calling been always so eminent above the rest in the same Church And what need we to seek far for proofs that the Apostles who began this order of Regiment by Bishops did it not but by divine instinct when without such direction things of far less weight and moment they attemdted not Paul and Barnabas did not open their mouths to the Gentiles till the Spirit had said Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them The Eunuch by Philip was neither baptized nor instructed before the Angel of God was sent to give him notice that so it pleased the most High In Asia Paul and the rest were silent because the Spirit forbad them to speak When they intended to have seen Bythinia they stayed their journey the spirit not giving them leave to go Before Timothy was imployed in those Episcopal affairs of the Church about which the Apostle St. Paul used him the Holy Ghost gave special charge for his Ordination and prophetical intelligence more then once what success the same would have And shall we think that Iames was made Bishop of Ierusalem Evodius Bishop of the Church of Antioch the Angels in the Churches of Asia Bishops that Bishops every where were appointed to take away factions contentions and Schisms without some like divine instigation and direction of the Holy Ghost Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory That if any thing in the Churches Government surely the first institution of Bishops was from Heaven was even of God the Holy Ghost was the Author of it VI. A Bishops saith St. Augustine is a Presbyter's Superior but the question is now wherein that superiority did consist The Bishops pre-eminence we say therefore was twofold First he excelled in latitude of the power of Order secondly in that kind of power which belongeth unto Iurisdiction Priests in the law had authority and power to do greater things then Levites the high Priest greater then inferiour Priests might do therefore Levites were beneath Priests and Priests inferior to the High Priest by reason of the very degree of dignity and of worthiness in the nature of those functions which they did execute and not only for that the one had power to command and controul the other In like sort Presbyters having a weightier and a worthier charge then Deacons had the Deacon was in this sort the Presbyters inferior and where we say that a Bishop was likewise ever accompted a Presbyters superior even according unto his very power of Order we must of necessity declare what principal duties belonging unto that kind of power a Bishop might perform and not a Presbyter The custom of the primitive Church in consecrating holy Virgins and Widows unto the service of God and his Church is a thing not obscure but easie to be known both by that which St. Paul himself concerning them hath and by the latter consonant evidence of other mens writings Now a part of the pre-eminence which Bishops had in their power of Order was that by them onely such were consecrated Again the power of ordaining both Deacons and Presbyters the power to give the power of order unto others this also hath been always peculiar unto Bishops It hath not been heard of that inferiour presbyters were ever authorized to ordein And concerning Ordination so great force and dignity it hath that whereas Presbyters by such power as they have received for Administration of the Sacraments are able only to beget Children unto God Bishops having power to Ordain do by vertue thereof create Fathers to the people of God as Epiphanius fitly disputeth There are which hold that between a Bishop and a Presbyter touching power of Order there is no difference The reason of which conceipt is for that they see Presbyters no less then Bishops authorized to offer up the prayers of the Church to Preach the Gospel to Baptize to Administer the holy Eucharist but they considered not with all as they should that the Presbyters authority to do these things is derived from the Bishops which doth ordain him thereunto so that even in those things which are common unto both yet the power of the one is as it were a certain light borrowed from the others lamp The Apostles being Bishops at large â—deined every where Presbyters Titus and Timothy having received Episcopal power as Apostolique Embassadors or Legates the one in Greece the other in Ephesus they both did by vertue thereof likewise ordein throughout all Churches Deacons and Presbyters within the circuits allotted unto them As for Bishops by restraint their power this way incommunicable unto Presbyters which of the ancients do not acknowledge I make not Confirmation any part of that power which hath always belonged only unto Bishops because in some places the custom was that Presbyters might also confirm in the absence of a Bishop albeit for the most part none but onely Bishops were thereof the allowed Ministers Here it will be perhaps Objected that the power of Ordination it self was not every where peculiar and proper unto Bishops as may be seen by 2 Council of Carthage which sheweth their Churches Order to have been That Presbyters should together with the Bishop lay hands upon the ordained But the answer hereunto is easie For doth it hereupon follow that the power of Ordination was not principally and originally in the Bishop Our Saviour hath said unto his Apostles With me ye shall sit and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel yet we know that to him alone it belongeth to judge the World and that to him all judgement is given With us even at this day Presbyters are licensed to do as much as that Council speaketh of if any be present Yet will not any man thereby conclude that in this Church others than Bishops are allowed to ordain The association of Presbyters is no sufficient proof that the power of Ordination is in them but rather that it never was in them we may hereby understand for that no man is able to shew either Deacon or Presbyter ordained by Presbyters only and his Ordination accounted lawful in any ancient part of the Church every where examples being found both of Deacons and of Presbyters ordained by Bishops alone oftentimes neither ever in that respect thought unsufficient Touching that other chiefty which is of Jurisdiction amongst the Jews he which was highest through the worthiness of peculiar duties incident into his function in the legal service of God did bear alwaies in Ecclesiastical jurisdiction the chiefest sway As long as the glory of the Temple of God did last there were in it sundry orders of men consecrated unto the service thereof one sort of them inferior unto another in dignity and degree the Nathiners subordinate unto the Levites the Levites unto the Priests the rest of the Priests to those twenty four which were chief Priests and they all to the High Priest If any
man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of power and not in this latter of jurisdiction are not the words of the Law manifest which make Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest chief Captain of the Levites and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed Again at the commandment of Aaron and his Sons are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge belonging unto the Gersonites being inferiour Priests as Aaron and his Sons were High Priests Did not Iehoshaphat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Ierusalem Priests saith Josephus worship God continually and the eldest of the stock are governours over the rest He doth sacrifice unto God before others he hath care of the Laws judgeth controversies correcteth offenders and whosoever obeyeth him not is convict of impiety against God But unto this they answer That the reason thereof was because the High-Priest did prefigure Christ and represent to the people that chiefty of our Saviour which was to come so that Christ being now come there is no cause why such preheminence should be given unto any one Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellions spirits that they all seek to shroud themselves under it Tell the Anabaptist which holdeth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man that God himself did allow his people to make wars they have their answer round and ready Those ancient Wars were figures of the spiritual Wars of Christ. Tell the Barrowist what sway David and others the Kings of Israel did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs the same answer again serveth namely That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ. Tell the Martinist of the High-Priests great authority and jurisdiction amongst the Jews what other thing doth serve this Turn but the self-same shift By the power of the High-Priest the universal supreme Authority of our Lord Iesus Christ was shadowed The thing is true that indeed High-Priests were figures of Christ yet this was in things belonging unto their power of Order they figured Christ by entring into the holy place by offering for the sins of all the people once a year and by other the like duties But that to govern and to maintain order amongst those that were subject to them is an office figurative and abrogated by Christs coming in the Ministry that their exercise of jurisdiction was figurative yea figurative in such sort that it had no other cause of being instituted but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them this Article is such as must be confirmed if any way by miracle otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men why the High-Priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge then in being whatsoever he might be besides St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as was given to the High-Priest among the Jews and to urge the law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it St. Ierom likewise thought it an argument sufficient to ground the Authority of Bishops upon To the end saith he we may understand Apostolical traditions to have been taken from the Old Testament that which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves In the Office of a Bishop Ignatius observeth these two functions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the one such is the prehemince of a Bishop that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God committed originally unto him so that otherwise than by his Ordination and by authority received from him others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of Gods Church And touching the other part of their sacred Function wherein the power of their jurisdiction doth appear first how the Apostles themselves and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rule and jurisdiction over Presbyters no man is ignorant And had not Christian Bishops afterward the like power Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being ready by blessed martyrdom to end his life writeth unto his Presbyters the Pastors under him in this sort O◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the death of Fabian Bishop of Rome there growing some trouble about the receiving of such persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution and did now repent their fall the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof signifying That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things Much we read of extraodinary fasting usually in the Church And in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the chiefty of Bishops The custome is saith Tertullian that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast Yea it is not a matter left to our own free choice whether Bishops shall rule or no but the will of our Lord and Saviour is saith Cyprian that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops An Argument it is of the Bishops high preheminence rule and government over all the rest of the Clergy even that the Sword of persecution did strike especially always at the Bishop as at the Head the rest by reason of their lower estate being more secure as the self-same Cyprian noteth the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe when himself then Bishop was driven into exile argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them By these letters saith he I both exhort and COMMAND that ye whose presence there is not envied at nor so much beset with dangers supply my room in doing those things which the exercise of Religion doth require Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in Gods Clergy if they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law the Bishop they compare unto Aaron the High Priest if they compare the one with the Apostles the other they compare although in a lower proportion sometime to Christ and sometime to God himself evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling authority and power above other Presbyters Ignatius comparing Bishops with Deacons and with such Ministers of the word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters and had no Authority over Presbyters What is saith he the Bishop but one which hath all principality and power over all so far forth as man may have it being to his power a follower even of Gods own Christ Mr. Calvin himself
the Antients termed usually an Arch-Presbyter weat this day name him Dean For most certain truth it is that Churches-Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and the course of the world hath brought For defence and maintenance of them we are most earnestly bound to strive even as the Jews were for their Temple and the High-Priest of God therein The overthrow and ruine of the one if ever the sacrilegious avarice of Atheists should prevail so farr which God of his infinite mercy forbid ought no otherwise to move us than the people of God were moved when having beheld the sack and combustion of his Sanctuary in most lamentable manner flaming before their eyes they uttered from the bottom of their grieved Spirits those voyces of doleful supplication Exsurge Domine miserearis Sion serve tui diligunt lapides ejus pulver is ejus miseret cos VIII How farr the power which Bishops had did reach what number of Persons was subject unto them at the first and how large their Territories were it is not for the question we have in hand a thing very greatly material to know For if we prove that Bishops have lawfully of old ruled over other Ministers it is enough how few soever those Ministers have been how small soever the circuit of Place which hath contained them Yet hereof somewhat to the end we may so farr forth illustrate Church-Antiquities A Law Imperial there is which sheweth that there was great care had to provide for every Christian City Biâ—hop as near as might be and that each City had some Territory belonging unto it which Territory was also under the Bishop of the same City that because it was not universally thus but in some Countrys one Bishop had subject unto him many Cities and their Territories the Law which provided for establishment of the other Orders should not prejudice those Churches wherein this contrary Custom had before prevailed Unto the Bishop of every such City not only the Presbyters of the same City but also of the Territory thereunto belonging were from the first beginning subject For we must note that when as yet there were in Cities no Parish Churches but only Colledges of Presbyters under their Bisâ—ops Regiment yet smaller Congregations and Churches there were even then abroad in which Churches there was but some one only Presbyter to perform amongst them Divine duties Towns and Villages abroad receiving the Faith of Christ from Cities whereunto they were adjacent did as Spiritual and Heavenly Colonies by their subjection honour those antient Mother Churches out of which they grew And in the Christian Cities themselves when the mighty increase of Believers made it necessary to have them divided into certain several companies and over every of those companies one only Pastor to be appointed for the Ministry of holy things between the first and the rest after it there could not be but a natural inequality even as between the Temple and Synagogues in Ierusalem The Clergy of Cities were termed Urbici to shew a difference between them and the Clergies of Townes of Villages of Castles abroad And how many soever these Parishes or Congregations were in number which did depend on any one principal City-Church unto the Bishop of that one Church they and their several sole Presbyters were all subject For if so be as some imagine every petty Congregation or Hamlet had had his own particular Bishop what sense could there be in those words of Ierom concerning Castles Villages and other places abroad which having onely Presbyters to teach them and to minister unto them the Sacraments were resorted unto by Bishops for the Administration of that wherewith their Presbyters were not licensed to meddle To note a difference of that one Church where the Bishop hath his seat and the rest which depend upon it that one hath usually been termed Cathedral according to the same sense wherein Ignatius speaking of the Church of Antioch termeth it his Throne and Cyprian making mention of Euaristâ—s who had been Bishop and was now depoâ—ed termeth him Cathedrae extâ—rrem one that was thrust besides his Chair The Church where the Bishop is set with his Colledge of Presbyters about him we call a See the Local compass of his Authority we term a Diocess Unto a Bishop within the compass of his own both See and Diocess it hath by right of his place evermore appertained to ordain Presbyters to make Deacons and with judgement to dispose of all things of weight The Apostle St. Paul had Episcopal Authority but so at large that we cannot assign unto him any one certain Diocess His positive Orders and Constitutions Churches every where did obey Yea a charge and care saith he I have even of all the Churches The walks of Titus and Timothy was limited within the bounds of a narrow Precinct As for other Bishops that which Chrysostom hath concerning them If they be evil could not poâ—â—ibly agreâ— unto them unless their Authority had reached farther than to some one only Congregation The danger being so great at it is to him that scandalizeth one Soul What shall he saith Chrisostom speaking of a Bishop what shall he deserve by whom so many Souls yea even whole Cities and Peoples Men Women and Children Citizens Peasants Inhabitants both of his own City and of other Towns subject unto it are offended A thing so unusual it was for a Bishop not to have ample Jurisdiction that Theophilus Patriark of Alexandria for making one a Bishop of a small Town is noted a proud Despiser of the commendable Orders of the Church with this censure Such Novelties Theophilus presumed every where to begin taking upon him as it had been another Moses Whereby is discovered also their Errour who think that such as in Ecclesiâ—stical Writings they finde termed Chorepiscopos were the same in the Country which the Bishop was in the City Whereas the old Chorepiscopi are they that were appointed of the Bishops to have as his Vicegerents some over-sight of those Churches abroad which were subject unto his See in which Churches they had also power to make Sub-deacons Readers and such like petty Church-Officers With which power so stâ—nted they not contenting themselves but adventuring at the length to Orâ—â—in even Deacons and Presbyters also as the Bishop himself did their presumption herein was controlled and stayed by the antient Edict of Councils For example that of Antioch It hath seemed good to the holy Synod that such in Towns and Countrys as are called Chorepiscopi do know their limits and govern the Churches under them contenting themselves with the charge thereof and with Authority to make Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and to be Leaders or Guiders of them but not to meddle with the Ordination either of
