Christians who were designed and ordained for diffusing the Gospel through the Cities Villages and Places adjacent and these Presbyters were as the Bishop's Children educated and formed by him being in all they did directed by him and accountable to him and were as Probationers for the Bishoprick one of them being always chosen to succeed in the seat when vacant through the Bishop's death Now all these lived together as in a little College and were maintained out of the charitable Oblations of the People which were deposited in the Bishop's hands and divided in four parts one falling to the Bishop another to the Clergy a third to the Widows and Orphans and other poor Persons and a fourth to the building of edifices for Worship Thus the Churches were planted and the Gospel was disseminated through the World But at first every Bishop had but one Parish yet afterwards when the numbers of the Christians encreased that they could not conveniently meet in one place and when through the violence of the Persecutions they durst not assemble in great multitudes the Bishops divided their charges in lesser Parishes and gave assignments to the Presbyters of particular flocks which was done first in Rome in the beginning of the Second Century and these Churches assigned to Presbyters as they received the Gospel from the Bishop so they owned a dependence on him as their Father who was also making frequent excursions to them and visiting the whole bounds of his Precinct And things continued thus in a Parochial Government till toward the end of the Second Century the Bishop being chiefly entrusted with the cure of Souls a share whereof was also committed to the Presbyters who were subject to him and particularly were to be ordained by him nor could any Ordination be without the Bishop who in ordaining was to carry along with him the conâ—urrence of the Presbyters as in every other act of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction But I run not out into more particulars because of an account of all these things which I have drawn with an unbiass'd ingenuity and as much diligence as was possible for me to bring along with me to so laborious a work and this I shall send you when our Conference shall be at an end But in the end of the Seâ—ond Century the Churches were framed in another mould from the division of the Empire and the Bishops of the Cities did according to the several divisions of the Empire associate in Synods with the chief Bishop of that Division or Province who was called the Metropolitan from the dignity of the City where he was Bishop And hence sprang Provincial Synods and the Superiorities and Precedencies of Bishopricks which were ratified in the Council of Nice as ancient Customs they being at that time above an hundred years old In the beginning of the Third Century as the purity of Churchmen begun to abate so new methods were devised for preparing them well to those sacred Functions and therefore they were appointed to pass through several degrees before they could be Deacons Presbyters or Bishops And the Orders of Porters Readers Singers Exorcists or Catechists Acolyths who were to be the Bishops attendants and Sub-deacons were set up of whom mention is made first by Cypâ—ian and these degrees were so many steps of probationership to the supreme Order But all this was not able to keep out the corruptions weâ—e breaking in upon Church Officeâ—s eâ—peâ—â—ally after the Fouâ—th Century that the Empire became Christian which as it brougâ—t much riches and splendor on Church Empâ—oyments so it let in gâ—eat swarms of corrupt men on the Christian Assemblies And then the election to Church Offices which was formerly in the hands of the people was taken from them by reason of the tumults and disorders were in these elections which sometimes ended in blood and occasioned much faction and schism And Ambitus became now such an universal sin among Churchmen that in that Century Monasteries were founded in divers places by holy Bishops as by Basile Augustine Martin and others who imitated the Example of those in Egypt and Nitria whose design was the purifying of these who were to serve in the Gospel It is true these Seminaries did also degenerate and become nests of superstition and idleness yet it cannot be denied but this was an excellent Constitution for rightly forming the minds of the designers for holy Oâ—ders that being trained up in a course of Devotion Fasting Solitude abstraction from the World and Poverty they might be better qualified for the discharge of that holy Function And thus I have given you a general draught and perspective of the first Constitution of Churches together with some steps of their advanceâ— and declinings But I despair not to give you an ampler account and plan of their rules and forms Mean while let this suffice Phil. From what you have told us I shall propose the notion I have of Episcopacy that the work of a Bishop as it is chiefly to feed the flock so it is more particularly to form educate and try these who are to be admitted to Church Imployments and to over-see direct admonish and reprove these who are already setled in Church Offices so that as the chief tryal of those who are to be ordained is his work the Ordinations ought to be performed by him yet not so as to exclude the assistance and concurrence of Presbyters both in the previous tryal and in the Ordination it self But on the other hand no Ordination ought to be without the Bishop And as for Jurisdiction though the Bishop hath authority to over-see reprove and admonish the Clergy yet in all acts of publick Jurisdiction as he ought not to proceed without their concurrence so neither ought they without his knowledge and allowance determine about Ecclesiastical matters As for the notion of the distinct Offices of Bishop and Presbyter I confess it is not so clear to me and therefore since I look upon the â—acramental Actions as the highest of sacred Peâ—formances I cannot but acknowledge these who are empowered â—or them must be of the highest Office in the Châ—rch So I do not alledge a Bishop to be a disâ—inct Office from a Presbyter but a different degree in the same Office to whom for order and unities sake the chief inspection and care of Ecclesiastical Matters ought to be referred and who shall have authority to curb the Insolencies of some factious and turbulent Spirits His work should be to feed the flock by the Word and Sacraments as well as other Presbyters and especially to try and ordain Entrants and to over-see direct and admonish such as bear Office And I the more willingly incline to believe Bishops and Presbyters to be the several degrees of the same Office since the names of Bishop and Presbyter are used for the same thing in Scripture and are also used promiscuously by the Writers of the two first Centuries Now Isotimus when you bring either clear Scripture or
Bishops otherwise it could not have been done which is absurd to imagine And upon all these accounts he judged the present Episcopacy differed much from the ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon this discourse the Bishop being weary of speaking much looked to one of his Presbyters whom that Pamphlet in derision calls a worthy Doctor who said He found the ancient writings were so clear for a disparity among Church-men and so full of it that he was assured none could doubt it after he had looked but overly upon them But as to what was alledged he first assumed the five particulars and spoke to them in order To the first he said It was true the term Archbishop was not used in the first Centuries but in the Council of Nice mention is not only made of Metropolitans but the Canon saith of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let the ancient customs have their force which shews the superiority of Metropolitans to have been pretty early begun And the Canon that was cited calling him Primae Sedis Episcopum makes him Primate now we are not to contend about words when the thing is clear neither will â—any Archbishop judg himself injured if instead of that name he be called Metropolitan or Primate Besides Archiepiscopus doth not import Prince of the Bishops but that he is the chief and first of them And this prefixing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not so odious for Nazianzen calls a Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the second particular it is true Bishops were in many places very thick set for in S. Augustin ' s time it appears from the journals of a Conference he had with the Donatiâ—ts that there were about 500. Bishopricks in a small tract of ground but this was not universal for Theodoret tells he had 800. Parishes in his Diocese and Sozomen tells of great Countries where there were very few Bishops And to prove this the Canons of Ancyra make a difference betwixt the Presbyters of the Country from those of the City and over the former there was a Chorepiscopus which shâ—ws that the whole Diocese was not within the City But this was not much to our purpose since the more or the less did not vary the kind And if a Bishop might be over the Ministers of the City it cannot be unlawful that he be likewise set over more in the Country which can be no more essential to this matter than it is whether a Parish be great or small So that this difference may well make the one unexpedient but unlawful it cannot be if the other be lawful For the third particular there was a Canon of the Council of Nice that there might be but one Bishop in a City And he was amazed to hear the instance of S. Augustin alledged who was indeed ordained Coadjutor to Valerius but himself in his I 10. Epist. condemns that telling that he did it ignorantly not knowing it to be contrary to the Nicene Rules And therefore he tells how he designed Eradius to be his Successor but would not ordain him in his own time because of that Canon Other instances of more Bishops in one City might have beâ—â— more pertinently adduced to this purpose but they were either Coadjutors such as Nazianzen the son was to his father or it was agreed to for setling a Schism as was done in the Schism betwixt Meletius and Paulinus of Antioch And so S. Augustin and the African Bishops with him offered to the Donatists that would they agree with them these schismatical Bishops should be continued as conjunct Bishops with those already setled in those Sees where thâ—y lived It is true some will have both Linus and Clemens to have succeeded S. Peter at Rome and Evodius and Ignatius â—o have succeeded him at Antioch But for this none assert that both succeeded to S. Peter some being for one and some for another and so in a historical matter the testimonies of these who lived nearest that time should decide the question But the Constitutions of Clemens offer a solution to this that at first there were in some Cities two Churches one for those of the Circumcision and another for those of