raise this superstruction That seing Episcopall Government is confessedly so ancient and so Catholique it cannot with reason be denyed to be Apostolique For so great a change as between Presbyteriall Government and Episcopall could not possibly have prevailed all the world over in a little time Had Episcopall Government been an aberration from or a corruption of the Government left in the Churches by the Apostles it had been very strange that it should have been received in any one Church so suddainly or that it should have prevailed in all for many Ages after Variâsse debuerat error Ecclesiarum quod autem apud omnes unum est non est erratum sed traditum Had the Churches err'd they would have varied What therefore is one and the same amongst all came not sure by errour but tradition Thus Tertullian argues very probably from the consent of the Churches of his time not long after the Apostles and that in matter of opinion much more subject to unobserv'd alteration But that in the frame and substance of the necessary government of the Church a thing alwayes in use and practice there should be so suddain a change as presently after the Apostles times and so universall as received in all the Churches this is clearly impossible For what universall cause can be assigned or fained of this universall Apostasie you will not imagine that the Apostles all or any of them made any decree for this change when they were living or left order for it in any Will or Testament when they were dying This were to grant the question to wit that the Apostles being to leave the government of the Churches themselves and either seeing by experience or foreseeing by the Spirit of God the distractions and disorders which would arise from a multitude of equalls substituted Episcopall government instead of their own Generall Councells to make a Law for a generall change for many ages there was none There was no Christian Emperour no coercive power over the Church to enforce it Or if there had been any we know no force was equall to the courage of the Christians of those times Their lives were then at command for they had not then learn't to fight for Christ but their obedience to any thing against his Law was not to be commanded for they had perfectly learn't to die for him Therefore there was no power then to command this change or if there had been any it had been in vain What device then shall we study or to what fountaine shall we reduce this strange pretended alteration Can it enter into our hearts to think that all the Presbyters and other Christians then being the Apostles Schollers could be generally ignorant of the will of Christ touching the necessity of a Presbyteriall government Or dare we adventure to think them so strangely wicked all the world over as against knowledge and conscience to conspire against it Imagine the spirit of Diotrephes had entered into some or a great many of the Presbyters and possessed them with an ambitious desire of a forbidden superiority was it possible they should attempt and atchieve it once without any opposition or contradiction and besides that the contagion of this ambition should spread it self and prevail without stop or controule nay without any noyse or notice taken of it through all the Churches in the world all the watchmen in the mean time being so fast asleep and all the dogges so dumb that not so much as one should open his mouth against it But let us suppose though it be a horrible untruth that the Presbyters and people then were not so good Christians as the Presbyters are now that they were generally so negligent to retain the government of Christs Church commanded by Christ which we now are so zealous to restore yet certainly we must not forget nor deny that they were men as we are And if we look upon them but as meer naturall men yet knowing by experience how hard a thing it is even for policy arm'd with power by many attempts and contrivances and in a long time to gain upon the liberty of any one people undoubtedly we shall never entertain so wild an imagination as that among all the Christian Presbyteries in the world neither conscience of duty nor love of liberty nor aversenesse from pride and usurpation of others over them should prevail so much as with any one to oppose this pretended universall invasion of the Kingdome of Christ and the liberty of Christians When I shall see therefore all the fables in the Metamorphosis acted and prove stories when I