Ecclesiastical have been authorized to ordain both and to give them the power of Order in the name of the whole Church Such were the Apostles such was Timothy such was Titus such are Bishops Not that there is between these no difference but that they all agree in preheminence of Place above both Presbyters and Deacons whom they otherwise might not ordain Now whereas hereupon some do inferr that no Ordination can stand but only such as is made by Bishops which have had their Ordination likewise by other Bishops before them till we come to the very Apostles of Christ themselves In which respect it was demanded of Beza at Poissie By what Authority he could administer the holy Sacraments being not thereunto ordained by any other than Calvin or by such as to whom the power of Ordination did not belong according to the antient Orders and Customs of the Church sith Calvin and they who joyned with him in that action were no Bishops And Athanasius maintaineth the fact of Macarius a Presbyter which overthrew the holy Table whereat one Ischyras would have ministred the blessed Sacrament having not been consecrated thereunto by laying on of some Bishops hands according to the Ecclesiastical Canons as also Epiphanius inveigheth sharply against divers for doing the like when they had not Episcopal Ordination To this we answer That there may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow Ordination made without a Bishop The whole Church visible being the true original subject of all power it hath not ordinarily allowed any other than Bishops alone to ordain Howbeit as the ordinary course is ordinarily in all things to be observed so it may be in some cases not unnecessary that we decline from the ordinary wayes Men may be extraordinarily yet allowably two wayes admitted unto Spiritual Functions in the Church One is when God himself doth of himself raise up any whose labour be useth without requiring that men should Authorize them But then he doth ratifie their Calling by manifest signes and tokens himself from Heaven And thus even such as believed not our Saviours teaching did yet acknowledge him a lawful Teacher sent from God Thou art a Teacher sent from God otherwise none could do those things which thou dost Luther did but reasonably therefore in declaring that the Senate of Mulheuse should do well to ask of Muncer From whence he received power to teach who it was that had called him And if his answer were that God had given him his Charge then to require at his hands some evident sign thereof for men's satisfaction because so God is wont when he himself is the Author of any extraordinary Calling Another extraordinary kinde of Vocation is when the exigence of necessity doth constrain to leave the usual wayes of the Church which otherwise we would willingly keep Where the Church must needs have some ordained and neither hath nor can have possibly a Bishop to ordain in case of such necessity the ordinary Institution of God hath given oftentimes and may give place And therefore we are not simply without exception to urge a lineal descent of power from the Apostles by continued succession of Bishops in every effectual Ordination These cases of inevitable necessity excepted none may ordain but only Bishops By the imposition of their hands it is that the Church giveth power of Order both unto Presbyters and Deacons Now when that power so received is once to have any certain Subject whereon it may work and whereunto it is to be tyed here cometh in the Peoples consent and not before The power of Order I may lawfully receive without asking leave of any multitude but that power I cannot exercise upon any one certain People utterly against their wills Neither is there in the Church of England any man by order of Law possessed with Pastoral charge over any Parish but the People in effect do chuse him thereunto For albeit they chuse not by giving every man personally his particular voyce yet can they not say that they have their Pastors violently obtruded upon them in as much as their antient and original interest therein hath been by orderly means derived into the Patron who chuseth for them And if any man be desirous to know how Petrons came to have such interest we are to consider that at the first erection of Churches it seemed but reasonable in the eyes of the whole Christian World to pass that right to them and their Successors on whose soyl and at whose charge the same were founded This all men gladly and willingly did both in honor of so great Piety and for encouragement of many others unto the like who peradventure else would have been as slow to erect Churches or to endow them as we are forward both to spoyl them and to pull them down It s no true assertion therefore in such sort as the pretended Reformers mean it That all Ministers of God's Word ought to be made by consent of many that is to say by the Peoples saffrages that antient Bishops neither did nor might or dain otherwise and that ours do herein usurp a farr greater power than was or then lawfully could have been granted unto Bishops which were of old Furthermore as touching Spiritual Jurisdiction our Bishops they say do that which of all things is most intollerable and which the Antient never did Our Bishops excommunicate and release alone whereas the Censures of the Church neither ought nor were want to be administred otherwise then by consent of many Their meaning here when they speak of Many is not as before it was When they hold that Ministers should be made with consent of many they understand by Many the Multitude or Common People but in requiring that many should evermore joyn with the Bishop in the administration of Church-censures they mean by Many a few Lay-Elders chosen out of the rest of the People to that purpose This they say is ratified by antient Councils by antient Bishops this was practised And the reason hereof as Beza supposeth was Because if the power of Ecclesiastical Censures did belong unto any one there would this great inconvenience follow Ecclesiastical Regiment should be changed into mere Tyranny or else into a Civil Royalty Therefore no one either Bishop or Presbyter should or can alone exercise that Power but with his Ecclesiastical Consistâ—ry he ought to do it as may appear by the old Discipline And is it possible that one so grave and judicious should think it in earnest Tyranny for a Bishop to excommunicate whom Law and Order hath authorized so to do or be perswaded that Ecclesiastâ—cal Regiment degenerateth into Civil Regality when one is allowed to do that which hath been at any time the deed of moe Surely farr meaner-witted men than the World accounteth Mr. Reza do easily perceive that Tyranny is Power violently exercised against Order against Law and that the difference of these two Regiments Ecclesiastical and Civil
rule his Prebyters not as Lords do their Slaveâ— but as Fathers do their children In vira Chrys. per Caâ—â—od Sen. Pallad in vita Chrysostom After what sort Bishopâ— together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zon in Can. Apost Cum Episcopa Presbyteri Saceâ—lat li hoâ—â—re conjeusti Ep. 28 â— g â— Compresbyteri pâ—striqâ—i nolas aâ—tide bant â—p 27. Cyp. Ep. 93 Cyp. Eâ— â—â— * â—â—â— Such as or was that â—eter whaâ—â— all Cussiator writeth the life of Chrysostom doth call the Accepresbyter of the Church of Alexandriae under Troj â—â—â—â— that time â—â—â— Psal. 14 How sirr the lower of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of Territory or luâ—â— compass I. 3â— p. de Epise ad Cler. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resides Cypr. Ep. 51. Cum jampridem per omnes provinâ—as per urbes singulas ordinari sunt Episcopi Uâ—â— Ecclesiastici ordinis non est câ—nâ—â—â—s osserâ— â—ngit â—Sierailosâ— qui est in solus Tert. exhorâ— ad castir Cypr. Ep. 2â— Heron advers Lucifer Cypr. Ep. 4â— * Cou. Antioch cap. 5. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cone Constant. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 5. cap. 8. a 1 Cor. 15. As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia the same do ye also b 2 Cor. 11. 8 Chrys. in â— ad Tiâ— â—Palialâ— inâ—â—ia Chrâ—â—â—â—â— â—Cane L Antioch caâ— 10. â— a Cic. Fam. Ep. 5. Si quid na 〈…〉 um aliquo Helleâ—â—â—â—â—io controversiae ut in illâ—m 〈◊〉 rejicias The suit which Tully maketh wâ—s this that the Party in whose behalf he wrote to the Propraetor might have his Causes put over to that Court which was held in the Diocess of Hellespont where the man did abide and not to his trouble be forced to foâ—low them at Ephesus which was the chiefest Court in thâ—t Province b Cic. ad Attic lib. 5. Ep. 12. Item 1. observ D. de officio Proconsulis Legati c Lib. 1. Tit. 27. l. 1. sect 1. 2. Sancimus ut sicut Oriens atquâ— Illyricum ita Africa praetoriana maxima potestate specialiter à nostra elementia decoretur Cujus sedem jubemus esse Carthaginem ab ea auxiliante Deo septem proâ—inciae cum suis judicious disponantur d Psal. 30. 8 9. Concil Antiochen c. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vilierius de flaâ—u primitivae Ecclâ—… Socr. l. 3. c. â— Câ—n. 28. Can. 3â— Novel 123. 22. Concil Nic. c. 6. Ejusd Con. cap. â— T. C. l. t. â—â— What no mention of him in Theophibus Bishop of Antioch none in Clemens Alexandrinus none in Ignatius noâ—â—â—â— in Iustin Martyr in Irenaeus In Tertâ—l in Oâ—igen in Cyprian in thoâ—e old Historiographers ouâ— of which Eusebius gathered his Story was it for his baseness and smalness that he could not be seen amongst the Bishops Elders and Deacons being the chief and principal of them all Can the Cedar of Lebanon be hidden amongst the Box-trees T. C. l. â— ubi supra A Metropolitan Bishop was nothing elâ—e but a Bishop of that place which is pleased the Emperor or Magistrate to make the chief of the Diocess or Shire and as for this name it makes no more difference between a Bishop and a Bishop than when I say a Minister of London and a Minister of Newington Con. Nicen. c. 6. Illui autem amnino manifestum quod siqus absque Mâ—tro politani sententia sactus flâ—â— p sâ— hune magna â—vno de lefin vit Episâ— ess noâ—n portere Can. 4. a Nâ—vel 123. can 10. b Now. 128. c. 9 c Now l. 79. 2. d Novel 123. can 22. e Novel 1. 3. a. 23. f Can. 9. Can. 16. Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 23. Can. 34. Callind in vita Chrysost. Hieron Ep. 91. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius Aug. de haen ad quod vult deu Aeriani ab Aerio quodam sunt nominari qui qinum eâ—â—er Presbyter docuisse senâ—ur quad Episcopus non potest ordioare Dicibo Episcopum a Presbytero nulla ratione debere diseerni Aug. de haer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a As in that he saith the Apostle doth name sometimes Presbyters and not Bishops â— Tim. 4. 14. sometime Bishops and not Presbyters Phil â— â— because all Churches had not both for want of able and sufficient men In such Churches therefore as had but the one the Apostle could not mention the other Which Answer is nothing to the lâ—tâ—er place above mentioned For that the Church of Philippi should have more Bishops than one and want a few able men to be Presbyters under the Regiment of one Bishop how shall we think it probable or likely b 1 Tim. 4. 14. with the Impesition of the Presbyteries hand Of which Presbytery S Paul was chief 1 Tim. 1.6 And I think no man will deny that S. Paul need more than a simple Presbyters Authority Phil. 1. 1. To all the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons For as yet in the Church of Philippi there was no one which had Authority besides Apostles but their Presbyters or Bishops were all both in Title and in Power equal In what respect Episcopal is gain-fall by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day Their Auguments in disgrace of Regiment byâ—â—heps as being a meer invention of Man and nor sound in Scripture Answered Titus 1. 5. Timothy 3. 5. Philippians â— 1. 1 Peter 5. 1. 2. T. C. l. â— p. 13. So that it appeareth that the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functurions thereof ought to be from Heaven From Heaven I say and Heavenly because although it the exceâ—red by Earthly men and Ministers are chosen also by men like unto themselves yet because it is done by the Word and Institution of God It may well be accounted to come from Heaven and from God Answer Acts 1. 22. Revel 1. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 1. 5. They of Walden Acn. Syl. hist. Boem Norsilius Defens pac Nici Thum. Wakl c. 1. l. 2. cap. 0 Calvin Coment in 1 ad id Lit. Bulhtiger Decad â— Ser. 3. Juel Defens apol par 2. c. â— â—â—t Folk Answ. to the Test. Tic. â— 5. John 1. 25. Mat. 21. 23. Lib. 1. Rom. 1. 32. Luke 1. 6. Confes. 169. Epist. 150. The Arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church Ep. 3. lb. 1. The sort-alledged Argument answered T. C. l. 1. p. â—9 â—on The Bishop which Cyprian speaketh of is nothing else but such as we call Pastor or as the common nâ—mâ— with us is Pastor and his Church whereof he is Bishop is neither Diâ—cesâ— nor Province but a Congregation which met together in one place and to he taught of one man * Etsi Frarres pro dilectione iua cupoli sunt ad conven endum visiandum Censissires boars quos illustravit jaâ—â— gloriosis initiis divina degnati ramen
ended their days did not yet live himself to see the Presbyters of Alexandria othewise then subject unto a Bishop So that we cannot with any truth so interpret his words as to mean that in the Church of Alexandria there had been Bishops indued with Superiority over Presbyters from St. Marks time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius Wherefore that St. Ierom may receive a more probable interpretation then this We answer that generally oâ— Regiment by Bishops and what term of continuance it had in the Church of Alexandria it was no part of his mind to speak but to note one onely circumstance belonging to the manner of their election which circumstance is that in Alexandria they used to chuse their Bishops altogether out of the colledge of their own Presbyters and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior order of the Clergy whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to chuse as well from abroad as at home as well inferior unto Presbyters as Presbyters when they saw occasion This custome saith he the Church of Alexandria did always keep till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise These two were the very first not chose out of their Colledge of Presbyters The drift and purpose of S. Ieroms speech doth plainly show what his meaning was for whereas some did over-extol the Office of the Deacon in the Church of Rome where Deacons being grown great through wealth challenged place above Presbyters S. Ierome to abate this insolency writing to Evagrius diminisheth by all means the Deacons estimation and lifteth up Presbyters as far as possible the truth might bear An attendant saith he upon Tables and Widows proudly to exalt himself above them at whose prayers is made the body and blood of Christ above them between whom and Bishops there was at the first for a time no difference neither in authority nor in title And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary that some one should be placed over them by which occasion the title of Bishop became proper unto that one yet was that one chosen out of the Presbyters as being the chiefest the highest the worthiest degree of the Clergie and not out of Deacons in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves and not a Deacon at any time to be their Bishop Nor let any man think that Christ hath one Church in Rome and another in the rest of the world that in Rome he alloweth Deacons to be honoured above Presbyters and otherwhere will have them to be in the next degree to the Bishop If it be deemed that abroad where Bishops are poorer the Presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour but at Rome where the Bishop hath amplerevenâ—es the Deacons whose estate is nearest for wealth may be also for estimation the next unto him We must know that a Bishop in the meanest City is no less a Bishop then he who is seated in the greatest the countenance of a rich and the meanness of a poor estate doth make no odds between Bishops and therefore if a Presbyter at Engubium be the next in degree to a Bishop surely even at Rome it ought in reason to be so likewise and not a Deacon for wealths sake only to be above who by order should be and elsewhere is underneath a Presbyter But ye will say that according to the custom of Rome a Deacon presenteth unto the Bishop him which standeth to be ordained Presbyter and upon the Deacons testimony given concerning his fitness he receiveth at the Bishops hands Oraïnation So that in Rome the Deacon having this special preheminence the Presbyter ought there to give place unto him Wherefore is the custom of one City brought against the practice of the whole World The pancity of Deacons in the Church of Rome hath gotten the credit as unto Presbyters their multitude hath been cause of contempt Howbeit even in the Church of Rome Presbyters sit and Deacons stand an Argument as strong against the superiority of Deacons as the fore-alleadged reason doth seem for it Besides whosoever is promoted must needs be raised from a lower degree to an higher wherefore either let him which is Presbyter be made a Deacon that so the Deacon may appear to be the greater or if of Deacons Presbyters be made let them know themselves to be in regard of Deacons though below in gain yet above in Office And to the end we may understand that those Apostolical Orders are taken out of the Old Testament what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple the same in the Church may â— Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves This is the very drift and substance this the true construction and sense of St. Ieroms whole discourse in that Epistle Which I have therefore endeavoured the more at large to explain because no one thing is less effectual or more usual to be alledged against the antient Authority of Bishops concerning whose Government St. Ieroms own words otherwhere are sufficient to show his opinion that this Order was not only in Alexandria so ancient but even an ancient in other Churches We have before alledged his testimony touching Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem As for Bishops in other Churches on the first of the Epistle to Titus thus he speaketh Till through instinct of the devil there grew in the Church factions and among the people it began to be profest I am of Paul I of Apollos and I of Cephas Churches were governed by the common advice of Presbyters but when every one began to reckon those whom himself had baptized his own and not Christs it was decreed IN THE WHOLE WORLD that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the seeds of schism be removed If it be so that by St. Ieroms own Confession this order was not then begun when people in the Apostles absence began to be divided into factions by their Teachers and to rehearse I am of Paul but that even at the very first appointment thereof was agreed upon and received throughout the world how shall a man be perswaded that the same Ierom thought it so ancient no-where saving in Alexandria one only Church of the whole world A sentence there is indeed of St. Ieroms which bring not throughly considered and weighed may cause his meaning so to be taken as if he judged Episcopal regiment to have been the Churches invention long after and not the Apostles own institution as namely when he admonisheth Bishops in this manner As therefore Presbyters do know that the custom of the Church makes them subject to the Bishop which is set over them so let Bishops know that custom rather then the truth of any Ordinance of the Lord maketh them