the Uncircumcision and after the destruction of Jerusalem this distinction was swallowed up This is rational and not without ground in Scripture besides that that Book though none of Clements yet is ancient And from all this it was clear that there might be but one Bishop in a City As for the fourth particular it is true the ancient elections of Bishops and Presbyters were partly by Synods partly by Presbyters and partly popular But as none would say it made any essential alteration of the Constitution of a Church if instead of these elections Patrons had now a right of presenting to Churches so though instead of these elections the King were Patron of all the Bishopricks it did not alter the nature of Episcopacy much less justifie a Schism against it But beside this it was known the Capitular elections were still continued And for the fifth particular he desired they might give one instance in all Antiquity where a Bishop was censured by Presbyters it being clear that they could finish nothing without the Bishops sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was the words of the Canon And if they could finish nothing without the Bishop much less could they censure himself Provincial Synods were begun in the second Century which appears from many Synods were held about the day of observing Easter Another expedient they had when a Bishop was heretical that the neighboring Bishops used to publish it in their Cicular Letters which went around and so they did excommunicate or dâ—pose them But the regular way of procedure against Bishops was in Provincial Synods which were now offered to be seâ— up Yet even this exception could be no ground for separating no more than in their principles Lay Elders had to separate from their Ministers who were their fixed President and yet did not judge themselves censurable by these Lay Elders tho as to the power of ruling they held them to be equal With this he ended saying He had now proposed what occurred of a sudden to his tho ughts on these heads though he believed much more might be adduced but he supposed there was enough said to clear these particulars And it seems the Person who had engaged him to this judged so since neither he nor any of his brethren offered a reply And by this account of the truth whereof I am willing all there present bear witness let the company judge of the ingenuity of these Writers But I shall pursue the discourse of the accommodation no further Basil. I am sure it hath left this conviction on all our Consciences that that Party is obstinately fixed to their own humors without the least color of reason But now I think enough is said for justifying both
not succeed he openly made War against Constantine And as he was preparing for it he made War likewise against GOD and persecuted the Christians because he apprehended they all prayed for Constantine and wished him success whereupon he made severe Laws against the Christians forbidding the Bishops ever to meet among themselves or to instruct any Women afterwards he banished all that would not worship the Gods and from that he went to an open Persecution and not content with that he by severe Laws discharged any to visit and relieve such as were in Prison for the Faith Yet notwithstanding all this none that were under his part of the Empire did resist him nay not so much as turn over to Constantine against him for ought that appears But upon these things a War followed betwixt Constantine and him wherein Licinius was defeated and forced to submit to what conditions Constantine was pleased to give who took from him Greece and Illyricum and only left him Thrace and the East But Licinius returning to his old ways and breaking all agreements a second war followed wherein Licinius was utterly defeated and sent to lead a private life at Thessalonica where he was sometime after that killed because of new designs against Constantine This being the true account of that Story I am to divine what advantage it can yield to the cause of Subjects resisting theiâ— Sovereign for here was a Superior Prince defending himself against the unjust attempts and hostile incuâ—sions of his Enemy who was also inferior to him as Eusebius states it whom consult 10. Book 8. â—â— and 1. Book of Const. life ch 42. and 2. Book ch 2 c. And for your instance of the Persians imploring the aid of the Romans I am afraid it shall serve you in as little stead for the account Socrates gives of it lib. 7. cap. 18. is that Baratanes King of Persia did severely persecute the Christians whereupon the Christians that dwelt in Persia were necessitated to fly to the Romans and beseech them not to neglect them who were so destroyed they were kindly received by Aticus the Bishop of Constantinople who bent all his care and thoughts for their aid and made the matter known to Theodosius the second then Emperor but it happened at that tune the Romans had a quarrel with the Persians who had hired a great many Romans that wrought in Mines and sent them back without paying the agreed hire which quarrel was much heightned by the Persian Christians complaint for the King of Persia sent Ambassadours to remand them as fugitives but the Romans refused to restore them and not only gave them Sanctuary but resolved by all their power to defend the Christian Religion and rather make War with the Persians than see the Christians so destroyed Now it will be a pretty sleight of Logick if from Subjects flying from a Persecution and seeking shelter under another Prince you will infer that they may resist their own King And for Theodosius his War we see other grounds assigned by the Historian and the Politicks even of good Princes in their making of Wars must not be a Rule to our Consciences neither know I why this instance is adduced except it be to justifie some who are said during the Wars betwixt their own Sovereign and the Country where they lived to have openly prayed for Victory against their Country and to have corresponded in opposition to their native Sovereign But I must next discuss that Catalogue of Tumults in the fourth and fifth Century which are brought as Precedents for the resisting of Subjects and here I must mind you of the great change was in Christendom after Constantine's days before whom none were Christians but such as were persuaded of the truth of the Gospel and were ready to suffer for its profession so that it being then a Doctrine objected to many Persecutions few are to be supposed to have entred into its discipline without some Convictions about it in their Consciences but the case varied much after the Emperors became Christian so that what by the severity of their Laws what by the authority of their Example almost all the World rendered themselves Christian which did let in such a swarm of corrupt men into the Christian Societies that the face of them was quickly much changed and both Clergy and Laity became very corrupt as appears from the complaints of all the Writers of the fourth Century what wonder then if a tumultuating Humor crept into such a mixed multitude And indeed most of these instances which are alledged if they be adduced to prove the corruption of that time they conclude but too well But alas will they have the authority of Precedents or can they be look'd upon as the sense of the Church at that time since they are neither approved by Council or Church-Writer And truly the Tumults in these times were too frequent upon various occasions but upon none more than the popular elections of Bishops of which Nazianzen gives divers instances and for which they were taken from the People by the Council of Laodicea Can. 13. It is also well enough known how these Tumults flowed more from the tumultuary temper of the People than from any Doctrine their Teachers did infuse in them And therefore Socrates lib. 7. cap. 13. giving account of one of the Tumults of Alexandria made use of by your Friends as a Precedent tells how that City was ever inclined to Tumults which were never compesced without blood And at that time differences falling in betwixt Orestes the Prefect and Cyril the Bishop who was the first that turned the Priesthood into a temporal Dominion they had many debates for Orestes hating the power of the Bishops which he judged detracted from the Prefect's authority did much oppose Cyril and Cyril having raised a Tumult against the Iews wherein some of them were killed and the rest of them driven out of the City Orestes was so displeased at that that he refused to be reconciled with him whereupon 500 Monks came down from Nitria to fight for their Bishop who set on the Prefect and one of them named Ammonius wounded him in the head with a stone but the People gathering they all fled only Ammonius was taken whom the Prefect tortured till he died but Cyril buried him in the Church and magnified his Fortitude to the degree of reckoning him a Martyr of which he was afterwards ashamed And their being in Alexandria at that time a learned and famous Lady called Hyppatia whom the People suspected of inflaming the Prefect against the Bishop they led on by a Reader of the Church set on her and dragged her from her Chariot into a Church and stript her naked and most cruelly tore her body to pieces which they burnt to ashes And this saith the Historian brought no small Infamy both on Cyril and on the Church of Alexandria since all who profess the Christian Religion should be strangers to killing
But that I may not seem to rob the Church of all her Power I acknowledg that by the Laws of Nature it follows that these who unite in the service of GOD must be warranted to associate in Meetings to agree on generals Rules and to use means for preserving purity and order among themselves and that all Inferiours ought to subject themselves to their Rules But as for that brave distinction of the Churches Authority being derived from CHRIST as Mediator whereas the Regal Authority is from him as GOD well doth it become its inventors and much good may it do them For me I think that CHRIST's asserting that all power in heaven and in earth was given unto him and his being called The KING of Kings and LORD of Lords make it as clear as the Sun that the whole OEconomy of this World is committed to him as Mediator and as they who died before him were saved by him who was slam â—â—om the foundation of the world so all humane authority was given by vertue of the second Covenant by which mankind was preserved from infallible ruin which otherwise it had incurred by Adams fall But leaving any further enquiry after such a foolish nicety I go now to examine what the Magistrates Power is in matters of Religion And first I lay down for a Maxim That the externals of Worship or Government are not of such importance as are the Rules of Iustice and Peace wherein formally the Image of GOD consists For CHRIST came to bring us to GOD and the great end of his Gospel is the assimilation of us to GOD of which justice righteousness mercy and peace make a great part Now what sacredness shall be in the outwards of Worship and Government that these must not be medled with by his hands and what unhallowedness is in the other that they may fall within his Jurisdiction my weakness cannot reach As for instance when the Magistrate allows ten per cent of inâ—â—rest it is just to exact it and when he bringâ— iâ— down to six per cent it is oppression to demand ten per cent so that he can determine some matteâ—s to be just or unjust by his Laws now why he shall not have such a power about outward matters of Worship or of the Government of the Church judg you since the one both in it self and as it tends to commend us to God is much more important than the other It is true he cannot meddle with the holy things himself for the Scripture rule is express that men be separated for the work of the Ministery And without that separation he invades the Altar of GOD that taketh that honor upon him without he be called to it But as for giving Laws in the externals of Religion I see not why he may not do it as well as in matters Civil It is true if he contradict the divine Law by his commands GOD is to be obeyed rather than man But this holds in things Civil as well as Sacred For if he command murder or theft he is undoubtedly to be disobeyed as well as when he commands amiss in matters of Religion In a word all Subjects are bound to obey him in every lawful command Except therefore you prove that Church-men constituted in a Synod are not Subjects they are bound to obedience as well as others Neither doth this Authority of the Magistrate any way prejudge the power Christ hath committed to his Church For a Father hath power over his Children and that by a divine Precept tho the Supreme Authority have power over him and them both so the Churches authority is no way inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy As for their Declarative Power it is not at all subject to him only the exercise of it to this or that person may be suspended For since the Magistrate can banish his Subjects he may well silence them Yet I acknowledg if he do this out of a design to drive the Gospel out of his Dominions they ought to continue in their duty notwithstanding such prohibition for GOD must be obeyed rather than man And this was the case of the Primitive Bishops who rather than give over the feeding their Flocks laid themselves open to Martyrdom But this will not hold for warranting turbulent persons who notwithstanding the Magistrates continuing all encouragements for the publick Worship of GOD chuse rather than concur in it tho not one of an hundred of them hath the confidence to call that unlawful to gather separated Congregations whereby the flocks are scattered Phil. Nay since you are on that Subject let me freely lay open the mischief of it It is a direct breach of the Laws of the Gospel that requires our solemn assembling together which must ever bind all Christians till there be somewhat in the very constitutions of these Assemblies that renders our meeting in them unlawful which few pretend in our case Next the Magistrates commanding these publick Assemblies is certainly a clear and superadded obligation which must bind all under sin till they can prove these our Meetings for Worship unlawful And as these separated Conventicles are of their own nature evil so their effects are yet worse and such as indeed all the ignorance and profanity in the Land is to be charged on them for as they dissolve the union of the Church which must needs draw mischief after it so the vulgar are taught to despise their Ministers and the publick Worship and thus get loose from the yoak And their dependence on these separated Meetings being but precarious as they break away from the order of the Church so they are not tied to their own order and thus betwixt hands the vulgar lose all sense of Piety and of the Worship of GOD. Next in these separated Meetings nothing is to be had but a long preachment so that the knowledg and manners of the people not being look'd after and they taught to revolt from the setled Discipline and to disdain to be câ—techised by their Pastoâ—s ignorance and profanity must be the sure effect of these divided Meetings And in fine the disuse of the LORD's Supper is a guilt of a high nature for the vulgar are taught to loath the Sacrament from their Ministers hands as much as the Mass and preaching is all they get in their Meetings so that what in all Ages of the Church hath been looked on as the great cherishing of Devotion and true Piety and the chief preserver of Peace among Câ—â—â—tiâ—ns is wearing out of practice with our new modelled Christians These are the visible effects of separating practices But I shall not play the uncharitable Diviner to guess at the secret mischief such courses may be guilty of Basil. Truly what you have laid out is so well known to us all that I am confident Isotimus himself must with much sorrow acknowledg what wicked Arts these are that some use to dislocate the Body of Christ and to sacrifice the interests of Religion
other instances When Ezra came from Artaxerxes he brings a Commission from him Ezra ch 7. ver 25 26. impowering him according to the wisdom of his GOD that was in his hand to set up Magistrates and Iudges who might judg them that knew the Laws of his GOD and teach them that knew them not and a severe certificate is passed upon the disobedient and one of the branches of their punishment which is by the Translators rendered banishment being in the Chaldaick rooting out is by some judged to be Excommunication which is the more probable because afterwards Chap. 10. ver 8. the Censure he threatens on these who came not upon his Proclamation is forfeiture of goods and separation from the Congregation Here then it seems a Heathen King gives authority to Excommunicate but be in that what will Ezra upon his return acted in a high Character he makes the Priests Levites and all Israel to swear to put away their strange Wives he convenes all the people under the Certificate of separation from the Congregation and enjoyns Confession of their sins and amendment and we find both him and Nehemiah acting in a high Character about the ordering of divine matters which could only flow from the King's Commission for neither of them were Prophets nor was Ezra the High Priest but his Brother and so no more than an ordinary Priest Mordecai likewise instituted the feast of Purim for which nothing could warrant him but the King's authority committed to him who gave him his Ring for sealing such Orders since he was neither King Priest nor Prophet And on the way let me observe what occurs from that History for proving what was yesterday pleaded for The Subjects ought not to resist no not the tyranny of their Superiours since a Writing was procured from Ahasuerus for warranting the Iews to avenge themselves and to stand for their lives and to destroy and slay all that would assault them which saith they might not have done this before that writing was given out and yet their killing of 74000 of their Enemies shews what their strength was But all I have said will prove that the Civil Powers under the Old Testament did formally judg about matters of Religion and that that priviledg belongs to Kings by vertue of their Regal dignity and not as they are in Covenant with GOD since even Heathen Kings give out Orders about divine matters Poly. If from Sacred you descend to humane practices nothing was more used than that the Emperors judged in matters of Religion neither was this yielded to them only after they became Christians but Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 30. tells how they made application to Aurelian a Heathen Emperor for turning Samosatenus out of the Church of Antioch who decreed that the Houses of the Church should be given to those Bishops whom the Christians of Italy and the Roman Bishops should recommend to them Constantine also when not baptized did all his life formally judg in matters both of Doctrine and Discipline and for the Laws they made about Church matters they abound so much that as Grotius saith One needs not read them but look on them to be satisfied about this And indeed I know not how to express my wonder at the affrontedness of that Pamphleter who denies this pag. 483. Pray ask him was the determining about the age the qualifications the Election the duties of Church-men the declaring for what things they should be deposed or excommunicated a formal passing of Laws in Church matters or only the adding Sanctions to the Church determinations And yet who will but with his Eye run through either the first six Titles of the Code or the 123. Novel besides many other places all these and many more Laws about Church matters will meet him But should I take a full Career here I am sure I should be tedious and Grotius hath congested so many instances of this that I refer the curious Reader to him for full satisfaction The Elections of Bishops which had been formerly in the hands of the people and Clergy with the Provincial Synods that judged of them became so tumultuary that popular Elections were discharged by the Council of Laodicea Can. 13. and the Emperors did either formally name as Theodosius did Nectarius or reserve the ratifying their Election to themselves And I must confess it is a pretty piece of History to say the Bishops consented to this either as diffident of their Office or out of ambition See p. 485. Tell your Friends that they must either learn more knowledg or pretend to less for can they produce the least vestige for the one branch of this alternative that the Bishops their allowing the Emperor such an interest in their Elections flowed from a distrust of their Office Let them give but one scrap of proof for this and let them triumph as much as they will Is it not a pretty thing to see one talk so superciliously of things he knows not Isot. But all you have brought will never prove that a King may at one stroke subvert a Government established in the Church and turn out all who adhere to it and set up another in its place neither will this conclude that the King may enact all things about Ecclesiastical matters and Persons by his own bare authority which is a surrender of our consciences to him certainly this is to put him in CHRIST's stead and what mischievous effects may follow upon this if all matters of Religion be determined by the pleasure of secular and carnal men who consider their interests and appetites more than God's glory or the good of the Church and of Souls Truly my heart trembles to think on the effects this both hath produced and still may bring forth See pag. 483. Phil. It is charity to ease your Lungs sometimes by taking a turn in the Discourse though you need none of my help But what you say Isotimus doth no way overturn what hath been asserted for either the change that was made was necessary sinful or indifferent the two former shall not be at this time debated but shall be afterwards discussed but if it be indifferent then the Kings Laws do oblige us to obedience and the mischief hath followed on the change falls to their share who do not obey the King's Laws when the matter of them is lawful And as for the thrusting out Church-men when they are guilty Solomon's precedent is convincing who thrust out Abâ—athar from the High Priesthood neither can the least hint be given to prove that he acted as inspired and not as a King and Nehemiah tho but commissionated by Artaxerxes thrust one out from the Priesthood for marrying a strange Woman For your prying into Acts of Parliament truly neither you nor I need be so much conversant in them Neither were it any strange matter if some expressions in them would not bear a strict Examen But that you now challenge about the King's enacting of all