and meer Human invention a thing which was never drawn our of Scripture where all Pastors are found they say to have one and the same power both of Order and Jurisdiction Secondly by gathering together the differences between that power which we give to Bishops and that which was given them of old in the Church So that albeit even the antient took more than was warrantable yet so farr they swerved not as ours have done Thirdly by endeavouring to prove that the Scripture directly forbiddeth and that the judgement of the wisest the holyest the best in all Ages condemneth utterly the inequality which we allow XI That inequality of Pastors is a meer Humane invention a thing not found in the Word of God they prove thus 1. All the places of Scripture where the word Bishop is used or any other derived of that name signifie an Oversight in respect of some particular Congregation only and never in regard of Pastors committed unto his Oversight For which cause the names of Bishops and Presbyters or Pastoral Elders are used indifferently to signifie one and the self-same thing Which so indifferent and common use of these words for one and the self-same office so constantly and perpetually in all places declareth that the word Bishop in the Apostles Writing importeth not a Pastor of higher Power and Authoritie over other Pastors 2. All Pastors are called to their Office by the same means of proceeding the Scripture maketh no difference in the manner of their Tryal Election Ordination which proveth their Office and Power to be by Scripture all one 3. The Apostles were all of equal power and all Pastors do alike succeed the Apostles in their Ministery and Power the Commission and Authority whereby they succeed bring in Scripture but one and the same that was committed to the Apostles without any difference of committing to one Pastor more or to another less 4. The power of the Censures and Keyes of the Church and of Ordaining and ordering Ministers in which two points especially this Superiority is challenged is not committed to any one Pastor of the Church more than to another but the same is committed as a thing to be carried equally in the guidance of the Church Whereby it appeareth that Scripture maketh all Pastors not only in the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments but also in all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and Authority equal 5. The Council of Nice doth attribute this difference not unto any Ordination of God but to an antient Custom used in former times which judgement is also followed afterward by other Councils Concil Antioch cap. 9. 6. Upon these Premises their summary collection and conclusion is That the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven and of God Joh. I. 23. that if they be of God and from Heaven then are they set down in the Word of God that if they be not in the Word of God as by the premises it doth appear they say that our kinds of Bishops are not it followeth they are invented by the brain of men and are of the Earth and that consequently they can do no good in the Church of Christ but harm Our Answer hereunto is first that their proofs are unavailable to shew that Scripture affordeth no evidence for the inequality of Pastors Secondly That albeit the Scripture did no way insinuate the same to be God's Ordinance and the Apostles to have brought it in albeit the Church were acknowledged by all men to have been the first beginner thereof a long time after the Apostles were gone yet is not the Authority of Bishops hereby disannulled it is not hereby proved unfit or unprofitable for the Church 1. That the Word of God doth acknowledge no inequality of power amongst Pastors of the Church neither doth it appear by the signification of this word Bishop nor by the indifferent use thereof For concerning signification first it is clearly untrue that no other thing is thereby signified but only an oversight in respect of a particular Church and Congregation For I beseech you of what Parish or particular Congregation was Matthias Bishop His Office Scripture doth term Episcopal which being no other than was common unto all the Apostles of Christ forasmuch as in that number there is not any to whom the oversight of many Pastors did not belong by force and vertue of that Office it followeth that the very Word doth sometimes even in Scripture signifie oversight such as includeth charge over Pastors themselves And if we look to the use of the Word being applyed with reference unto some one Church as Ephesus Philippi and such like albeit the Guides of those Churches be interchangeably in Scripture termed sometime Bishops sometime Presbyters to signifie men having oversight and charge without relation at all unto other than the Christian Laity alone yet this doth not hinder but that Scripture may in some place have other names whereby certain of those Presbyters or Bishops are noted to have the oversight and charge of Pastors as out of all peradventure they had whom St. Iohn doth intitle Angels 2. As for those things which the Apostle hath set down concerning Tryal Election and Ordination of Pastors that he maketh no difference in the manner of their Calling this also is but a silly Argument to prove their Office and their Power equal by the Scripture The form of admitting each sort unto their Offices needed no particular Instruction There was no fear but that such matters of course would easily enough be observed The Apostle therefore toucheth those things wherein Judgement Wisdom and Conscience is required he carefully admonisheth of what quality Ecclesiastical Persons should be that their dealing might not be scandalous in the Church And forasmuch as those things are general we see that of Deacons there are delivered in a manner the self-same Precepts which are given concerning Pastors so farr as concerneth their Tryal Election and Ordination Yet who doth hereby collect that Scripture maketh Deacons and Pastors equal If notwithstanding it be yet demanded Wherefore he which teatcheth what kinde of Persons Deacons and Presbyters should be hath nothing in particular about the quality of chief Presbyters whom we call Bishops I answer briefly that there it was no fit place for any such discourse to be made inasmuch as the Apostle wrote unto Timothy and Titus who having by Commission Episcopal Authority were to exercise the same in ordaining not Bishops the Apostles themselves yet living and retaining that power in their own hands but Presbyters such as the Apostles at the first did create throughout all Churches Bishops by restraint only Iames at Ierusalem excepted were not yet in being 3. About equality amongst the Apostles there is by us no Controversie moved If in the rooms of the Apostles which were of equal Authority all Pastors do by Scripture succeed alike where shall we finde a Commission in Scripture which they speak
of which appointed all to succeed in the self-same equality of power except that Commission which doth authorize to Preach and Baptise should be alledged which maketh nothing to the purpose for in such things all Pastors are still equal We must I fear me wait very long before any other will be shewed For howsoever the Apostles were Equals amongst themselves all other Pastors were not Equals with the Apostles while they lived neither are they any where appointed to be afterward each others Equals Apostles had as we know authority over all such as were no Apostles by force of which their Authority they might both command and judge It was for the singular good and benefit of those Disciples whom Christ left behinde him and of the Pastors which were afterwards chosen for the great good I say of all sorts that the Apostles were in power above them Every day brought forth somewhat wherein they saw by experience how much it stood them in stead to be under controulment of those Superiours and Higher Governours of Gods House Was it a thing so behoveful that Pastors should be subject unto Pastors in the Apostles own times and is there any commandment that this Subjection should cease with them and that the Pastors of the succeeding Ages should be all Equals No no this strange and absurd conceit of Equality amongst Pastors the Mother of Schism and of Confusion is but a dream newly brought forth and seen never in the Church before 4. Power of Censure and Ordination appeareth even by Scripture marvellous probable to have been derived from Christ to his Church without this surmised Equality in them to whom he hath committed the same For I would know Whether Timothy and Titus were commanded by Saint Paul to do any thing more than Christ hath authorized Pastors to do And to the one it is Scripture which saith Against a Presbyter receive THOU no accusation saving under two or three Witnesses Scripture which likewise hath said to the other For this very cause left I THEE in Crete that THOU shouldst redress the things that remain and shouldst ORDAIN Presbyters in every City as I appointed THEE In the former place the power of Censure is spoken of and the power of Ordination in the latter Will they say that every Pastor there was equal to Timothy and Titus in these things If they do the Apostle himself is against it who saith that of their two very Persons he had made choyse and appointed in those places them for performances of those Duties whereas if the same had belonged unto others no less than to them and not principally unto them above others it had been fit for the Apostle accordingly to have directed his Letters concerning these things in general unto them all which had equal interest in them even as it had been likewise fit to have written those Epistles in Saint Iohn's Revelation unto whole Ecclesiastical Senates rather than only unto the Angels of each Church had not some one been above the rest in Authority to order the affairs of the Church Scripture therefore doth most probably make for the inequality of Pastors even in all Ecclesiastical affairs and by very express mention as well in Censures as Ordinations 5. In the Nicene Council there are consumed certain Prerogatives and Dignities belonging unto Primates or Archbishops and of them it is said that the antient custom of the Church had been to give them such preheminence but no syllable whereby any man should conjecture that those Fathers did not honor the Superiority which Bishops had over other Pastors only upon antient custom and not as a true Apostolical heavenly and divine Ordinance 6. Now although we should leave the general received perswasion held from the first beginning that the Apostles themselves left Bishops invested with power above other Pastors although I say we should give over this opinion and imbrace that other conjecture which so many have thought good to follow and which my self did sometimes judge a great deal more probable than now I do meerly that after the Apostles were deceased Churches did agree amongst themselves for preservation of Peace and Order to make one Presbyter in each City Chief over the rest and to translate into him that power by force and vertue whereof the Apostles while they were alive did preserve and uphold order in the Church exercising Spiritual Jurisdiction partly by themselves and partly by Evangelists because they could not always every where themselves be present This order taken by the Church it self for so let us suppose that the Apostles did neither by word nor deed appoint it were notwithstanding more warrantable than that it should give place and be abrogated because the Ministry of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven There came Chief Priests and Elders unto our Saviour Christ as he was teaching in the Temple and the Question which they moved unto him was this By what Authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this Authority their Question he repelled with a Counter-demand The Baptism of John whence was it from Heaven or of Men Hereat they paused secretly disputing within themselves If we shall say from Heaven he will ask Wherefore did ye not then believe him And if we say of men We fear the People for all hold Iohn a Prophet What is it now which hereupon these men would infer That all-Functions Ecclesiastical ought in such sort to be from Heaven as the Function of Iohn was I No such matter here contained Nay doth not the contrary rather appear most plainly by that which is here set down For when our Saviour doth ask concerning the Baptism that is to say the whole Spiritual Function of Iohn whether it were from Heaven or of men he giveth clearly to understand that men give Authority unto some and some God himself from Heaven doth Authorize Nor is it said or in any sort signified that none have lawful Authority which have it not in such manner as Iohn from Heaven Again when the Priests and Elders were loth to say that Iohn had his calling from men the reason was not because they thought that so Iohn should not have had any good or lawful Calling but because they saw that by this means they should somewhat embase the Calling of Iohn whom all men knew to have been sent from God according to the manner of Prophets by a meer Celestial vocation So that out of the evidence here alledged these things we may directly conclude first that who so doth exercise any kinde of Function in the Church he cannot lawfully so do except Authority be given him Secondly that if Authority be not given him from men as the Authority of Teaching was given unto Scribes and Pharisees it must be given him from Heaven as Authority was given unto Christ Elias Iohn Baptist and the Prophets For these two only wayes there are to have Authority But a strange Conclusion
been stronger then your modest resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so impos'd upon you because it gave an unadvoidable cause of writing the second If not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all lovers of Honor and ingenuous Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as florid a Wit and elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kinde is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Malleius so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues still to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other names carry on their design and who as the proper Heirs of their Irrational Zeal would again rake into the scarce-closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honor of Ignaâ—ius That he lived in the time of St. Iohn and had seen him in his childhood so I also joy that in my minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father then Lord Bishop of London from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Vertues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his Accusers and gained their confession and could give an account of each particular of that Plot by that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same Grave with the malicious Authors I may not omit to declare That my Fathers knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. Iohn Spencer who after the death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITT and his other Writings that he procured Henry Iackson then of Corpus-Christi Colledge to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr. Clark and another of principles too like his But as these Papers were they were endeavored to be compleated by his dear Friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father after whose death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my custody authorising Dr. Iohn Barkham his Lordships Chaplain to require and bring them to him to Lambeth At which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of that Faction given with the Library to Hugh Peters as a reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches confusion And though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other endeavors to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilst he lived the sorrow expressed by King Iames for his death the value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works now the singular Character of his worth given by you in the passages of his life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that imputation And I am glad you mention how much value Robert Stapleton Pope Clement the Eighth and other eminent Men of the Romish perswasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my youth by persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this undertaking of yours as now more proper to you then any other person by reason of your long knowledge and alliance to the worthy family of the Cranmers my old friends also who have been men of noted wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the compleating of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think fit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best friends then living namely from the ever-renowned Archb. Whitgist of whose imcomparable worth with the Character of the times you have given us a more short and significant account then I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his contemporary and familiar friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King Iames his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine Which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent unto Franciscus Snarez to Salamanca he then residing there as President of that Colledge with a command to answer it When he had perfected the work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholica it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleased and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own interest commonly coupling together Depâ—nere Occidere the deposing and killing of Princes Which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. Iohn Salikell his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers-house often professed the good old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Salikell magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my approbation of your work carries any weight will finde many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who is Chichester Novemb. 13. 15. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate Old Friend Henry Chichester THE LIFE OF Mr. Richard Hooker THE INTRODUCTION I Have been perswaded by a Friend that I ought to obey to write The Life of RICHARD HOOKER the happy Author of Five if not more of the Eight Learned Books of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and though I have undertaken it yet it hath been with some unwillingness foreseeing that it must prove
my Horse back to me I will give you Ten Groats more to carry you on foot to the Colledge And so God bless you good Richard And this you may believe was performed by both parties But alas the next news that followed Mr. Hooker to Oxford was That his Learned and Charitable Patron had changed this for a better life Which may be believed for that as he lived so he died in devout Meditation and Prayer and in both so zealously that it became a Religious question Whether his last Ejaculations or his Soul did first enter into Heaven And now Mr. Hooker became a Man of Sorrow and Fear Of sorrow for the loss of so dear and comfortable a Patron and of Fear for his future subsistence But Dr. Cole raised his spirits from this dejection by bidding him go cheerfully to his Studies and assuring him he should neither want Food not Rayment which was the utmost of his hopes for he would become his Patron And so he was for about Nine Moneths or not much longer for about that time this following accident did befal Mr. Hooker Edwin Sandys then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York had also been in the days of Queen Mary forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation where for many years Bishop Iewel and he were Companions at Bed and Board in Germany and where in this their Exile they did often eat the Bread of Sorrow and by that means they there began such a friendship as time did not blot out but lasted till the death of Bishop Iewel which was One thousand five hundred seventy and one A little before which time the two Bishops meeting Iewel began a story of his Richard Hooker and in it gave such a Character of his Learning and Manners that though Bishop Sandys was educated in Cambridge where he had obliged and had many Friends Yet his resolution was that his Son Edwin should be sent to Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford and by all means be Pupil to Mr. Hooker though his Son Edwin was then almost of the same age For the Bishop said I will have a Tutor for my Son that shall teach him Learning by Instruction and Vertue by Example and my greatest care shall be of the last and God willing this Richard Hooker shall be the Man into whose hands I will commit my Edwin And the Bishop did so about Twelve Moneths after this resolution And doubtless as to these two a better choice could not be made For Mr. Hooker was now in the Nineteenth year of his age had spent five in the University and had by a constant unwearied diligence attained unto a Perfection in all the Learned Languages By the help of which as excellent Tutor and his unintermitted Study he had made the subtilty of all the Arts easie and familiar to himself and useful for the discovery of such Learning as lay hid from common Searchers So that by these added to his great Reason and his Industry added to both He did not onely know more of Causes and Effects but what he knew he knew better then other men And with this Knowledge he had a most blessed and clear Method of Demonstrating what he knew to the great advantage of all his Pupils which in time were many but especially to his two first his dear Edwin Sandys and his as dear George Cranmer of which there will be a fair Testimony in the ensuing Relation This for his Learning And for his Behavior amongst other Testimonies this still remains of him That in four years he was but twice absent from the Chappel prayers and that his Behavior there was such as shewed an awful reverence of that God which he then worshipped and prayed to giving all outward Testimonies that his Affections were set on Heavenly things This was his Behavior towards God and for that to Man it is observable That he was never known to be angry or passionate or extream in any of his desires never heard to repine or dispute with Providence but by a quiet gentle submission and resignation of his will to the Wisdom of his Creator bore the burthen of the day with patience never heard to utter to an uncomly word And by this and a grave Behavior which is a Divine Charm hebegot an early Reverence unto his Person even from those that at other rimes and in other companies took a liberty to cast off that strictness of Behavior and Discourse that is required in a Collegiate Life And when he took any liberty to be pleasant his Wit was never blemished with scoffing or the utterance of any conceit that bordered upon or might beget a thought of loosness in his hearers Thus innocent and exemplary was his Behavior in his Colledge and thus this good man continued till his Death still increasing in Learning in Patience and Piety In this Nineteenth year of his Age he was chosen December 24. 1573. to be one of the Twenty Scholars of the Foundation being elected and admitted as born in Devonshire out of which County a certain number are to be elected in Vacancies by the Founders Statutes and now he was much encouraged for now he was perfectly incorporated into this beloved Colledge which was then noted for an eminent Library strict Students and remarkable Schollars And indeed it may glory that it had Bishop Iewel Doctor Iohn Reynolds and Doctor Thomas Iackson of that Foundation The first famous by his Learned Apology for the Church of England and his Defence of it against Harding The second for the learned and wise Menage of a publick Dispute with Iohn Hart of the Roman perswasion about the Head and Faith of the Church then Printed by consent of both parties And the third for his most excellent Exposition of the Creed and for his other Treatises all such as have given greatest satisfaction to men of the greatest Learning Nor was this man more eminent for his Learning then for his strict and pious Life testified by his abundant Love and Charity to all Men. In the year 1576. February 23. Mr. Hookers Grace was given him for Inceptor of Arts Doctor Herbert Westphaling a Man of noted Learning being then Vice-Chancellor and the Act following he was compleated Master which was Anno 1577. His Patron Doctor Cole being that year Vice-Chancellor and his dear Friend Henry Savil of Merton Colledge then one of the Proctors It was that Henry Savil that was after Sir Henry Savil Warden of Merton Colledge and Provost of Eaton He which founded in Oxford two famous Lectures and endowed them with liberal maintenance It was that Sir Henry Savil that translated and enlightned the History of Cornelim Tacitus with a most excellent Comment and enriched the World by his laborious and chargeable collecting the scattered pieces of St. Chrysostome and the Publication of them in one entire Body in Greek in which Language he was a most judicious Critick It was this Sir Henry Savil that had the happiness to