Glasgow But before they went to it a written citation of the Bishops was ordered to be read through all the Churches of Scotland wherein they were chaâ—ged as guilty of all the crimes imaginable which as an Agape after the Lords Supper was first read after a Communion at Edinburgh and upon it orders were sent every where for bringing in the privatest of their escapes And you may judge how consonant this was to that Royal Law of charity which covers a multitude of sins nor was the Kings Authority any whit regarded all this while Was ever greater contempt put on the largest offers of grace and favor And when at Glasgow His Majesty offered by his Commissioner to consent to the limiting of Bishops nothing would satisfie their zeal without condemning the order as unlawful and abjured But when many illegalities of the constitution and procedure of that Assembly were discovered their partiality appeared for being both Judg and Party they justified all their own disorders Upon which His Majesties Commissioner was forced to discharge their further sitting or procedure under pain of Treason but withal published His Majesties Royal intentions to them for satisfying all their legal desires and securing their fears But their stomachs were too great to yield obedience and so they sate still pretending their authority was from CHRIST and condemned Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops with a great many other illegal and unjustifiable Acts. And when His Majesty came with an Army to do himself right by the Sword GOD had put in his hands they took the start of him and seised on his Castles and on the houses and persons of his good Subjects and went in a great body against him Now in this His Majesty had the Law clearly of his side For Episcopacy stood established by Act of Parliament And if this was a cause of Religion or a defence of it much less such as deserved all that bloud and confusion which it drew on let all the World judg It is true His Majesty was willing to settle things and receive them again into his grace and upon the matter granted all their desires but they were unsatisfiable upon which they again armed But of this I shall not recount the particulars because I hope to see a clear and unbyassed narration of these things ere long Only one Villany I will not conceal at the pacification at Berwick seven Articles of Treaty were signed But the Covenanters got a paper among them which passed for the conditions of the agreement though neither signed by his Majesty nor attested by Secretary or Clerk and this being every where spread his Majesty challenged it as a Forgery and all the English Lords who were of the Treaty having declared upon Oath that no such paper was agreed on it was burnt at London by the hand of the Hangman as a scandalous paper But this was from the Pulpits in Scotland represented as a violation of the Treaty and that the Articles of it were burnt These and such were the Arts the men of that time used to inflame that blessed King 's native Subjects against him But all these were small matters to the following invasion of England An. 1643. For his Majesty did An. 1641. come to Scotland and give them full satisfaction to all even their most unreasonable demands which he consented to pass into Acts of Parliaments But upon his return into England the woful rupture betwixt him and the two Houses following was our Church-party satisfied with the trouble they occasioned him No they were not for they did all they could to cherish and foment the Houses in their insolent Demands chiefly about Religion and were as forward in pressing England's uniformity with Scotland as they were formerly in condemning the design of bringing Scotland to an uniformity with England I shall not engage further in the differences betwixt the King and the two Houses than to shew that His Majesty had the Law clearly of his side since he not only consented to the redress of all grievances for which the least color of Law was alledged but had also yielded to larger concessions for securing the fears of his Subjects than had been granted by all the Kings of England since the Conquest Yet their demands were unsatisfiable without His Majesty had consented to the abolishing of Episcopacy and discharge of the Liturgy which neither his Conscience nor the Laws of England allowed of so that the following War cannot be said to have gone on the principles of defending Religion since His Majesty was invading no part of the established Religion And thus you see that the War in England was for advancing a pretence of Religion And for Scotlands part in it no Sophistry will prove it defensive for His Majesty had setled all matters to their hearts desire and by many frequent and solemn protestations declared his resolutions of observing inviolably that agreement neither did he so much as require their assistance in that just defence of his Authority and the Laws invaded by the two Houses though in the explication of the Covenant An. 1039. it was agreed to and sworn That they should in quiet manner or in Arms defend His Majesties Authority within or without the Kingdom as they should be required by His Majesty or any having his Authority But all the King desired was that Scotland might lie neutral in the quarrel enjoying their happy tranquillity yet this was not enough for your Churches zeal but they remonstrated that Prelacy was the great Mountain stood in the way of Reformation which must be removed and they sent their Commissioners to the King with these desires which His Majesty answered by a Writing yet extant under his own Royal hand shewing That the present settlement of the Church of England was so rooted in the Law that he could not consent to a change till a new form were agreed to and presented to him to which these at Westminster had no mind but he offered all ease to tender Consciences and to call a Synod to judg of these differences to which he was willing to call some Divines from Scotland for bearing their opinions and reasons At that time Petitions came in from several Presbyteries in Scotland to the Conservators of the Peace inciting them to own the Parliaments quarrel upon which many of the Nobility and others signed a Cross Petition which had no other design but the diverting these Lords from interrupting the Peace of Scotland by medling in the English quarrel upon which Thunders were given out against these Petitioners both from the Pulpits and the Remonstrances of the Commission of the General Assembly and they led Processes against all who subscribed it But His Majesty still desired a neutrality from Scotland and tho highly provoked by them yet continued to bear with more than humane patience the affronts were put on his Authority Yet for animating the people of Scotland into the designed War the Leaders of that Party did every where
whatever by Treaty one State yields over to another that Promise Donation and Oath is indeed the ground on which the Kings right may be supposed to have been first founded But now his Title to our Obedience proceeds upon the rules of Justice of giving him what is his by an immemorial Possession passed all prescription so many ages ago that the first vestiges of it cannot be traced from Records or certain Histories and not of fidelity of observing the promises of our Ancestors to him though I do not deny a pious Veneration to be due to the Promises and Oaths of Parents when they contain in them adjurations on their Childern And thus the Gibeonites having a right to their lives confirmed to them by the Compact of the Princes of Israel they and their Posterity had a good title in Justice to their lives which was basely invaded by Saul and had this aggravation that the compact made with them was confirmed by oath for which their posterity should have had a just veneration But though that Oath did at first found their title to their Lives and their Exemption from the forfeiture all the Amorites lay under yet afterwards their title was preserved upon the rules of Iustice and the Laws of Nature which forbid the invading the lives of our Neighbors when by no Injury they forfeit them Thus your confounding the titles of Inheritance and prescâ—iption with the grounds upon which they first accresced hath engaged you into all this mistaking But from all this you see how ill founded that reasoning of the Answerer of the Dialogues is for proving the posterity of these who took the Covenant tied by their fathers oath which yet at first view promised as fair colors of reason as any part of his Book had he not intermixed it with shameful insultings and railings at the Conformist which I suppose do now appear as ill grounded as they are cruel and base But I am not so much in love with that stile as to recriminate nor shall I tell you of his errors that way of which I am in good earnest ashamed upon his account For it is a strange thing if a man cannot answer a discourse without he fall a fleering and railing To conclude this whole purpose I am mistaken if much doubting will remain with an ingenuous and unprejudged Reader if either we or our posterity lye under any obligation from the Covenants to contradict or counteract the Laws of the Land supposing the matter of them lawful which being a large Subject will require a discourse apart But I will next examine some practices among us and chiefly that of Schism and separation from the publick worship of GOD to which both the unity of the Spirit which we ought to preserve in the bond of peace and the lawful commands of these in authority do so bind us that I will be glad to hear what can be alledged for it Isot. A great difference is to be made betwixt separation and non-compliance the one is a withdrawing from what was once owned to be the Church the other is a with-holding our concurrence from what we judg brought in upon the Church against both Reason and Religion and any thing you can draw from CHRIST's practice or precept in acknowledging the High Priests or commanding the people to observe what the Pharisees taught them is not applicable to this purpose For first these were Civil Magistrates as well as Ecclesiasticks and Doctors of the Civil and Judicial Law which is different from the Case of Churchmen with us Further the Iewish Church was still in possession of the privileges given them from GOD and so till CHRIST erected his Church they were the Church of GOD and therefore to be acknowledged and joined with in Worship But how vastly differs our Case from this See from p. 189. to p. 204. Phil. You have given a short account of the large reasonings of the late Book on this head only he is so browilled in it that there are whole pages in his Discourse which I confess my weakness cannot reach But to clear the way for your satisfaction in this matter which I look upon as that of greatest concernment next to the Doctrine of Non-resistance of any thing is debated among us since it dissolves the unity of the Church and opens a patent door to all disorder Ignorance and Profanity I shall consider what the unity of the Church is and in what manner we are bound to maintain and preserve it All Christians are commanded to love one another and to live in peace together and in order to this they must also unite and concur in joint Prayers Adorations and other acts of Worship to express the harmony of their love in Divine matters Sacraments were also instituted for uniting the body together being solemn and federal stipulations made with God in the hands of some who are his Ambassadors and Representatives upon Earth by whose mouths the Worship is chiefly offered up to God and who must be solemnly called and separated for their Imployment Now these Assemblings of the Saints are not to be forsaken till there be such a Corruption in the Constitution of them or in some part of the Worship that we cannot escape the guilt of that without we sepaâ—ate our selves from these unclean things Wherefore the warning is given Come out of Babylon that we be not partakers of her sins and so receive not of her plagues But though there be very great and visible corruptions in a Church yet as long as our joining in Worship in the solemn Assemblies doth not necessarily involve us into a Consent or Concurrence with these we ought never to withdraw nor rent the unity of the body whereof CHRIST is the head Consider how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity And our Saviour sheweth of what importance he judged it to his Church since so great a part of his last and most ravishing Prayer is That they might be one And this he five times repeats comparing the unity he prayed for to the undivided Unity was betwixt him and his Father How shall these words rise up in Judgment against those who have broken these bonds of perfection upon slight grounds With the same earnestness do we find the Apostles pressing the Unity of the Body and Charity among all the members of it which is no where more amply done than in the Epistles to the Corinthians whom the Apostle calls the Churches of GOD and yet there were among them false Teachers who studied to prey upon them and to strike out the Apostles authority Some among them denied the resurrection there were Contentions and Disorders among them in their meetings such confusions were from the strange Tongues some spake that had one unacquainted with them come in upon them he had judged them mad some were drunk when they did receive the LORD's Supper they had an incestuous Person in their Society and it seems he was
a thousand more These were after the Apostles the greatest glories of the Christian Church and were burning and shining lights It is in their lives writings and decrees that I desire you to view Episcopacy and if it have any way fallen from that first and fair Original direct your thoughts and zeal to contrive and carry on its recovery to its former purity and servor but take it not at the disadvantage as it may have suffered any thing from the corruptions of men in a succession of so many ages for you know the Sacraments the Ministery and all the parts of Religion have been soiled and stained of their first beauty by their corrupt hands to whose care they were committed But he were very much to blame who would thereupon quarrel these things I shall therefore intreat you will consider that Order either in it self or as it flourished in the first ages of the Church and not as prejudices or particular escapes may have represented it to you Eud. That you may both understand one another better let me suggest to you the right stating of that you differ about that you be not contending about words or notions of things which may appear with various shapes and faces one whereof may be amiable and another ugly give therefore a clear and distinct account of that Episcopacy you own and assert Poly. Since Philarcheus hath appealed to the ancient Church for the true pattern of Episcopacy I shall faithfully represent to you what the office and power of their Bishops was and how it took its first rise and growth among them and then I shall leave it to be discussed how lawful or allowable it is of it self The Iews had among them beside the Temple-worship which was Typical their Synagogues not only over the land but through all the corners of the World into which they were dispersed which were called their Prosenchae among the Greeks and Romans Thither did they meet for the dayly worship of GOD there did they likewise meet on their Sabbaths and recited their Philacteries or Liturgies and heard a portion of the Law read which was divided in so many Sections that it might be yearly read over there was also a word of exhortation used after the Law was read and there were in these Synagogues Office-Bearers separated for that work who were to order the Worship and the reading of the Law and were to censure sins by several degrees of Excommunications casting them out of the Synagogue they were likewise to see to the supplying the necessities of the Poor Now if we consider the practice of our Saviour and his Apostles we shall find them studying to comply with the forms received among the Iews as much as was possible or consistent with the new Dispensation which might be instanced in many particulars as in both Sacraments the forms of Worship the practice of Excommunication and these might be branched out into many instances And indeed since we find the Apostles yielding so far in compliance with the Iews about the Mosaical Rites which were purely typical and consequently antiquated by the death of CHRIST we have a great deal of more reason to apprehend they complied with their forms in things that were not typical but rather moral such as was the order of their Worship these things only excepted wherein the Christian Religion required a change to be made And this the rather that wherever they went promulgating the Gospel the first offer of it was made to the Iews many of whom believed but were still zealous of the Traditions of their Fathers And so it is not like that they who could not be prevailed upon to part with the Mosaical Rites for all the reasons were offered against them were so easily content to change their other forms which were of themselves useful and innocent Now since we see the Apostles retained and improved so many of their Rites and customs why they should have innovated the Government of their Synagogues will not be easily made clear especially since they retained the names of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon which were in use among the Iews and since they did bless and separate them by the imposition of hands which had been also practised among the Iews and all this will appear with a clearer visage of reason if we consider the accounts given in the Acts or rules prescribed in the Epistles of the Apostles about the framing and constituting their Churches All which speak out nothing of a new Constitution but tell only what rules they gave for regulating things which from the stile they run in seem to have been then constituted and is very far either from Moses's Language in the Pentateuch or from the forms of the Institution of the Sacraments And except the little we have of the Institution of Deacons nothing like an Institution occurs in the New Testament and yet that seems not the Institution of an Order but a particular provision of men for serving the Hâ—llenists in an office already known and received Now let me here send you to the Masters of the Iewish learning particularly to the eminently learned and judicious Doctor Lightfoot who will inform you that in every Synagogue there was one peculiarly charged with the Worship called the Bishop of the Congregation the Angel of the Church or the Minister of the Synagogue and besides him there were three who had the Civil Judicatory who judged also about the receiving Proselytes the imposition of hands c. And there were other three who gathered and distributed the almes Now the Christian Religion taking place as the Gospel was planted in the Cities where it was chiefly preached these forms and orders were retained both name and thing for we cannot think that the Apostles whose chief work was the gaining of Souls from Gentilism or Iudaism were very sollicitous about modes of Government but took things as they found them Only the Elder and greater Christians they separated for Church Offices and retained an inspection over them themselves And abstracting from what was said about the Synagogues it is natural to think that when the Apostles left them and died they did appoint the more eminent to be Over-seers to the rest which why not every where as well as was done by S. Paul to Timothy and Titus is not easily to be proved But this is yet more rational from what was premised about the Synagogue Pattern only they did not restrict themselves to that number for the number of the Presbyters was indefinite but the Deacons were according to their first original restricted to the number seven Thus the first form was that there was one whose charge it was to over-see feed and rule the flock and where the number of the Christians was small they met all in one place for Worship and it was easie for the Bishop to overtake the charge But for the spreading of the Gospel he had about him a company of the elder and more eminent