long after Prebend of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past looked upon him with much reverence and favor gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favor forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-President of the Principality of Wales And having for several years experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the Twenty sixth of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to menage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a Blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Iehoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops Ascension to this place of Dignity and Cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in his Annals He devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and bit painful labors to the good of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church Affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindal his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-conformists and their cheif assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious Principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favor it was impossible to stand in the Breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining Rights of it And therefore by justifiable Sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favor with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a greater degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her Favors to him were such that she called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants And She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavors for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor Of which She gave many Fair testimonies and of which one was That She would never eat flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from Her little black Husband And would often say She pioâ—â—ed him because She trusted him and had eased Her-self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which She was certain he managed with Prudence and Piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of Brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particularsâ— and therefore my desire is that one example may serve for a testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church Lands by recalling a Power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them onely in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this Power or Trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the good Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls Sacrilegious designs they two fell to an open Opposition before her after which they both quitted the Room nor Friends in appearance But the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found her alone and spake to her with great Humility and Reverence and to this purpose I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that yours and the Churches Safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell you that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers of the Church and owe it a Protection and therefore God forbid that you should be so much as Passive in her Ruines when you may prevent it or that I should-behold it without horrour and detestation or should forbear to tell your Majesty of the Sin and Danger And though you and my self are born in an Age of Frailties when the Primitive Piety and Care of the Churches Lands and Immunities are much decayed yes Madam let me beg that you will but first consider and then you will believe there are such sins at Prophaneness and Sacriledge for if there were not they could not have Names in Holy Writ and particularly in the New-Testament And I beseech you to consider that though our Saviour said He judged no man and to testifie it would not judge nor divide the Inheritance betwixt the two Brethren nor would judge the Woman taken in Adultery yet in this point of the Churches Rights he was so zealous that he made himself both the Accuser and the Iudge and the Executioner to punish these sins witnessed in that he himself made the Whip to drive the Prophaners out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and drove them out of it And consider that it was S. Paul that said to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry yet Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Supposing I think Sacriledge to be the greater sin This may occasion your Majesty to consider that there is such a sin as Sacriledge and to incline you to prevent the Curse that will follow it I beseech you also to consider that Constantine the first Christian Emperor and Helena his Mother that King Edgar and Edward the Confessor and indeed many others of your Predecessors and many private Christians have also given to God and to his Church much Land and many Immunities which they might have given to those of their own Families and did not but gave them as an absolute Right and Sacrifice to God And with these Immunities and Lands they have entailed a Curse upon the Alienators of them God prevent your Majesty from being liable to that Curse And to make you that are trusted with their Preservation the better to understand the danger of it I beseech you forget not that besides these Curses the Churches Land and Power have been also endeavoured to be preserved as far as Humane Reason and the Law of this Nation have been able to preserve them by an immediate and most sacred Obligation on the Consciences of the Princes of this Realm For they that consult Magna Charta shall find that as all your Predecessours
were at their Coronation so you also were sworn before all the Nobility and Bishops then present and in the presence of God and in his stead to him that anointed you to maintain the Church Lands and the rights belonging to it and this testified openly at the holy Altar by laying your Hands on the Bible then lying upon it And not only Magna Charta but many Modern Statutes have denounced a Curse upon those that break Magna Charta And now what account can be given for the breach of this Oath at the last Great Day either by your Majesty or by me if it be wilfully or but negligently violated I know not And therefore good Madam let not the late Lords Exceptions against the failings of some few Clergie-men prevail with you to punish Posterity for the Errors of this present Age let particular Men suffer for their particular Errors but let God and his Church have their right And though I pretend not to prophesy yet I big Posterity to take notice of what is already become visible in many Families That Church-land added to an ancient Inheritance hath proved like a Moth fretting a Garment and secretly consumed both Or like the Eagle that stole a Coal from the Altar and thereby set her Nest on fire which consumed both her young Eagles and her self that stole it And though I shall forbear to speak reproachfully of your Father yet I beg you to take notice that a part of the Churches Rights added to the vast Treasure left him by his Father hath been conceived to bring an unavoidable Consumption upon both notwithstanding all his diligence to preserve it And consider that after the violation of those Laws to which he had sworn in Magna Charta God did so far deny him his Restraining Grace that be fell into greater sins then I am willing to mention Madam Religion is the Foundation and Cement of Humane Societies And when they that serve at Gods Altar shall be exposed to Poverty then Religion it self will be exposed to scorn and become contemptible as you may already observe in too many poor Vicaridges in this Nation And therefore as you are by a late Act or Acts entrusted with a great Power to preserve or waste the Churches Lands yet dispose of them for Iesus sake as the Donors intended Let neither falshood nor flattery beguile you to do otherwise and put a stop I beseech you to the approaching ruines of Gods Church as you expect comfort at the last great day For Kings must be judged Pardon this affectionate plainness my most dear Soveraign and let me beg to be still continued in your Favor and the Lord still continue you in his The Queens patient hearing this affectionate Speech and Her future care to preserve the Churches Rights which till then had been neglected may appear a fair Testimony that he made Hers and the Churches good the cheifest of his cares and that She also thought so And of this there were such daily Testimonies given as begot betwixt them so mutual a joy and confidence that they seemed born to believe and do good to each other She not doubting his Piety to be more then all his opposers which were many and those powerful too nor his Prudence equal to the cheifest of Her Council who were then as remarkable for active Wisdom as those dangerous times did require or this Nation did everenjoy And in this condition he continued Twenty years in which time he saw some flowings but many more ebbings of Her Favor towards all men that opposed him especially the Earl of Leicester So that God seemed still to keep him in Her Favor that he might preserve the remaining Church Lands and Immunities from Sacrilegious Alienations And this good man deserved all the honor and power with which She trusted him for he was a pious man and naturally of Noble and Grateful Principles He eased Her of all Her Church cares by his wise menage of them he gave Her faithful and prudent Counsels in all the extremities and dangers of Her Temporal Affairs which were very many he lived to be the cheif comfort of Her life in Her declining age to be then most frequently with Her and Her assistant at Her private Devotions to be the greatest comfort of Her Soul upon Her Death-bed to be present at the expiration of Her last breath and to behold the closing of those eyes that had long looked upon him with reverence and affection And let this also be added That he was the chief Mourner at Her sad Funeral nor let this be forgotten that within a few hours after Her death he was the happy Proclaimer that King Iames Her Peaceful Successor was Heir to the Crown Let me beg of my Reader that he allow me to say a little and but a little more of this good Bishop and I shall then presently lead him back to Mr. Hooker and because I would hasten I will mention but one part of the Bishops Charity and Humility but this of both He built a large Alms-house near to his own Palace at Croydon in Surrey and endowed it with maintenance for a Master and Twenty eight poor Men and Women which he visited so often that he knew their names and dispositions and was so truly humble that he called them Brothers and Sisters And whensoever the Queen descended to that lowliness to dine with him at his Palace in Lambeth which was very often he would usually the next day shew the like lowliness to his poor Brothers and Sisters at Croydon and dine with them at his Hospital at which time you may believe there was joy at the Table And at this place he built also a fair Free-School with a good accommodation and maintenance for the Master and Scholars Which gave just occasion for Boyse Sisi then Ambassador for the French King and Resident here at the Bishops death to say The Bishop had published many Learned Books but a Free-School to train up Youth and an Hospital to lodge and maintain aged and poor People were the best evidences of Christian Learning that a Bishop could leave to Posterity This good Bishop lived to see King Iames settled in Peace and then fell sick at Lambeth of which the King having notice went to visit him and found him in his Bed in a declining condition and very weak and after some short discourse the King assured him He had a great affection for him and high value for his Prudence and Vertues which were so useful for the Church that he would earnestly beg his life of God To which he replied Pro Ecclesi◠Dei Pro Ecclesiâ Dei Which were the last words he ever spake therein testifying That as in his Life so at his Death his chiefest care was of Gods Church This Iohn Whitgift was made Archbishop in the Year One thousand five hundred eighty and three In which busie place he continued Twenty years and some moneths and in which time you may
him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his Books will get Reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Not was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whiâ—gift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorrow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happiness of seeing and discoursing with that Man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker thought it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments then I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned Men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a grave comprehensive cleer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next Age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the Picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that the King thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with Reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same Reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in M. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the Modesty and other Vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself and our venerable Richard Hooker and only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little Island There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-Denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only Men of strict lives feel and know and of which Men of loose and Godless lives cannot be made sensible for spiritual things are spiritually discerned At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacriledge and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countryes which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacriledge and a third of Christian obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when in a time of Church tumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their Judgment in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that in this year of 1595. and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a Holy Friendship increasing dayly to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable Piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been twelve moneths but his Books and the Innocency and Sanctity of his Life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the Man whose Life and Learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. Iohn Baptist
cloathed with the name of Truth which is mightily and violently to possess men at first but afterwards the weakness thereof being by time discovered to lose that reputation which before it had gained as by the outside of an House the passers by are oftentimes deceived till they see the conveniencie of the Rooms within so by the very name of Discipline and Reformation Men were drawn at first to cast a fancy towards it but now they have not contented themselves only to pass by and behold afar off the fore-front of this reformed house they have entred in even at the special request of Master-workmen and chief Builders thereof they have perused the Roomes the Lights the Conveniencies they find them not answerable to that report which was made of them nor to that opinion which upon report they had conceived So as now the Discipline which at first triumphed over all being unmasked beginneth to droop and hang down her head This cause of change in opinion concerning the Discipline is proper to the Learned or to such as by them have been instructed another cause there is more open and more apparent to the view of all namely the course of Practice which the Reformers have had with us from the beginning the first degree was only some small difference about Cap and Surplice but not such as either bred division in the Church or tended to the ruine of the Government established This was peaceable the next degree more stirring Admonitions were directed to the Parliament in peremptory sort against our whole Form of Regiment in defence of them Volumes were published in English and in Latin yet this was no more than writing Devices were set on foot to erect the Practice of the Discipline without Authority yet herein some regard of Modesty some moderation was used Behold at length it brake forth into open outrage first in writing by Martin in whose kind of dealing these things may be observed first that whereas T. C. and others his great Masters had alwayes before set out the Discipline as a Queen and as the Daughter of God He contrariwise to make her more acceptable to the people brought her forth as a Vice upon the Stage 2 This conceit of his was grounded as may be supposed upon this rare Polity that seeing the Discipline was by writing refuted in Parliament rejected in secret corners hunted out and decried it was imagined that by open rayling which to the vulgar is commonly most plausible the State Ecclesiastical might have been drawn into such contempt and hatred as the overthrow thereof should have been most grateful to all Men and in manner desired of the common people 3. It may be noted and this I know my self to be true how some of them although they could not for shame approve so lewd an Action yet were content to lay hold on it to the advancement of their cause acknowledging therein the secret judgements of God against the Bishops and hoping that some good might be wrought thereby for his Church as indeed there was though not according to their construction For 4. Contrary to their expectation that railing Spirit did not only not further but extremely disgrace and prejudice their Cause when it was once perceived from how low degrees of contradiction at first to what outrage of Contumely and Slander they were at length proceeded and were also likely further to proceed A further degree of outrage was in Fact Certain Prophets did arise who deeming it not possible that God should suffer that to be undone which they did so fiercely desire to have done Namely that his holy Saints the favourers and Fathers of the Discipline should be enlarged and delivered from persecution and seeing no means of deliverance Ordinary were fain to perswade themselves that God must needs raise some extraordinary means and being perswaded of none so well as of themselves they forthwith must need she the instruments of this great work Hereupon they framed unto themselves an assured hope that upon their Preaching out of a Pease Cart all the multitude would have presently joyned unto them and in amazement of mind have asked them Viri sratres quid agimus whereunto it is likely they would have returned an answer far unlike to that of St. Peter Such and such are Men unworthy to govern pluck them down Such and such are the Dear Children of God let them be advanced Of two of these Men it is meet to speak with all Commiseration yet so that others by their example may receive instruction and withall some light may appear what stirring affections the Discipline is like to inspire if it light upon apt and prepared minds Now if any Man doubt of what Society they were or if the Reformers disclaim them pretending that by them they were condemned let these points be considered 1. Whose associates were they before they entered into this frantick Passion whose Sermons did they frequent whom did they admire 2. Even when they were entering into it whose advice did they require and when they were in whose approbation whom advertised they of their purpose whose assistance by Prayers did they request But we deal injuriously with them to lay this to their charge for they reproved and condemned it How did they disclose it to the Magistrate that it might be suppressed or were they not rather content to stand aloof off and see the end of it and loth to quench the Spirit No doubt these mad practitioners were of their society with whom before and in the practice of their madness they had most affinity Hereof read Doctor Bancrofts Book A third inducement may be to dislike of the Discipline if we consider not only how far the Reformers themselves have proceeded but what others upon their Foundations have built Here come the Brownists in the first rank their lineal descendants who have seised upon a number of strange opinions whereof although their Ancestors the Reformers were never actually possessed yet by right and interest from them derived the Brownists and Barrowists have taken possession of them For if the Positions of the Reformers be true I cannot see how the main and general Conclusions of Brownism should be false for upon these two points as I conceive they stand 1. That because we have no Church they are to sever themselves from us 2. That without Civil Authority they are to erect a Church of their own And if the former of these be true the latter I suppose will follow For if above all things Men be to regard their Salvation and if out of the Church there be no Salvation it followeth That if we have no Church we have no means of Salvation And therefore Separation from us in that respect is both lawful and necessary As also That men so separated from the false and counterfeit Church are to associate themselves unto some Church not to ours to the Popish much less therefore to one of their own making Now the ground