more For I am sure had he but read over those Canons which might be done in half an hour he had argued this point at another rate and had he seen the Edition of Dionysius Exiguus he had not accused the Conformist for citing that Canon as the fortieth since it is so in his division who was their first publisher in the Latine Church tho it be the thirty ninth in the Greek division But I will deal roundly in this matter and acknowledge that collection to be none of the Apostles nor Clement's since all that passed under Clement's name was accounted spurious except his first Epistle to the Corinthians Nor was this a production of the first two ages For the silence of the Writers of those Centuries gives clear evidence for their novelty They not being cited for the decision of things then in controversie wherein they are express as in the matter of Easter the rebaptizing Hereticks and divers other particulars Yet in the Fourth and Fifth Century reference is after made to some Elders rules of the Church which are to be found no where but in this Collection The Apostolical Canons are also sometimes expresly mentioned and this gives good ground to believe there were from the Third Century and forward some rules general received in the Church and held Apostolical as being at first introduced by Apostolical men This was at first learnedly made out by De Marca Concord lib. 3. c. 2. and of late more fully by that most ingenious and accurate searcher into Antiquity Beveregius in his Preface to his Annotations on these Canons Yet I am apt to think they were only preserv'd by an oral tradition and that no collection of them was agreed on and publish'd before the fifth Century It is certain the Latine Church in Pope Innocent 's days acknowledged no Canons but those of Nice And many of the Canons in this Collection we find among Canons of other Councils particularly in that of Antioch without any reference to a preceding authority that had enjoined them which we can hardly think they had omitted had they received the collection I speak of as Apostolical And that of the triple immersion in Baptism looks like a Rule no elder than the Arrian Controversie They began first to appear under the name of the Apostles Canons in the Fifth Century which made Pope Gelasius with a Synod of seventy Bishops condemn them as Apocryphal though I must add that the authority of that pretended Council and Decree though generally received be on many accounts justly questionable And yet by this we are only to understand that he rejected that pretended authority of the Apostles prefixed to these Canons In the beginning of the Sixth Century they were published by Dionysius Exiguus who prefixed fifty of them to his translation of the Greek Canons but he confesses they were much doubted by many At the same time they were published in the Greek Church with the addition of thirty five more Canons and were acknowledged generally Iustinian cites them often in the Novels and in the sixth Novel calls them the Canons of the holy Apostles kept and interpreted by the Fathers And the same authority was ascribed to them by the Council in Trullo These things had been pertinently alledged if you had known them but for your Friends niblings at them if you will but give your self the trouble of reading these Canons you will be ashamed of his weakness who manageth his advantage so ill And to instance this but in one particular had he read these Canons himself could he have cited the eighty which is among the latter additions and passed by the sixth which is full to the same purpose But for that impudent allegation as if a bare precedency had been only ascribed to Bishops by these Canons look but on the 14. the 30. 37. 40. 54. and 73. and then pass your verdict on your Friends ingenuity or his knowledg By the 14. No Churchman may pass from one Parish to another without his Bishop's sentence otherwise he is suspended from Ecclesiastical Functions and if he refuse to return when required by his Bishop he is to be accounted a Churchman no more By the 30. A Presbyter who in contempt of his Bishop gathers a Congregation apart having nothing to condemn his Bishop of either as being unholy or unjust he is to be deposed as one that is ambitious and tyrannous and such of the Clergy or Laity as join with them are likewise to be censured By the 37. The Bishop hath the care of all Church matters which he must administrate as in the sight of God By the 39. The Bishop hath power over all the goods of the Church and the reason given is that since the precious souls of men are committed to him it is much more just he have the charge of the goods of the Church By the 54. If a Clergy-man reproach their Bishop he is to be deposed for it is written Thou shalt not curse the Ruler of thy people And by the 73. A Bishop when accused is only to be judged of by other Bishops Now from these hints judg whether there be truth in that Assertion that only a precedency is asserted in these Canons and if all the power is now pleaded for be not there held out not to mention the Canon was cited by the Conformist that Presbyters or Deacons might finish nothing without the Bishop's Sentence since the Souls of the people are trusted to him As for the sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction I am sure none among us do claim it but willingly allow the Presbyters a concurrence in both these And as to what your friend saith of Cyprian it is of a piece with the learning and ingenuity that runneth through the rest of his Discourse from page 150 to page 160. where for divers pages he belabours his Reader with brave shews of Learning and high invention so that no doubt he thinks he hath performed Wonders and fully satisfied every scruple concerning the rise and progress of Episcopacy Isot. I pray you do not fly too high and make not too much ado about any small advantages you conceive you have of my Friend but upon the whole matter I am willing to believe there was a precedency pretty early begun in the Church which I shall not deny was useful and innocent tho a deviation from the first pattern Neither shall I deny that holy men were of that Order but when it is considered what a step even that Precedency was to Lordly Prelacy and how from that the son of perdition rose up to his pretence of Supremacy we are taught how unsafe it is to change any thing in the Church from the first institution of its blessed Head who knew best what was fit for it according to whose will all things in it should be managed Poly. It hath been often repeated that nothing was ever so sacred as to escape that to which all things when they
fall in the hands of Mortals are obnoxious And may not one that quarrels a standing Ministery argue on the same grounds a Ministers authority over the people gave the rise to the authority Bishops pretend over Ministers and so the Ministery will be concluded the first step of the Beast's Throne Or may not the authority your Judicatories pretend to be at the same rate struck out since from lesser Synods sprung greater ones from Provincial rose Generals and from these Oecumenical ones with the pretence of infallibility But to come nearer you that whole frame of Metropolitans and Patriarchs was taken from the division of the Roman Empire which made up but one great National Church and so no wonder the Bishop of the Imperial City of that Empire was the Metropolitan of that Church yet he was not all that neither since he had no authority over his fellow Patriarchs being only the first in order which truly were the Bishops of that Church what they were for the first four Ages it was never judged an absurdity to grant to them still tho the ruin of the Roman Empire and its division into so many Kingdoms which are constituted in various National Churches do alter the present frame of Europe so entirely from what was then that with very good reason what was then submitted to on the account of the Unity of the Empire may be now undone by reason of the several Kingdoms which are National Churches within themselves and need not to own so much as the acknowledgment of Primacy to any but to the Metropolitan of their own Kingdom And it seems the interest of Princes as well as Churches to assert this But for the pretence of the Pope's supremacy Episcopacy was so far from being judged a step to it that the ruin of the Episcopal authority over Presbyters and the granting them exemptions from the Jurisdiction of their Ordinary was the greatest advance the Roman Bishop ever made in his tyrannical usurpation over Churches I need not here tell so known a matter as is that of the exemption of the Regulars who being subject to their own Superiors and Generals and by them to the Pope were sent through the World in swarms and with great shews of piety devotion and poverty carried away all the esteem and following from the secular Clergy who were indeed become too secular and these were the Pope's Agents and Emissaries who brought the World to receive the mark of the Beast and wonder at her For before that time the Popes found more difficulty to carry on their pretensions both from secular Princes and Bishops But these Regulars being warranted to preach and administer the Sacraments without the Bishop's license or being subject and accountable to him as they brought the Bishops under great contempt so they were the Pope's chief confidents in all their treasonable plots against the Princes of Europe And when at the Council of Trent the Bishops of Spain being weary of the insolencies of the Regulars and of the Papal yoak designed to get free from it The great mean they proposed was to get Episcopacy declared to be of divine Right which would have struck out both the one and the other But the Papal Party foresaw this well and opposed it with all the Artifice imaginable and Lainez the Jesuit did at large discourse against it and they carried it so that it was not permitted to be declared of divine Right And by this judg if it be likely that the Papacy owes its rise to Episcopacy since the declaring it to be of divine Right was judged one of the greatest blows the Papal Dominion could have received as the abusing of the Episcopal authority was the greatest step to its Exaltation Isot. Be in these things what may be I am sure from the beginning it was not so since Christ did so expresly prohibit all dominion and authority among his Disciples when he said But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister Luke 22.26 Whereby he did not only condemn a tyrannical domination but simply all Authority like that the Lords of the Gentiles exercised over them See page 88. Crit. I confess the advantages some have drawn from these words of CHRIST for deciding this question have many times appeared strange to me their purpose being so visibly different from that to which they are applied But if we examine the occasion that drew these words from CHRIST it will furnish us with a key for understanding them aright and that was the frequent contentions were among the Disciples about the precedency in the Kingdom of CHRIST for they were in the vulgar Iudaical Error who believed the Messiah was to be a temporal Prince and so understood all the pompous promises of the New Dispensation liberally and thought that CHRIST should have restored Israel in the literal meaning therefore they began to contend who should be preferred in his Kingdom and the Wife of Zebedee did early bespeak the chief preferments for her Sons Yea we find them sticking to this mistake even at CHRIST's Ascension by the question then moved concerning his