of all these Inferences being this That in our Church there is no means of Salvation is out of the Reformers Principles most clearly to be proved For wheresoever any Matter of Faith unto Salvation necessary is denied there can be no means of Salvation But in the Church of England the Discipline by them accounted a Matter of Faith and necessary to Salvation is not onely denied but impugned and the Professors thereof oppressed Ergo. Again but this Reason perhaps is weak Every true Church of Christ acknowledgeth the whole Gospel of Christ the Discipline in their opinion is a part of the Gospel and yet by our Church resisted Ergo. Again The Discipline is essentially united to the Church By which term Essentially they must mean either an essential part or an essential property Both which ways it must needs be That where that Essential Discipline is not neither is there any Church If therefore between them and the Brownists there should be appointed a Solemn Disputation whereof with us they have been oftentimes so earnest challengers It doth not yet appear what other answer they could possibly frame to these and the like Arguments wherewith they might be pressed but fairly to deny the Conclusion for all Premises are their own or rather ingenuously to reverse their own Principles before laid whereon so soul absurdities have been so firmly built What further proofs you can bring out of their high words magnifying the Discipline I leave to your better remembrance But above all points I am desirous this one should be strongly inforced against them because it wringeth them most of all and is of all others for ought I see the most unanswerable you may notwithstanding say That you would be heartily glad these their Positions might so be salved as the Brownists might not appear to have issued out of their Loyns but until that be done they must give us leave to think that they have cast the Seed whereout these Tares are grown Another sort of Men there are which have been content to run on with the Reformers for a time and to make them poor instruments of their own designs These are a sort of Godless Politicks who perceiving the Plot of Discipline to consist of these two parts The overthrow of Episcopal and erection of Presbyterial Authority and that this latter can take no place till the former be remov'd are content to joyn with them in the Destructive part of Discipline bearing them in hand that in the other also they shall finde them as ready But when time shall come it may be they would be as loth to be yoaked with that kinde of Regiment as now they are willing to be released from this These Mens ends in all their actions is Distraction their pretence and colour Reformation Those things which under this colour they have effected to their own good are 1. By maintaining a contrary Faction they have kept the Clergy always in aw and thereby made them more pliable and willing to buy their Peace 2. By maintaining an opinion of Equality among Ministers they have made way to their own purposes for devouring Cathedral Churches and Bishops Livings 3. By exclaiming against abuses in the Church they have carried their own corrupt dealings in the Civil State more covertly for such is the nature of the multitude they are not able to apprehend many things at once so as being possessed with a dislike or liking of any one thing many other in the meantime may escape them without being perceived 4. They have sought to disgrace the Clergy in entertaining a conceit in mens minds and confirming it by continual practice that Men of Learning and specially of the Clergy which are imployed in the chiefest kinde of Learning are not to be admitted of sparingly admitted to Matters of State contrary to the practice of all well-governed Commonwealths and of our own till these late years A third sort of Men there are though not descended from the Reformers yet in part raised and greatly strengthned by them namely the cursed crew of Atheists This also is one of those Points which I am desirous you should handle most effectually and strain your self therein to all points of motion and affection as in that of the Brownists to all strength and sinews of Reason This is a sort most damnable and yet by the general suspition of the World at this day most common The causes of it which are in the parties themselves although you handle in the beginning of the Fift Book yet here again they may be touched but the occasions of help and furtherance which by the Reformers have been yielded unto them are as I conceive two Senseless Preaching and disgracing of the Ministry For how should not men dare to impugn that which neither by force of Reason nor by Authority of Persons is maintained But in the parties themselves these two causes I conceive of Atheism 1. More abundance of Wit then Judgment and of Witty then Judicious Learning whereby they are more inclined to contradict any thing then willing to be informed of the truth They are not therefore Men of sound Learning for the most part but Smatterers neither is their kinde of Dispute so much by force Argument as by Scoffing Which humor of Scoffing and turning Matters most serious into merriment is now become so common as we are not to marvel what the Prophet means by the â—eat of Scorners nor what the Apostles by foretelling of Scorners to come our own Age hath verified their speech unto us which also may be an Argument against these Scoffers and Atheists themselves seeing it hath been so many Ages ago foretold That such Men the latter days of the World should afford which could not be done by any other Spirit save that whereunto things future and present are alike And even for the main question of the Resurrection whereat they stick so mightily was it not plainly foretold that men should in the latter times say Where is the promise of his coming Against the Creation the Ark and divers other Points exceptions are said to be taken the ground whereof is superfluity of Wit without ground of Learning and Judgment A second cause of Atheism is Sensuality which maketh men desirous to remove all stops and impediments of their wicked life amongst which because Religion is the chiefest so as neither in this life without shame they can persist therein nor if that be true without Torment in the life to come they whet their Wits to annihilate the Joys of Heaven wherein they see if any such be they can have no part and likewise the pains of Hell wherein their portion must needs be very great They labor therefore not that they may not deserve those pains but that deserving them there may be no such pains to seize upon them But what conceit can be imagined more base then that man should strive to perswade himself even against the secret instinct no doubt of his own
Iudges in that Court to be their Ministers others of the people annually chosen twice so many in number as they to be Iudges together with them in the same Court These two sorts to have the care of all Mens manners power of determining of all kinde of Ecclesiastical Causes and authority to Convent to Controll to Punish as far as with Excommunication whom soever they should think worthy none either small or great excepted This device I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered if we duly consider what the present State of Geneva did then require For their Bishop and his Clergy being as it is said departed from them by Moon-light or howsoever being departed to chuse in his room any other Bishop had been a thing altogether impossible And for their Ministers to seek that themselves alone might have coercive power over the whole Church would perhaps have been hardly construed at that time But when so frank an offer was made that for every one Minister there should be two of the people to sit and give voice in the Ecclesiastical Consistory what inconvenience could they easily finde which themselves might not be able always to remedy Howbeit as ever more the simpler sort are even when they see no apparent cause jealous notwithstanding over the secret intents and purposes of wiser men this Proposition of his did somewhat trouble them Of the Ministers themselves which had staid behinde in the City when Calvin was gone some upon knowledge of the peoples earnest intent to recal him to his place again had beforehand written their Letters of Submission and assured him of their alleâ—giance for ever after if it should like him to hearken unto that Publick Suit But yet misdoubting what might happen if this Discipline did go forward they objected against it the example of other Reformed Churches living quietly and orderly without it Some of the chiefest place and countenance amongst the Laity professed with greater stomach their judgments that such a Discipline was little better then Popish Tyranny disguised and tendered unto them under a new Form This sort it may be had some fear that the filling up of the Seats in the Consistory with so great a member of Laymen was but to please the mindes of the people to the end they might think their own sway somewhat but when things came to tryal of practice their Pastors learning would be at all times of force to over-perswade simple men who knowing the time of their own Presidentship to be but short would always stand in fear of their Ministers perpetual authority And among the Ministers themselves one being so far in estimation above the rest the voices of the rest were likely to be given for the most part respectively with a kinde of secret dependency and aw So that in shew a marvellous indifferently composed Senate Ecclesiastical was to govern but in effect one onely man should as the Spirit and Soul of the residue do all in all But what did these vain surmises boot Brought they were now to so strait an issue that of two things they must chuse one Namely Whether they would to their endless disgrace with ridiculous lightness dismiss him whose restitution they had in so impotent manner desired or else condescend unto that demand wherein he was resolute either to have it or to leave them They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home then for ever abroad discredited Wherefore in the end those Orders were on all sides assented unto with no less alacrity of minde then Cities unable to hold out longer are wont to shew when they take conditions such as liketh him to offer them which hath them in the narrow streights of advantage Not many years were over passed before these twice-sworn men adventured to give their last and hottest assault to the Fortress of the same Discipline childishly granting by common consent of their whole Senate and that under their Town-Seal a Relaxation to one Bertelier whom the Eldership had Excommunicated Further also decreeing with strange absurdity that to the same Senate it should belong to give final judgment in Matter of Excommunication and to absolve whom it pleased them clean contrary to their own former Deeds and Oaths The report of which Decree being fortwith brought unto Calvin Before saith he this Decree take place either my Blood or Banishment shall sign it Again two days before the Communion should be celebrated this speech was publickly to like effect Kill me if ever this hand do teach forth the things that are holy to them whom the Church hath judged despisers Whereupon for fear of tumult the forenamed Bertelier was by his friends advised for that time not to use the liberty granted him by the Senate nor to present himself in the Church till they saw somewhat further what would ensue After the Communion quietly ministred and some likelihood of peaceable ending of these troubles without any more aâ—â— that very day in the afternoon besides all mens expectation concluding his ordinary Sermon he telleth them That because he neither had learned nor taught to strive with such as are in Authority therefore saith he the case so standing as now it doth let me use these words of the Apostle unto you I commend you unto God and the Word of his Grace and so bad them heartily Adieu It sometimes cometh to pass that the readiest way which a wise man hath to conquer is to flie This voluntary and unexpected mention of sudden departure caused presently the Senate for according to their wonted manner they still continued onely constant in unconstancy to gather themselves together and for a time to suspend their own Decree leaving things to proceed as before till they had heard the judgment of Four Helvetian Cities concerning the matter which was in strife This to have done at the first before they gave assent unto any order had shewed some wit and discretion in them but now to do it was as much as to say in effect That they would play their parts on a stage Calvin therefore dispatcheth with all expedition his Letters unto some Principal Pastor in every of those Cities craving earnestly at their hands to respect this Cause as a thing whereupon the whole State of Religion and Piety in that Church did so much depend That God and all good men were now inevitably certain to be trampled under foot unless those Four Cities by their good means might be brought to give sentence with the Ministers of Geneva when the Cause should be brought before them yea so to give it that two things it might effectually contain The one an Absolute Approbation of the Discipline of Geneva as consonant unto the Word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands the other an earnest Admonition not to innovate or charge the same His vehement request herein as touching both points was satisfied For albeit the said Helvetian Churches did never as yet
necessary are found to be thence collected onely by poor and marvellous slight conjectures I need not give instance in any one sentence so alledged for that I think the instance in any alledged otherwise a thing not easie to be given A very strange thing sure it were that such a Discipline as ye speak of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the Word of God and no Church ever have found it out nor received it till this present time Contrariwise the Government against which ye bend your selves be observed every where throughout all generations and ages of the Christian World no Church ever perceiving the Word of God to be against it We require you to finde out but one Church upon the face of the whole Earth that hath been ordered by your Discipline or hath not been ordered by ours that is to say By Episcopal Regiment sithence the time that the Blessed Apostles were here conversant Many things out of Antiquity ye bring as if the purest times of the Church had observed the self-same Orders which you require and as though your desire were that the Churches of old should be patterns for us to follow and even Glasses wherein we might see the practice of that which by you is gathered out of Scripture But the truth is ye mean nothing less All this is done for fashion sake onely for ye complain of in as of an injury that men should be willed to seek for examples and patterns of Government in any of those times that have been before Ye plainly hold that from the very Apostles times till this present age wherein your selves imagine ye have sound out aright pattern of sound Discipline there never was any time safe to be followed which thing ye thus endeavor to prove Out of Egesippus ye say that Eusebius writeth How although as long as the Apostles lived the Church did remain a pure Virgin yet after the death of the Apostles and after they were once gone whom God vouchsafed to make Hearers of the Divine Wisdom with their own ears the placing of wicked Errors began to come into the Church Clement also in a certain place to confirm That there was corruption of Doctrine immediately after the Apostles times alledgeth the Proverb That there are few Sons like their Fathers Socrates saith of the Church of Rome and Alexandria the most famous Churches in the Apostles times that about the year 430. the Roman and Alexandrian Bishops leaving the Sacred Function were degenerate to a Secular Rule or Dominion Hereupon ye conclude that it is not safe to fetch our Government from any other then the Apostles times Wherein by the way it may be noted that in proposing the Apostles times as a pattern for the Church to follow though the desire of you all be one the drift and purpose of you all is not one The chiefest thing which Lay-Reformers yawn for is that the Clergy may through Conformity in State and Condition be Apostolical poor as the Apostles of Christ were poor In which one circumstance if they imagine so great perfection they must think that Church which hath such store of Mendicant Fryers a Church in that respect most happy Were it for the glory of God and the good of his Church indeed that the Clergy should be left even as bare as the Apostles when they had neither staff nor scrip that God which should lay upon them the condition of his Apostles would I hope endue them with the self-same affection which was in that holy Apostle whose words concerning his own right-vertuous contentment of heart As well how to want as how to abound are a most fit Episcopal emprese The Church of Christ is a Body Mystical A Body cannot stand unless the parts thereof be proportionable Let it therefore be required on both parts at the hands of the Clergy to be in meanness of state like the Apostles at the hands of the Laity to be as they were who lived under the Apostles And in this Reformation there will be though little Wisdom yet some Indifferency But your Reformation which are of the Clergy if yet it displease you not that I should say ye are of the Clergy seemeth to aim at a broader mark Te think that he which will perfectly reform must bring the Form of Church-Discipline unto the State which then it was at A thing neither possible nor certain nor absolutely convenient Concerning the first what was used in the Apostles times the Scripture fully declareth not so that making their times the Rule and Canon of Church Polity ye make a Rule which being not possible to be fully known is as impossible to be kept Again Sith the later even of the Apostles own times had that which in the former was not thought upon in this general proposing of the Apostles times there is no certainty which should be followed especially seeing that ye give us great cause to doubt how far ye allow those times For albeit the lover of Antichristian building were not ye say as then set up yet the Foundations thereof were secretly and under the ground laid in the Apostles times So that all other times ye plainly reject and the Apostles own times ye approve with marvellous great suspition leaving it intricate and doubtful wherein we are to keep our selves unto the pattern of their times Thirdly Whereas it is the error of the common multitude to consider onely what hath been of old and if the same were well to see whether still it continue if not to condemn that presently which is and never to search upon what ground or consideration the Change might grow Such rudeness cannot be in you so well born with whom Learning and Iudgment hath enabled much more soundly to discern how far the times of the Church and the Orders thereof may alter without offence True it is the ancienter the better Ceremonies of Religion are Howbeit not absolutely true and without exception but true onely so far forth as those different ages do agree in the state of those things for which at the first those Rites Orders and Ceremonies were instituted In the Apostlâ—s times that was harmless which being now revived would be scandalous as their Oscula Sancta Those Feasts of Charity which being instituted by the Apostles were retained in the Church long after are not now thought any where needful What man is there of understanding unto whom it is not manifest how the way of providing for the Clergy by Tithes the device of Alms-houses for the Poor the sorting out of the people into their several Parisoâ—s together with sunury other things which the Apostles times could not have being now established are much more convenient and fit for the Church of Christ then if the same should be taken away for Conformities sake with the antientest and first times The Orders therefore which were observed in the Apostles times are not to be urged as a Rule