restoring the Kingdom at that time to Israel Now these Contentions as they sprung from an error of their judgments so also they took their rise from their proud ambition And for a check to both our Saviour answers them by telling the difference was to be betwixt his Kingdom and the Kingdoms of the Nations these being exercised by Grandeur and temporal Authority whereas his Kingdom was Spiritual and allowed nothing of that since Churchmen have not by CHRIST a Lordly or Despotick dominion over Christians committed to them but a paternal and brotherly one by which in commanding they serve their Flock so that it is both a Ministery and an Authority Therefore the words of Christ it shall not be so among you relate nothing to the degrees or ranks of Churchmen but to the nature of their power and jurisdiction over their flock and not to their degrees among themselves which appears evidently from the whole contexture of the words And that he is not speaking of any equality among Churchmen in their Church power appears from the mention is made of the greatest and the chief He that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that doth serve which shew he was not here designed to strike out the degrees of superiority when he makes express mention of them but to intimate that the higher the degrees of Ecclesiastical Offices did raise them they were thereby obliged to the more humility and the greater labor All which is evidently confirmed by the instance he gives of himself which shews still he is not meaning of Church power since he had certainly the highest Ecclesiastical aâ—thority but only of Civil dominion nothing of which he would assume And if this place be to be applied to Church power then it will rather
prove too much that there should be no power at all among Churchmen over other Christians For since the parallel runs betwixt the Disciples and the Lords of the Gentiles it will run thus that tho the Lords of the Gentiles bear rule over their people yet you must not over yours so that this must either be restricted to Civil Authority or else it will quite strike out all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction But how this should be brought to prove that there may not be several ranks in Church Offices I cannot yet imagine And as it is not thought contrary to this that a Minister is over your Lay-Elders and Deacons why should it be more contrary to it that a rank of Bishops be over Ministers In a word since we find the Apostles exercising this paternal authority over other Churchmen it will clearly follow they understood not Christ as hereby meaning to discharge the several ranks of Churchmen with different degrees of power But to tell you plainly what by these words of CHRIST is clearly forbidden I acknowledg that chiefly the Pope's pretence to the Temporal Dominion over Christendom whether directly or indirectly as the Vicar of CHRIST is expresly condemned Next all Churchmen under what notion or in what Judicatory soever are condemned who study upon a pretence of the Churches intrinsick power to possess themselves of the authority to determine about obedience due to Kings or Parliaments and who bring a tyranny on the Christians and prâ—cure what by Arts what by Power the secular Arm to serve at their beck Whether this was the practice of the late General Assemblies or not I leave it to all who are so old as to remember how squares went then and if the leading Men at that time had not really the secular power ready to lacquay at their commands so that they ruled in the spirit of the Lords of the Gentiles whatever they might have pretended And the following change of Government did fully prove that the obedience which was universally given to their commands was only an appendage of the Civil Power which was then directed by them For no sooner was the power invaded by the Usurper who regarded their Judicatories little but the Obedience payed to their Decrees evanished Thus I say these who build all their pretences to parity on their mistakes of these words did most signally despise and neglect them in their true and real meaning Now think not to retort this on any additions of Secular Power which the munificence of Princes may have annexed to the Episcopal Office for that is not at all condemned here CHRIST speaking only of the power Churchmen as such derived from him their Head which only bars all pretensions to Civil Power on the title of their Functions but doth not say that their Functions render them incapable of receiving any Secular Power by a secular conveyance from the Civil Magistrate And so far have I considered this great and pompous argument against precedency in the Church and am mistaken if I have not satisfied you of the slender foundations it is built upon all which is also applicable to St. Peter's words of not Lording it over their flocks Isot. You are much mistaken if you think that to be the great foundation of our belief of a parity among Churchmen for I will give you another page 91. which is this that IESUS CHRIST the head of his Church did institute a setled Ministery in his Church to feed and over-see the Flock to preach to reprove to bind loose c. It is true he gave the Apostles many singular things beyond their Successors which were necessary for that time and work and were to expire with it But as to their Ministerial Power which was to continue he made all equal The Apostles also acknowledged the Pastors of the Churches their fellow-laborors and Brethren And the feeding and overseeing the Flock are duties so complicated together that it is evident none can be fitted for the one without they have also authority for the other And therefore all who have a power to preach must also have a right to govern since Discipline is referable to preaching as a mean to its end preaching being the great end of the Ministery These therefore who are sent upon that work must not be limited in the other neither do we ever find CHRIST instituting a Superiour Order over preaching Presbyters which shews he judged it not necessary And no more did the Apostles though they with-held none of the Counsel of GOD from the flock Therefore this Superior Order usurping the power from the preaching Elders since it hath neither warrant nor institution in Scripture is to be rejected as an invasion of the rights of the Church In fine the great advantage our Plea for parity hath is that it proves its self till you prove a disparity For since you acknowledg it to be of divine Right that there be Officeâ—s in the House of GOD except you prove the institution of several Orders an equality among them must be concluded And upon these accounts it is that we cannot acknowledg the lawfulness of Prelacy Phil. I am sure if your Friends had now heard you they would for ever absolve you from designing to betray their cause by a faint Patrociny since you have in a few words laid out all their Forces but if you call to mind what hath heen already said you will find most of what you have now pleaded to be answered beforehand For I acknowledge Bishop and Presbyter to be one and the same Office and so I plead for no new Office-Bearers in the Church Next in our second Conference the power given to Churchmen was proved to be double The first branch of it is their Authority to publish the Gospel to manage the Worship and to dispense the Sacraments And this is all that is of divine right in the Ministery in which Bishops and Presbyters are equal sharers both being vested with this power But beside this the Church claims a power of Jurisdiction of making rules for discipline and of applying and executing the same all which is indeed suitable to the common Laws of Societies and to the general rules of Scripture but hath no positive warrant from any Scripture precept And all these Constitutions of Churches into Synods and the Canons of discipline taking their rise from the divisions of the World into the several Provinces and beginning in the end of the second and beginning of the third Century do clearly shew they can be derived from no divine Original and so were as to their particular form but of humane Constitution therefore as to the management of this Jurisdiction it is in the Churches power to cast it in what mould she will and if so then the constant practice of the Church for so many ages should determine us unless we will pretend to understand the exigencies and conveniences of it better than they who were nearest the Apostolical time But we
opinions or actings of all your party which when you undertake then I allow you to charge me with what you will But it is a different thing to say that no Ordination nor greater act of Jurisdiction should pass without the Bishop's consent or concurrence which is all I shall pretend to and is certainly most necessary for preserving of Order and Peace from asserting that the sole power for these sâ—ands in the Bishops person And though I do hold it schismatical to ordain without a Bishop where he may be had yet I am not to annul these Ordinations that pass from Presbyters where no Bishop can be had and this lays no claim to a new Office but only to a higher degree of inspection in the same Office whereby the exercise of some acts of Iurisdiction are restrained to such a method and this may be done either by the Churches free consent or by the King's authority As for the consecration of Bishops by a new imposition of hands it doth not prove them a distinct Office being only a solemn benediction and separation of them for the discharge of that inspection committed to them and so we find Paul and Barnabas though before that they preached the Gospel yet when they were sent on a particular Commission to preach to the gentiles were blessed with imposition of hands Acts 13.3 which was the usual Ceremony of benediction Therefore you have no reason to quarrel this unless you apprehend their managing this oversight the worse that they are blessed in order to it nor can you quarrel the Office in the Liturgy if you do not think they will manage their power the worse if they receive a new effusion of the holy Ghost And thus you see how little ground there is for quarrelling Episcopacy upon such pretences Eud. I am truly glad you have said so much for confirming me in my kindness for that Government for if you evinces its lawfulness I am sure the expediency of that Constitution will not be difficult to be proved both for the tryal of Entrants and the oversight of these in Office for when any thing lyes in the hands of a multitude we have ground enough to apprehend what the issue of it will prove And what sorry overly things these tâ—yals of Entrants are all know â—ow little pains is taken to form their minds into a right sense of that function to which they are to be initiated at one step without either previous degree or mature tryal And here I must say the ruine of the Church springs hence that the passage to sacred Offices lyes so