universally either sufficient or necessary If they be nevertheless on your part it still remaineth to be better proved That the Form of Discipline which ye intitle Apostolical was in the Apostles time exercised For of this very thing ye fail even touching that which ye make most account of as being Matter of Substance in Discipline I mean the Power of your Lay-Elders and the difference of your Doctors from the Pastors in all Churches So that in faith we may be bold to conclude That besides these last times which for insolency pride and egregious contempt of all good order are the worst there are none wherein ye can truly affirm that the compleat Form of your Discipline or the Substance thereof was practised The evidence therefore of Antiquity failing you ye flie to the judgments of such Learned men as seem by their Writings to be of opinion that all Christian Churches should receive your Discipline and abandon ours Wherein as ye heap up the names of a number of men not unworthy to be had in honor so there are a number whom when ye mention although it serve ye to purpose with the ignorant and vulgar sort who measure by tale and not by weight yet surely they who know what quality and value the men are of will think ye draw very near the dregs But were they all of as great account as the best and chiefest amongst them with us notwithstanding neither are they neither ought they to be of such reckoning that their opinion or conjecture should cause the Laws of the Church of England to give place much less when they neither do all agree in that opinion and of them which are at agreement the most part through a courteous enducement have followed one man as their Guide finally that one therein not unlikely to have swerved If any chance to say it is probable that in the Apostles times there were Lay-Elders or not to mislike the continuance of them in the Church or to affirm that Bishops at the first were a name but not a power distinct from Presbyters or to speak any thing in praise of those Churches which are without Episcopal Regiment or to reprove the fault of such as abuse that Calling All these ye Register for Men perswaded as you are that every Christian Church standeth bound by the Law of God to put down Bishops and in their rooms to erect an Eldership so authorized as you would have it for the Government of each Parish Deceived greatly they are therefore who think that all they whose names are cited amongst the Favorers of this Cause are on any such verdict agreed Yet touching some material points of your Discipline a kinde of agreement we grant there is amongst many Divines of Reformed Churches abroad For first To do as the Church of Geneva did the Learned in some other Churches must needs be the more willing who having used in like manner not the slow and tedious help of proceeding by publick Authority but the peoples more quick endeavor for alteration in such an exigent I see not well how they could have staid to deliberate about any other Regiment then that which already was devised to their hands that which in like case had been taken that which was easiest to be established without delay that which was likeliest to content the people by reason of some kinde of sway which it giveth them When therefore the example of one Church was thus at the first almost through a kinde of constraint or necessity followed by many their concurrence in perswasion about some material points belonging to the same polity is not strange For we are not to marvel greatly if they which have all done the same thing do easily embrace the same opinion as concerning their own doings Besides mark I beseech you that which Galen in matter of Philosophy noteth for the like falleth out even in Questions of higher knowledge It fareth many times with mens opinions as with rumors and reports That which a credible person telleth is easily thought probable by such as are well perswaded of him But if two or three or four agree all in the same tale they judge it then to be out of Controversie and so are many times overtaken for want of due consideration either some common cause leading them all into error or one mans oversight deceiving many through their too much credulity and easiness of belief Though ten persons be brought to give testimony in any cause yet if the knowledge they have of the thing whereunto they come as witnesses appear to have grown from some one amongst them and to have spred it self from hand to hand they all are in force but as one testimony nor is it otherwise here where the Daughter Churches do speak their Mothers Dialect here where so many sing one Song by reason that he is the Guide of the Quire concerning whose deserved authority amongst even the gravest Divines we have already spoken at large Will ye ask what should move those many Learned to be followers of one Mans judgment no necessity of Argument forcing them thereunto Your demand is answered by your selves Loth ye are to think that they whom ye judge to have attained as sound knowledge in all points of Doctrine as any since the Apostles time should mistake in Discipline Such is naturally our affection that whom in great things we mightily admire in them we are not perswaded willingly that any thing should be amiss The reason whereof is for that as dead Flies putrifie the ointment of the Apothecary so a little Folly him that is in estimation for wisdom This in every profession hath too much authorized the judgment of a few This with Germans hath caused Luther and with many other Churches Calvin to prevail in all things Yet are we not able to define whether the Wisdom of that God who setteth before us in holy Scripture so many admirable patterns of Vertue and no one of them without somewhat noted wherein they were culpable to the end that to him alone it might always be acknowledged Thou onely art holy thou onely art just might not permit those worthy Vessels of his Glory to be in some things blemished with the stain of humane frailty even for this cause lest we should esteem of any man above that which behoveth 5. Notwithstanding as though ye were able to say a great deal more then hitherto your Books have revealed to the World earnest Challengers ye are of tryal by some publick Disputation wherein if the thing ye crave be no more then onely leave to dispute openly about those Matters that are inquestion the Schools in Universities for any thing I know are open unto you They have their yearly Acts and Commencements besides other Disputations both ordinary and upon occasion wherein the several parts of our own Ecclesiastical Discipline are oftentimes offered unto that kinde of Examination the learnedst of you have been of late years
and the coherance it hath with those things either on which it dependeth or which depend on it 8. The case so standing therefore my Brethren as it doth the wisdom of Governors ye must not blame in that they further also forecasting the manifold strange and dangerous innovations which are more then likely to follow if your Discipline should take place have for that cause thought it hitherto a part of their duty to withstand your endeavors that way The rather for that they have seen already some small beginnings of the fruits thereof in them who concurring with you in judgment about the necessity of that Discipline have adventured without more ado to separate themselves from the rest of the Church and to put your speculations in execution These mens hastiness the warier sort of you doth not commend ye wish they had held themselves longer in and not so dangerously flown abroad before the feathers of the Cause had been grown their Error with merciful terms ye reprove naming them in great commiseration of minds your poor Brethren They on the contrary side more bitterly accuse you as their false Brethren and against you they plead saying From your Brests it is that we have sucked those things which when ye delivered unto us ye termed that heavenly sincere and wholesom Milk of Gods Word howsoever ye now abhor as poyson that which the vertue thereof hath wrought and brought forth in us Ye sometime our Companions Guides and Familiars with whom we have had most sweet Consultations are now become our professed Adversaries because we think the Statute-Congregation in England to be no true Christian Churches because we have severed our selves from them and because without their leave or licence that are in Civil Authority we have secretly framed our own Churches according to the Platform of the Word of God For of that point between you and us there is no Controversie Also what would ye have us to do At such time as ye were content to accept us in the number of your own your Teaching we heard weread your Writings And though we would yet able we are not to forget with what zeal ye have ever profest That in the English Congregations for so many of them as be ordered according unto their own Laws the very Publick Service of God is fraught as touching Matter with heaps of intolerable Pollutions and as concerning Form borrowed from the Shop of Antichrist hateful both ways in the eyes of the most Holy the kinde of their Government by Bishops and Archbishops Antichristian that Discipline which Christ hath essentially tied that is to say so united unto his Church that we cannot account it really to be his Church which hath not in it the same Discipline that very Discipline no less there despised then in the highest Throne of Antichrist All such parts of the Word of God as do any way concern that Discipline no less unsoundly taught and interpreted by all authorized English Pastors then by Antichrists Factors themselves At Baptism Crossing at the Supper of the Lord. Kneeling at both a number of other the most notorious Badges of Antichristian Recognisance usual Being moved with these and the like your effectual discourses whereunto we gave most attentive ear till they entred even into our souls and were as fire within our bosoms We thought we might hereof be bold to conclude That sith no such Antichristian Synagogue may be accounted a true Church of Christ ye by accusing all Congregations ordered according to the Laws of England as Antichristian did mean to condemn those Congregations as not being any of them worthy the name of a true Christian Church Ye tell us now it is not your meaning But what meant your often threatnings of them who professing themselves the inhabitants of Mount Sion were too loth to depart wholly as they should out of Babylon Whereat our hearts being fearfully troubled we durst not we durst not continue longer so near her confines lest her plagues might suddenly overtake us before we did cease to be partakers with her sins for so we could not chuse but acknowledge with grief that we were when they doing evil we by our presence in their Assemblies seemed to like thereof or at leastwise not so earnestly to dislike as became men heartily zealous of Gods glory For adventuring to erect the Discipline of Christ without the leave of the Christian Magistrate haply ye may condemn us as fools in that we hazard thereby our estates and persons further then you which are that way more wise think necessary But of any offence or sin therein committed against God with what conscience can you accuse us when your own positions are That the things we observe should every of them be dearer unto us then ten thousand lives that they are the peremptory Commandments of God that no mortal man can dispense with them and that the Magistrate grievously sinneth in not constraining thereunto Will ye blame any man for doing that of his own accord which all men should be compelled to do that are not willing of themselves When God commandeth shall we answer that we will obey if so be Cesar will grant us leave Is Discipline an Ecclesiastical Matter or a Civil If an Ecclesiastical is must of necessity belong to the duty of the Minister and the Minister ye say holdeth all his Authority of doing whatsoever belongeth unto the Spiritual Charge of the House of God even immediately from God himself without dependency upon any Magistrate Whereupon it followeth as we suppose that the hearts of the people being willing to be under the Scepter of Christ the Minister of God into whose hands the Lord himself hath put that Scepter is without all excuse if thereby he guide them not Nor do we finde that hitherto greatly ye have disliked those Churches abroad where the people with direction of their godly Ministers have even against the will of the Magistrate brought in either the Doctrine or Discipline of Iesus Christ For which cause we must now think the very same thing of you which our Saviour did sometime utter concerning false-hearted Scribes and Pharisees They say and do not Thus the foolish Barrowist deriveth his Schism by way of Conclusion as to him it seemeth directly and plainly out of your principles Him therefore we leave to be satisfied by you from whom he hath sprung And if such by your own acknowledgment be persons dangerous although as yet the alterations which they have made are of small and tender growth the changes likely to ensue throughout all States and Vocations within this Land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon First Concerning the Supream Power of the Highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the Form of your Discipline will constrain it to resign as in the last Book of this Treatise we have shewed at large Again it may justly be feared whether our English
God vouchsafed them above the rest of the world that in the affairs of their estate which were not determinable one way or other by the Scripture himself gave them extraordinary direction and counsel as oft as they sought it at his hands Thus God did first by speech unto Noses after by Urim and Thummim unto Priests lastly by dreams and visions unto Prophets from whom in such cases they were to receive the answer of God Concerning Ioshua therefore thus spake the Lord unto Moses saying He shall stand before Eleazer the Priest who shall ask counsel for him by the judgement of Urim before the Lord whereof had Ioshua been mindeful the fraud of the Gibeonites could not so smoothly have past unespied till there was no help The Jews had Prophets to have resolved them from the mouth of God himself whether Egyptian aids should profit them yea or no but they thought themselves wise enough and him unworthy to be of their counsel In this respect therefore was their reproof though sharp yet just albeit there had been no charge precisely given them that they should always take heed of Egypt But as for David to think that he did evil in determining to build God a Temple because there was in Scripture no Commandment that he should build it were very injurious the purpose of his heart was religious and godly the act most worthy of honour and renown neither could Nathan chuse but admire his vertuous intent exhort him to go forward and beseech God to prosper him therein Put God saw the endless troubles which David should be subject unto during the whole time of his Regiment and therefore gave charge to defer so good a work till the days of tranquillity and peace wherein it might without interruption be performed David supposed that it could not stand with the duty which he owed unto God to set himself in an house of Cedar-trees and to behold the Ark of the Lords Covenant unsetled This opinion the Lord abateth by causing Nathan to shew him plainly that it should be no more imputed unto him for a fault then it had been unto the Judges of Israel before him his case being the same which theirs was their times not more unquiet then his nor more unfit for such an action Wherefore concerning the force of Negative Arguments so taken from the authority of Scripture as by us they are denied there is in all this less then nothing And touching that which unto this purpose is borrowed from the Controversies sometimes handled between Mr. Harding and the worthiest Divine that Christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years who being brought up together in one University it fell out in them which was spoken of two others They learned in the same that which in contrary Camps they did practice Of these two the one objecting that with us Arguments taken from Authority Negatively are over common the Bishops answer hereunto is that this kinde of Argument is thought to be good whensoever proof is taken of Gods Word and is used not onely by in but also by S. Paul and by many of the Catholick Fathers S. Paul saith God said not unto Abraham In thy seeds all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed but In thy seed which is Christ and thereof he thought he made a good Argument Likewise saith Origen The Bread which the Lord gave unto his Disciples saying unto them Take and eat be deferred not nor commanded to be reserved till the next day Such Arguments Origen and other learned Fathers thought to stand for good whatsoever misliking Mr. Harding hath sound in them This kinde of proof is thought to hold in Gods Commandments for that they be full and perfect and God hath specially charged us that we should neither put to them nor take from them and therefore it seemeth good unto them that have learned of Christ. Unus est magister vester Christus and have heard the voice of God the Father from Heaven Ipsum audite But unto them that add to the Word of God what them listeth and make Gods will subject unto their will and break Gods Commandments for their own traditions sake unto them it seemeth not good Again the English Apologie alledging the example of the Greeks how they have neither private Masses nor mangled Sacraments nor Purgatories nor Pardons it pleaseth Mr. Harding to jest out the matter to use the help of his wits where strength of truth failed him and to answer with scoffing at Negatives The Bishops defence in this case is The ancient learned Fathers having to deal with politick Hereticks that in defence of their Errors avouched the judgement of all the old Bishops and Doctors that had been before them and the general consent of the Primitive and whole universal Church and that with as good regard of truth and as faithfully as you do now the better to discover the shameless boldness and nakedness of their doctrine were oftentimes likewise forced to use the negative and so to drive the same Hereticks as we do you to prove their Affirmatives which thing to do it was never possible The ancient Father Iraeneus thus stayed himself as we do by the Negative Hoc neq Prophetae praedicaverunt neque Dominus docuit neque Apostoli tradiderunt This thing neither did the Prophets publish nor our Lord teach nor the Apostles deliver By a like Negative Chrysostome saith This tree neither Paul planted nor Apollos watered nor God increased In like sort Leo saith What needeth it to believe that thing that neither the Law hath taught nor the Prophets have spoken nor the Gospel hath preached nor the Apostles have delivered And again How are the new devices brought in that our Fathers never knew S. Augustine having reckoned up a great number of the Bishops of Rome by a general Negative saith thus In all this order of succession of Bishops there is not one Bishop found that was a Donatist S. Gregory being himself a Bishop of Rome and writing against the Title of Universal Bishop saith thus None of all my Predecessors ever consented to use this ungodly Title No Bishop of Rome ever took upon him this name of singularity By such Negatives Mr. Harding we reprove the vanity and novelty of your Religion We tell you none of the Catholick ancient learned Father either Greek or Latine ever used either your private Mass or your half Communion or your barbarous unknown prayers Paul never planted them Apollos never watered them God never encreased them they are of your selves they are not of God In all this there is not a Syllable which any way crosseth us For concerning Arguments Negative taken from Humane Authority they are here proved to be in some cases very strong and forcible They are not in our estimation idle reproofs when the Authors of needless Innovations are opposed with such Negatives as that of Leo How are these new
and ever shall have some Church Visible upon Earth When the People of God whorshipped the Calf in the Wilderness when they adored the Brazen Serpent when they served the gods of Nations when they bowed their knees to Baal when they burnt Incense and offered Sacrifice unto Idols True it is the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them their Prophets justly condemned them as an adulterous seed and a wicked generation of Miscreants which had forsaken the living God and of him were likewise forsaken in respect of that singular Mercy wherewith he kindly and lovingly embraceth his faithful Children Howbeit retaining the Law of God and the holy Seal of his Covenant the Sheep of his Visible Flock they continued even in the depth of their Disobedience and Rebellion Wherefore not onely amongst them God always had his Church because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal but whose knees were bowed unto Baal even they were also of the Visible Church of God Nor did the Prophet so complain as if that Church had been quite and clean extinguished but he took it as though there had not been remaining in the World any besides himself that carcied a true and an upright heart towards God with care to serve him according unto his holy Will For lack of diligent observing the difference first between the Church of God Mystical and Visible then between the Visible sound and corrupted sometimes more sometimes less the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed This deceiveth them and nothing else who think that in the time of the first World the Family of Noah did contain all that were of the Visible Church of God From hence it grew and from no other cause in the World that the Affrican Bishops in the Council of Carthage knowing how the Administration of Baptism belongeth onely to the Church of Christ and supposing that Hereticks which were apparently severed from the sound believing Church could not possibly be of the Church of Jesus Christ thought it utterly against Reason That Baptism administred by men of coâ—â—upt belief should be accounted as a Sacrament And therefore in maintenance of Rebaptization their Arguments are built upon the sore-alledged ground That Hereticks are not at all any part of the Church of Christ. Our Saviour founded his Church on a Rock and not upon Heresie Power of Baptizing he gave to his Apostles unto Hereticks he gave it not Wherefore they that are without the Church and oppose themselves against Christ do but scatter his Sheep and Flock Without the Church Baptize they cannot Again Are Hereticks Christians or are they not If they be Christians wherefore remain they not in Gods Church If they be no Christians how make they Christians Or to what purpose shall those words of the Lord serve He which is not with me is against me And He which gathereth not with me scaltereth Wherefore evident it is that upon misbegotten Children and the brood of Antichrist without Rebaptization the Holy Ghost cannot descend But none in this case so earnest as Cyprian I know no Baptism but one and that in Church onely none without the Church where he that doth cast out the Devil hath the Devil He doth examine about Belief whose lips and words do breathe forth a Canker The faithless doth offer the Articles of Faith a wicked Creature forgiveth wickedness in the Name of Christ Antichrist signeth he which is cursed of God blesseth a dead carrion promiseth life a man unpeaceable giveth peace a blasphemer calleth upon the Name of God a prophane person doth exercise Priesthood a Sacrilegious wretch doth prepare the Altar and in the neck of all these that evil also cometh the Eucharist a very Bishop of the Devil doth presume to consecrate All this was true but not sufficient to prove that Hereticks were in no sort any part of the Visible Church of Christ and consequently their Baptism no Baptism This opinion therefore was afterwards both condemned by a better advised Council and also revoked by the chiefest of the Authors thereof themselves What is it but onely the self-same error and misconceit wherewith others being at this day likewise possest they ask us where our Church did lurk in what Cave of the Earth it slept for so many hundreds of years together before the bath of Martin Luther As if we were of opinion that Luther did erect a new Church of Christ. No the Church of Christ which was from the beginning is and continueth unto the end Of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound In the days of Abia it plainly appeareth that Iudah was by many degrees more free from pollution then Israel as that solemn Oration sheweth wherein he pleadeth for the one against the other in this wise O Ieroboam and all Israel hear you me Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the people of Nations Whosoever cometh to consecrate with a young bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods But we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him and the Priests the sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord every morning and every evening Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense and the Bread is set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof to burn every evening for we keep the watch of the Lord oâ—r God but ye have for saken him In St. Pauls time the integrity of Rome was famous Corinth many ways reproved they of Galatia much more out of square In St. Iohns time Ephesus and Smyrna in far better state then Thyatira and Pergamus were We hope therefore that to reform our selves if at any time we have done amiss is not to sever our selves from the Church we were of before In the Church we were and we are so still Other diffcrence between our estate before and now we know none but onely such as we see in Iudah which having sometime been Idolatrous became afterwards more soundly religious by renouncing Idolatry and Superstition If Ephraim be joyned to Idols the counsel of the Prophet is Let him alone If Israel play the Harlot let not Judah sin If it seem evil unto you saith Ioshua to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve whether the gods whom your Fathers served beyond the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But I and mine house will serve the Lord. The indisposition therefore of the Church of Rome to reform her self must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God even as desire of retaining Conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not perform that duty Notwithstanding so far as lawfully we may we have held and do hold Fellowship with them For even as
hath placed you Bishops to Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased by his own blood Finally that Commandment which unto the same Timothy is by the same Apostle even in the same form and manner afterwards again urged I charge thee in the sight of God and the Lord Iesus Christ which will judge the quick and dead at his appearance and in his Kingdom Preach the Word of God When Timothy was instituted in that Office then was the credit and trust of this duty committed unto his faithful care The Doctrine of the Gospel was then given him As the precious Talent or Treasure of Iesus Christ then received he for performance of this duty The special Gift of the Holy Ghost To keep this Commandment immaculate and blameless Was to teach the Gospel of Christ without mixture of corrupt and unsound Doctrine such as a number even in those times intermingled with the Mysteries of Christian Belief Till the appearance of Christ to keep it so doth not import the time wherein it should be kept but rather the time whereunto the final reward for keeping it was reserved according to that of St. Paul concerning himself I have kept the Faith for the residue there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall in that day render unto me If they that labor in this Harvest should respect but the present fruit of their painful Travel a poor encouragement it were unto them to continue therein all the days of their life But their reward is great in Heaven the Crown of Righteousness which shall be given them in that day is honorable The fruit of their industry then shall they reap with full contentment and satisfaction but not till then Wherein the greatness of their reward is abundantly sufficient to countervail the tediousness of their expectation Wherefore till then they that are in labor must rest in hope O Timothy keep that which is committed unto thy charge that great Commandment which thou hast received keep till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. In which sense although we judge the Apostles words to have been uttered yet hereunto we do not require them to yield that think any other construction more sound If therefore it be rejected and theirs esteemed more probable which hold That the last words do import perpetual observation of the Apostles Commandment imposed necessarily for ever upon the Militant Church of Christ Let them withal consider That then his Commandment cannot so largely be taken to comprehend whatsoever the Apostle did command Timothy For themselves do not all binde the Church unto some things whereof Timothy received charge as namely unto that Precept concerning the choice of Widows So as they cannot hereby maintain that all things positively commanded concerning the affairs of the Church were commanded for perpetuity And we do not deny that certain things were commanded to be though positive yet perpetual in the Church They should not therefore urge against us places that seem to forbid change but rather such as set down some measure of alteration which measure if we have exceeded then might they therewith charge us justly Whereas now they themselves both granting and also using liberty to change cannot in reason dispute absolutely against all change Christ delivered no inconvenient or unmeet Laws Sundry of ours they hold inconvenient Therefore such Laws they cannot possibly hold to be Christs Being not his they must of necessity grant them added unto his Yet certain of those very Laws so added they themselves do not judge unlawful as they plainly confess both in matter of Prescript Attire and of Rites appertaining to Burial Their own Protestations are that they plead against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Popish Apparel and against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Ceremonies in Burial Therefore they hold it a thing not unlawful to add to the Laws of Jesus Christ and so consequently they yield That no Law of Christ forbiddeth Addition unto Church Laws The Judgment of Calvin being alledged against them to whom of all men they attribute most whereas his words be plain That for Ceremonies and External Discipline the Church hath power to make Laws The answer which hereunto they make is That indefinitely the speech is true and that so it was meant by him namely That some things belonging unto External Discipline and Ceremonies are in the Power and Arbitrement of the Church but neither was it meant neither is it true generally That all External Discipline and all Ceremonies are left to the Order of the Church in as much as the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord are Ceremonies which yet the Church may not therefore abrogate Again Excommunication is a part of External Discipline which might also be cast away if all External Discipline were Arbitrary and in the choice of the Church By which their answer it doth appear that touching the names of Ceremony and External Discipline they gladly would have us so understood as if we did herein contain a great deal more then we do The fault which we finde with them is That they over-much abridge the Church of her power in these things Whereupon they recharge us as if in these things we gave the Church a liberty which hath no limits or bounds as if all things which the name of Discipline containeth were at the Churches free choice So that we might either have Church Governors and Government or want them either retain or reject Church Censures as we lift They wonder at us as at men which think it so indifferent what the Church doth in Matter of Ceremonies that it may be feared lest we judge the very Sacraments themselves to be held at the Churches pleasure No the name of Ceremonies we do not use in so large a meaning as to bring Sacraments within the compass and reach thereof although things belonging unto the outward form and seemly Administration of them are contained in that name even as we use it For the name of Ceremonies we use as they themselves do when they speak after this sort The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the weightiest things ought especially to be looked unto but the Ceremonies also as Mint and Cummin ought not to be neglected Besides in the Matter of External Discipline or Regiment it self we do not deny but there are some things whereto the Church is bound till the Worlds end So as the question is onely how far the bounds of the Churches Liberty do reach We hold that the power which the Church hath lawfully to make Laws and Orders for it self doth extend unto sundry things of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and such other Matters whereto their opinion is That the Churches Authority and Power doth not reach Whereas therefore in Disputing against us about this point they take their compass a great deal wider then the truth of things can afford producing
Store-house abounding with inestimable Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge in many kindes over and above things in this one kinde barely necessary yea even that Matters of Ecclesiastical Polity are not therein omitted but taught also albeit not so taught as those other things before mentioned For so perfectly are those things taught that nothing ever can need to be added nothing ever cease to be necessary These on the contrary side as being of a far other nature and quality not so strictly nor everlastingly commanded in Scripture but that unto the compleat Form of Church Polity much may be requisite which the Scripture teacheth not and much which it hath taught become unrequisite sometime because we need not use it sometimes also because we cannot In which respect for mine own part although I see that certain Reformed Churches the Scotish especially and French have not that which best agreeth with the Sacred Scripture I mean the Government that is by Bishops in as much as both those Churches are faln under a different kinde of Regiment which to remedy it is for the one altogether too late and too soon for the other during their present affliction and trouble This their defect and imperfection I had rather lament in such a case then exagitate considering that men oftentimes without any fault of their own may be driven to want that kinde of Polity or Regiment which is best and to content themselves with that weich either the irremediable Error of former times or the necessity of the present hath cast upon them Fifthly Now because that Position first mentioned which holdeth it necessary that all things which the Church may lawfully do in her own Regiment be commanded in holy Scripture hath by the latter Defenders thereof been greatly qualified who though perceiving it to be over-extream are notwithstanding loth to acknowledge any oversight therein and therefore labor what they may to salve it up by construction we have for the more perspicuity delivered what was thereby meant at the first Sixthly How injurious a thing it were unto all the Churches of God for men to hold it in that meaning Seventhly And how unperfect their Interpretations are who so much labor to help it either by dividing Commandments of Scripture into two kindes and so defending that all things must be commanded if not in special yet in general Precepts Eightly Or by taking it as meant that in case the Church do devise any new Order she ought therein to follow the direction of Scripture onely and not any Star-light of Mans Reason Ninethly Both which evasions being cut off we have in the next place declared after what sort the Church may lawfully frame to her self Laws of Polity and in what reckoning such Positive Laws both are with God and should be with Men. Tenthly Furthermore because to abridge the Liberty of the Church in this behalf it hath been made a thing very odious that when God himself hath devised some certain Laws and committed them to Sacred Scripture Man by Abrogation Addition or any way should presume to alter and change them it was of necessity to be examined Whether the Authority of God in making or his care in committing those his Laws unto Scripture be sufficient Arguments to prove That God doth in no case allow they should suffer any such kinde of change Eleventhly The last refuge for proof That Divine Laws of Christian Church Polity may not be altered by extinguishment of any old or addition of new in that kinde is partly a marvellous strange Discourse That Christ unless he would shew himself not so faithful as Moses or not so wise as Lycurgus and Solon must needs have set down in holy Scripture some certain compleat and unchangeable Form of Polity and partly a coloured shew of some evidence where change of that sort of Laws may seem expresly forbidden although in truth nothing less be done I might have added hereunto their more familiar and popular disputes as The Church is a City yea the City of the Great King and the life of a City is Polity The Church is the House of the Living God and what house can there be without some order for the government of it In the Royal House of a Prince there must be Officers for Government such as not any Servant in the House but the Prince whose the House is shall judge convenient So the House of God must have Orders for the Government of it such as not any of the Houshold but God himself hath appointed It cannot stand with the Love and Wisdom of God to leave such Order untaken as is necessary for the due Government of his Church The numbers degrees orders and attire of Solomons servants did shew his Wisdom therefore he which is greater then Solomon hath not failed to leave in his House such Orders for Government thereof as may serve to be as a Looking-glass for his providence care and wisdom to be seen in That little spark of the Light of Nature which remaineth in us may serve us for the affairs of this life But as in all other Matters concerning the Kingdom of Heaven so principally in this which concerneth the very Government of that Kingdom needful it is we should be taught of God As long as Men are perswaded of any Order that it is onely of Men they presume of their own understanding and they think to devise another not onely as good but better then that which they have received By severity of punishment this presumption and curiosity may be restrained But that cannot work such chearful Obedience as is yielded where the Conscience hath respect to God as the Author of Laws and Orders This was it which countenanced the Laws of Moses made concerning outward Polity for the Administration of holy things The like some Law-givers of the Heathens did pretend but falsly yet wisely discerning the use of this perswasion For the better obedience sake therefore it was expedient that God should be Author of the Polity of his Church But to what issue doth all this come A man would think that they which hold out with such discourses were of nothing more fully perswaded then of this That the Scripture hath set down a compleat Form of Church Polity Universal Perpetual altogether Unchangeable For so it would follow if the premises were sound and strong to such effect as is pretended Notwithstanding they which have thus formally maintained Argument in defence of the first oversight are by the very evidence of Truth themselves constrained to make this in effect their conclusion That the Scripture of God hath many things concerning Church Polity that of those many some are of greater weight some of less that what hath been urged as touching Immutability of Laws it extendeth in Truth no further then onely to Laws wherein things of greater moment are prescribed Now these things of greater moment what are they Forsooth Doctors Pastors Lay-Elders Elderships compounded of these