patent whereby every one leaps into them out of a secular life having all the train of his vanities passions and carnal designs about him and most part entering thus unpurified and unprepared what is to be expected from them but that they become idle vain and licentious or proud ambitious popular and covetous I confess things among us are not come to any such settlement as might give a provision against this But devise me one like a Bishop's Authority who shall not confer Orders to any before either himself or some other select and excellent persons on whom he may with confidence devolve that trust be well satisfied not only about the learning and abilities but about the temper the piety the humility the gravity and discretion of such as pretend to holy Orders And that some longer tryal be taken of them by the probationership of some previous degree Indeed the poverty of the Church which is not able to maintain Seminaries and Colledges of such Probationers renders this design almost impracticable But stretch your thoughts as far as your invention can send them and see if you can provide such an expedient for the reforming of so visible an abuse as were the Bishop's plenary authority to decide in this matter For if it lie in the hands of a Plurality the major part of these as of all mankind being acted by lower measures the considerations of Kinred alliance friendship or powerful recommendations will always carry through persons be they what they will as to their abilities and other qualifications And a multitude of Churchmen is less concerned in the shame can follow an unworthy promotion which every individual of such a company will be ready to bear off himself and fasten on the Plurality But if there were one to whom this were peculiarly committed who had authority to stop it till he were clearly convinced that the person to be ordained was one from whose labors good might be expected to the Church he could act more roundly in the matter and it may be presupposed that his condition setting him above these low consideâ—ations to which the inferiour Clergy are more obnoxious he would manage it with more caution as knowing that both before GOD and Man he must bear the blame of any unworthy promotion And as for these in Office can any thing be more rational than that the inspection into their labors their deportment their conversation and their dexterity in Preaching and Catechising be not done mutually by themselves in a parity wherein it is to be imagined that as they degenerate they will be very gentle to one another And when any inspection is managed by an equal it opens a door to faction envy and emulation neither are the private rebukes of an equal so well received nor will it be easie for one of a modest temper to admonish his fellow-Presbyter freely And yet how many things are there of which Churchmen have need to be admonished in the discharge of all the parts of their function especially when they set out first being often equally void of experience and discretion But what a remedy for all this may be expected from an excellent Bishop who shall either if his health and strength allow it be making excursions through his Diocese and himself observe the temper the labors and conversation of his Clergy or at least trust this to such as he hath reason to confide most in that so he may understand what admonitions directions and reproofs are to be given which might obviate a great many indiscretions and scandals that flow from Churchmen And the authority of such a person as it would more recommend the reproofs to these for whom they were meant so it could prevail to make them effectual by a following Censure if neglected If the confusion some keep matters in have hindered us for coming at a desired settlement the Office of Episcopacy is not to be blamed whose native tendency I have laid out before you and in a fair idea but in what was both the rule and practice of the ancient Church and wants not latter instances foâ— verifying it In a word I must tell you I am so far from apprehending danger to the Church from Bishops having too much power that I shall fear rather its slow recovery because they have too little which might be managed with all the meekness and humility
imaginable and indeed ought to be always accompanied with the advice and concurrence of the worthiest persons among the inferior Clergy But till you secure my fears of the greater part in all Societies becoming corrupt I shall not say by the major part of them but by the better part Isot. I see you run a high strain and far different from what was the discourse of this Countrey a year ago of an accommodation was inâ—ended wherein large offers seemed to be made but I now see by your ingenuous freedom that though for a while you who were called a great friend to that design were willing to yield up some parts of the Episcopal Grandeur yet you retain the â—oot of that Lordly ambition still in your heart and so though for some particular ends either to deceive or divide the LORDS people you were willing to make an appearance of yielding yet it was with a resolution of returning with the first opportunity to the old practices and designs of the Prelats of enhansing the Ecclesiastical Power to themselves and a few of their associats And this lets me see what reason all honest people have to bless GOD that these arts and devices took not for an Ethiopian cannot change his skin Phil. I confess to you freely I was a little satisfied with these condescentions as any of you and though they gave up the Rights of the Church to a peevish and preverse party whom gentleness will never gain and therefore am no less satisfied than you are that they did not take and so much the more that their refusing to accept of so large offers gave a new and clear character to the World of their temper and that it is a faction and the servile courting of a party which they design and not a strict adherence to the rules of conscience otherwise they had been more tractable Eud. Let me crave pardon to curb your humor a little which seems too near a kin to Isotimus his temper though under a different character For my part I had then the same sense of Episcopacy which I have just now owned But whâ—n I considered the ruines of Religion which our divisions occasioned among us and when I read the large offers S. Augustin made on the like occasion to the Donatists I judged all possible attempts even with the largest condescentions for an accommodation a worthy and pious design well becoming the gravity and moderation of a Bishop to offer and the nobleness of these in authority to second with their warmest endeavors for if it was blessed with success the effect was great even the setling of a broken and divided corner of the Church if it took not as it fully exonered the Church of the evils of the Schism so it rendered the enemies of Peace and Unity the more unexcusable Only I must say this upon my knowledg that whatever designs men of various sentiments fastened upon that attempt it was managed with as much ingenuity and sincerity as mortals could carry along with them in any purpose I know it is expected and desired that a full account of all the steps of that affair be made publick which a friend of ours drew up all along with the progress of it But at present my concern in one whom a late Pamphlet as full of falshoods in matters of fact as of weakness in point of reason hath mirepresented the case of Accommodation Page 31 shall prevail with me to give an account of a particular pasâ—ed in a Conference which a Bishop and two Presbyters had with about thirty of the Nonconformists at Pasley on the 14th of December in the year 1670. When the Bishop had in a long Discourse recommended Unity and Peace to them on the terms were offered he withal said much to the advantage of Episcopacy as he stated it from the rules and practices of the ancient Church offering to turn their Proâ—elyte immediately if they should give him either clear Scripture good reason or warrant from the most Primitive Antiquity against such Episcopacy And with other things he desired to know whether they would have joined in Communion with the Church at the time of the Council of Nice to carry them no higher or not for if they refused that he added he would have less heartiness to desire communion with them since of these he might say Let my soul be with theirs But to that a general answer was made by one who said He hoped they were not looked upon as either so weak or so wilful as to determine in so great a matter but upon good grounds which were the same that the asserters of Presbyterian Government had built on which they judged to be conform both to Scripture and Primitive Antiquity But for Scripture neither he nor any of the meeting offered to bring a Title only he alledged some differences betwixt the anciâ—nt Presidents as he called them and our Bishops But this was more fully enlarged by one who is believed to be among the most learned of the Party whose words with the answer given them I shall read to you as I take both from a Journal was drawn of that affair by one whose exactness and fidelity in it can be attested by some worthy spectators who read what he wrote after the Meeting was ended and Judged it not only faithful but often verbal And that he was so careful to evite the appearances of partiality that he seemed rather studious to be more copious in proposing what was said by these who differed from his opinion whereas he contracted much of what was said by these he favored The account follows Mr. said That he offered to make appear the difference was betwixt the present Episcopacy and what was in the ancient Church in â—ive particulars The first was that they had nâ— Archbishops in the Primitive Church It is true they had Metropolitans but in a Council oâ— Caâ—thage it was decreed that no Bishop should be â—allâ—d â—ummus Sacerdos or Princeps Sacerdoâ—um sed primae sedis Episcopus 2. The Bishops in the ancient Church were Parochial and not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in every Village 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for even in Bethany we find there was a Bishop 3. Two Bishops might be in one Church such was not to mention Alexander and Narcissus at Jerusalem Augustin who with Valerius was ordained Bishop of Hippo. 4. Bishops were elected by their Presbyters so Jerome tells us that in Alexandria the Presbyters choosed one of their number to be Bishop and finally the Bishops were countable to and censurable by their Presbyters for either this must have been otherwise they could not have been censured at all For though we meet with some Provincial Synods in Church History as that of Carthage in Cyprians time for the rebaptizing of hereticks and that at Antioch against Samoâ—atenus yet these instances were rare and recurred seldom therefore there must have been a power in Presbyters to have censured their