three Synods consisting of many Elderships Deacons Women Church-servants or Widows free consent of the people unto actions of greatest moment after they be by Churches or Synods orderly resolved All this Form of Polity if yet we may term that a form of building when men have laid a few Rafters together and those not all of the foundest neither but howsoever all this Form they conclude is prescribed in such sort that to adde to it any thing as of like importance for so I think they mean or to abrogate of it any thing at all is unlawful In which resolution if they will firmly and constantly persist I see not but that concerning the points which hitherto have been disputed of they must agree that they have molested the Church with needless opposition and henceforward as we said before betake themselves wholly unto the tryal of particulars whether every of those things which they esteem as principal be either so esteemed of or at all established for perpetuity in holy Scripture and whether any particular thing in our Church Polity be received other then the Scripture alloweth of either in greater things or in smaller The Matters wherein Church Polity is conversant are the Publick Religious Duties of the Church as the Administration of the Word and Sacraments Prayers Spiritual Censures and the like To these the Church standeth always bound Laws of Polity are Laws which appoint in what manner these duties shall be performed In performance whereof because all that are of the Church cannot joyntly and equally work the first thing in Polity required is A difference of Persons in the Church without which difference those Functions cannot in orderly sort be executed Hereupon we hold That Gods Clergy are a State which hath been and will be as long as there is a Church upon Earth necessarily by the plain Word of God himself a State whereunto the rest of Gods people must be subject as touching things that appertain to their Souls health For where Polity is it cannot but appoint some to be Leaders of others and some to be led by others If the blinde lead the blinde they both perish It is with the Clergy if their persons be respected even as it is with other men their quality many times far beneath that which the dignity of their place requireth Howbeit according to the Order of Polity they being The lights of the World others though better and wiser must that way be subject unto them Again for as much as where the Clergy are any great multitude order doth necessarily require that by degrees they be distinguished we hold there have ever been and ever ought to be in such case at leastwise two sorts of Ecclesiastical Persons the one subordinate unto the other as to the Apostles in the beginning and to the Bishops always since we finde plainly both in Scripture and in all Ecclesiastical Records other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments have been Moreover it cannot enter into any Mans conceit to think it lawful that every man which listeth should take upon him charge in the Church and therefore a solemn admittance is of such necessity that without it there can be no Church Polity A number of Particularities there are which make for the more convenient Being of these Principal and Perpetual parts in Ecclesiastical Polity but yet are not of such constant use and necessity in Gods Church Of this kinde are times and places appointed for the Exercise of Religion Specialties belonging to the Publick Solemnity of the Word the Sacraments and Prayer the Enlargement or Abridgement of Functions Ministerial depending upon those two Principals beforementioned To conclude even whatsoever doth by way of Formality and Circumstance concern any Publick Action of the Church Now although that which the Scripture hath of things in the former kinde be for ever permanent yet in the latter both much of that which the Scripture teacheth is not always needful and much the Church of God shall always need which the Scripture teacheth not So as the Form of Polity by them set down for perpetuity is three ways faulty Faulty in omitting some things which in Scripture are of that nature as namely the difference that ought to be of Pastors when they grow to any great multitude Faulty in requiring Doctors Deacons Widows and such like as things of perpetual necessity by the Law of God which in Truth are nothing less Faulty also in urging some things by Scripture Immutable as their Lay-Elders which the Scripture neither maketh Immutable nor at all teacheth for any thing either we can as yet finde or they have hitherto been able to prove But hereof more in the Books that follow As for those marvellous Discourses whereby they adventure to argue That God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to be done I must confess I have often wondred at their exceeding boldness herein When the question is Whether God have delivered in Scripture as they affirm he hath a compleat particular Immutable Form of Church Polity why take they that other both presumptuous and superfluous labor to prove he should have done it there being no way in this case to prove the Deed of God saving onely by producing that evidence wherein he hath done it But if there be no such thing apparent upon Record they do as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some Written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleadeth That there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love or good will which always the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofs will convict a Testament to have that in it which other men can no where by reading finde In matters which concern the Actions of God the most dutiful way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekness to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of Reason ought to do The ways which he hath whereby to do all things for the greatest good of his Church are more in number then we can search other in Nature then that we should presume to determine which of many should be the fittest for him to chuse till such time as we see he hath chosen of many some one which one we then may boldly conclude to be the fittest because he hath taken it before the rest When we do otherwise surely we exceed our bounds who and where weare we forget And therefore needful it is that our Pride in such cases be contrould and our Disputes beaten back with those Demands of the blessed Apostle How unsearchable are his Iudgments and his Ways past finding out Who hath known the Minde of the Lord or who was his Counsellor OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK IV. Concerning their Third Assertion That our Form of Church-Politie is corrupted with Popish Orders Rites and Ceremonies banished out of certain Reformed Churches whose example
know that what Ceremonies we retain common unto the Church of Rome we therefore retain them for that we judge them to be profitable and to be such that others instead of them would be worse So that when they say that we ought to abrogate such Romish Ceremonies as are unprofitable or else might have other more profitable in their stead they trisle and they beat the Air about nothing which toucheth us unless they mean that we ought to abrogate all Romish Ceremonies which in their judgment have either no use or less use than some other might have But then must they shew some commission whereby they are authorized to sit as Judges and we required to take their judgment for good in this case Otherwise their sentences will not be greatly regarded when they oppose their Me thinketh unto the Orders of the Church of England as in the Question about Surplesses one of them doth If we look to the colour black methinks is the more decent if to the form a garment down to the foot hath a great deal more comeliness in it If they think that we ought to prove the Ceremonies commodious which we have retained they do in this Point very greatly deceive themselves For in all right and equity that which the Church hath received and held so long for good that which publike approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient They which have stood up as yesterday to challenge it of defect must prove their challenge If we being Defendents do answer that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely decent profitable for the Church their reply is childish and unorderly to say that we demand the thing in question and shew the poverty of our cause the goodness whereof we are fain to beg that our Adversaries would grant For on our part this must be the Answer which orderly proceeding doth require The burden of proving doth rest on them In them it is frivolous to say we ought not to use bad Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and presume all such bad as it pleaseth themselves to dislike unless we can perswade them the contrary Besides they are herein opposite also to themselves For what one thing is so common with them as to use the custome of the Church of Rome for an Argument to prove that such and such Ceremonies cannot be good and profitable for us inasmuch as that Church useth them Which usual kind of disputing sheweth that they do not disallow onely those Romish Ceremonies which are unprofitable but count all unprofitable which are Romish that is to say which have been devised by the Church of Rome or which are used in that Church and not prescribed in the Word of God For this is the onely limitation which they can use sutable unto their other Positions And therefore the cause which they yield why they hold it lawful to retain in Doctrine and in Discipline some things as good which yet are common to the Church of Rome is for that those good things are perpetual Commandments in whose place no other can come but Ceremonies are changeable So that their judgement in truth is that whatsoever by the Word of God is not changeable in the Church of Rome that Churches using is a cause why Reformed Churches ought to change it and not to think it good or profitable And lest we seem to father any thing upon them more then is properly their own let them read even their own words where they complain That we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies yea they urge that this cause although it were alone ought to move them to whom that belongeth to do them away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies and that the Bishop of Salisbury doth justifie this their complaint The clause is untrue which they add concerning the Bishop of Salisbury but the sentence doth shew that we do them no wrong in setting down the state of the question between us thus Whether we ought to abolish out of the Church of England all such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as are established in the Church of Rome and are not prescribed in the Word of God For the Affirmative whereof we are now to answer such proofs of theirs as have been before alledged 5. Let the Church of Rome be what it will let them that are of it be the people of God and our Fathers in the Christian Faith or let them be otherwise hold them for Catholicks or hold them for Hereticks it is not a thing either one way or other in this present question greatly material Our conformity with them in such things as have been proposed is not proved as yet unlawful by all this S. Augustine hath said yea and we have allowed his saying That the custome of the people of God and the decrees of our forefathers are to be kept touching those things whereof the Scripture hath neither one way nor other given us any charge What then Doth it here therefore follow that they being neither the people of God nor our Forefathers are for that cause in nothing to be followed This Consequent were good if so be it were granted that only the custom of the people of God and the Decrees of our forefathers are in such case to be observed But then should no other kind of latter Laws in the Church be good which were a gross absurdity to think S. Augustines speech therefore doth import that where we have no divine Precept if yet we have the custom of the people of God or a Decree of our forefathers this is a Law and must be kept Notwithstanding it is not denied but that we lawfully may observe the positive constitutions of our own Churches although the same were but yesterday made by our selves alone Nor is there any thing in this to prove that the Church of England might not by Law receive Orders Rites or Customs from the Church of Rome although they were neither the people of God nor yet our forefathers How much lesse when we have received from them nothing but that which they did themselves receive from such as we cannot deny to have been the people of God yea such as either we must acknowledge for our own forefathers or else disdain the race of Christ 6. The Rites and Orders wherein we follow the Church of Rome are of no other kind that such as the Church of Geneva it self doth follow them in We follow the Church of Rome in mo things yet they in some things of the same nature about which our present controversie is so that the difference is not in the kind but in the number of Rites onely wherein they and we do follow the Church of Rome The use of Wafer-cakes the custom of Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are things not commanded nor forbidden in the Scripture things which have been of old and are retained in
the one and the other Were Christians here forbidden to communicate in Unleavened Bread because the Jews did so being Enemies of the Church He which attentively shall weigh the words will suspect that they rather forbid communion with Jews then imitation of them much more if with these two Decrees be compared a third in the Council of Constantinople Let no man either of the Clergy or Laity eat the Unleavened of the Iews nor enter into any familiarity with them nor send for them in sickness nor take Physick at their hands nor as much as go into the â—ath with them If any do otherwise being a Clergy-man let him be deposed if being a Lay-person let Excommunication be his punishment If these Canons were any Argument that they which made them did utterly condemn similitude between the Christians and Jews in things indifferent appertaining unto Religion either because the Jews were enemies unto the Church or else for that their Ceremonies were abrogated these Reasons had been as strong and effectual against their keeping the Feast of Easter on the same day the Jews kept theirs and not according to the Custom of the West Church For so they did from the first beginning till Constantine's time For in these two things the East and West Churches did interchangeably both confront the Jews and concur with them the West Church using Unleavened Bread as the Jews in their Passover did but differing from them in the day whereon they kept the Feast of Easter contrariwise the East Church celebrating the Feast of Easter on the same day with the Jews but not using the same kinde of Bread which they did Now â— so be the East Church in using Leavened Bread had done well either for that the Jews were enemies to the Church or because Jewish Ceremonies were abrogated How should we think but that Victor the Bishop of Rome whom all judicious men do in that behalf disallow did well to be so vehement and fierce in drawing them to the like dissimilitude for the Feast of Easter Again If the West Churches had in either of those two respects affected dissimilitude with the Jews in the Feast of Easter What reason had they to draw the Eastern Church herein unto them which reason did not enforce them to frame themselves unto it in the ceremony of Leavened Bread Difference in Rites should breed no controversie between one Church and another but if controversie be once bred it must be ended The Feast of Easter being therefore litigious in the days of Constantine who honored of all other Churches most the Church of Rome which Church was the Mother from whose Brests he had drawn that food which gave him nourishment to eternal life fith Agreement was necessary and yet impossible unless the one part were yielded unto his desire was that of the two the Eastern Church should rather yield And to this end he useth sundry perswasive speeches When Stephen Bishop of Rome going about to shew what the Catholick Church should do had alledged what the Hereticks themselves did namely That they received such as came unto them and offered not to Baptize them anew St. Cyprian being of a contrary minde to him about the matter at that time in question which was Whether Hereticks converted ought to be rebaptized yea or no answered the Allegation of Pope Stephen with exceeding great stomach saying To this degree of wretchedness the Church of God and Spouse of Christ is now come that her ways she frameth to the example of Hereticks that to celebrate the Sacraments which Heavenly Instruction hath delivered light it self doth borrow from darkness and Christians do that which Antichrists do Now albeit Constantine have done that to further a better cause which Cyprian did to countenance a worse namely the Rebaptization of Hereticks and have taken advantage at the odiousness of the Jews as Cyprian of Hereticks because the Eastern Church kept their Feast of Easter always the Fourteenth day of the Moneth as the Jews did what day of the week soever it fell or howsoever Constantine did take occasion in the handling of that cause to say It is unworthy to have any thing common with that spightful Nation of the Iews Shall every Motive Argument used in such kinde of Conferences be made a rule for others still to conclude the like by concerning all things of like nature when as probable enducements may lead them to the contrary Let both this and other Allegations suitable unto it cease to bark any longer idly against that truth the course and passage whereof it is not in them to hinder 12. But the weightiest Exception and of all the most worthy to be respected is against such kinde of Ceremonies as have been so grosly and shamefully abused in the Church of Rome that were they remain they are scandalous yea they cannot chuse but be stumbling blocks and grievous causes of offence Concerning this point therefore we are first to note What properly it is to be scandalous or offensive Secondly What kinde of Ceremonies are such And thirdly When they are necessarily for remedy thereof to be taken away and when not The common conceit of the vulgar sort is Whensoever they see any thing which they mislike and are angry at to think that every such thing is scandalous and that themselves in this case are the men concerning whom our Saviour spake in so fearful manner saying Whosoever shall scandalize or offend any one of these little ones which believe in me that is as they construe it Whosoever shall anger the meanest and simplest Artizan which carrieth a good minde by not removing out of the Church such Rites and Ceremonies as displease him better he were drowned in the bottom of the Sea But hard were the case of the Church of Christ if this were to scandalize Men are scandalized when they are moved led and provoked unto sin At good things evil men may take occasion to do evil and so Christ himself was a Rock of Offence in Israel they taking occasion at his poor estate and at the ignominy of his Cross to think him unworthy the Name of that Great and Glorious Mesias whom the Prophets describe in such ample and stately terms But that which we therefore term offensive because it inviteth men to offend and by a dumb kinde of provocation encourageth moveth or any way leadeth unto sin must of necessity be acknowledged actively scandalous Now some things are so even by their very essence and nature so that wheresoever they be found they are not neither can be without this force of provocation unto evil of which kinde all examples of sin and wickedness are Thus David was scandalous in that bloody act whereby he caused the enemies of God to be blasphemous Thus the whole state of Israel was scandalous when their publick disorders caused the Name of God to be ill spoken of amongst the Nations It is of this kinde that Tertullian
descend to a more distinct explication of Particulars wherein those Rules have their special efficacy 11. Solemne Duties of Publick Service to be done unto God must have their places set and prepared in such sort as beseemeth actions of that regard Adam even during the space of his small continuance in Paradise had where to present himself before the Lord. Adam's Sons had out of Paradise in like sort whither to bring their Sacrifices The Patriarks used Altars and Mountains and Groves to the self-same purpose In the vast Wilderness when the People of God had themselves no settled Habitation yet a movable Tabernacle they were commanded of God to make The like Charge was given them against the time they should come to settle themselves in the Land which had been promised unto their Fathers Te shall seek that Place which the Lord your God shall chuse When God had chosen Ierusalem and in Ierusalem Mount Moriah there to have his standing Habitation made it was in the chiefest of Davids desires to have performed so good a work His grief was no less that he could not have the honour to builde God a Temple than their anger is at this day who bite asunder their own tongues with very wrath that they have not as yet the Power to pull down the Temples which they never built and to level them with the ground It was no mean thing which he purposed To perform a work so majestical and stately was no small Charge Therefore he incited all men unto bountiful Contribution and procured towards it with all his Power Gold Silver Brass Iron Wood Precious Stones in great abundance Yea moreover Because I have saith David a joy in the House of my God I have of my own Gold and Silver besides all that I have prepared for the House of the Sanctuary given to the House of my God three thousand Talents of Gold even the Gold of Ophir seven thousand Talents of fined Silver After the overthrow of this first House of God a second was instead thereof erected but with so great odds that they went which had seen the former and beheld how much this later came behinde it the beauty whereof notwithstanding was such that even This was also the wonder of the whole World Besides which Temple there were both in other parts of the Land and even in Ierusalem by process of time no small number of Synagogues for men to resort unto Our Saviour himself and after him the Apostles frequented both the one and the other The Church of Christ which was in Ierusalem and held that Profession which had not the Publick allowance and countenance of Authority could not so long use the exercise of Christian Religion but in private only So that as Jews they had access to the Temple and Synagogues where God was served after the Custom of the Law but for that which they did as Christians they were of necessity forced other where to assemble themselves And as God gave increase to his Church they sought out both there and abroad for that purpose not the fittest for so the times would not suffer them to do but the safest places they could In process of time some whileâ— by sufferance some whiles by special leave and favour they began to erect to themselves Oratories not in any sumptuous or stately manner which neither was possible by reason of the poor estate of the Church and had been perilous in regard of the World's envy towards them At length when it pleased God to raise up Kings and Emperours favouring sincerely the Christian Truth that which the Church before either could not or durst not do was with all alacrity performed Temples were in all Places erected No cost was spared nothing judged too dear which that way should be spent The whole World did seem to exult that it had occasion of pouring out Gifts to so blessed a purpose That chearful Devotion which David this way did exceedingly delight to behold and wish that the same in the Jewish People might be perpetual was then in Christian People every where to be seen Their Actions till this day always accustomed to be spoken of with great honour are now called openly into question They and as many as have been followers of their Example in That thing we especially that worship God either in Temples which their hands made or which other men sithence have framed by the like pattern are in that respect charged no less then with the sin of Idolatry Our Churches in the foam of that good spirit which directeth such fiery tongues they term spitefully the Temples of Baal idle Synagogues abominable Styes 12. Wherein the first thing which moveth them thus to cast up their poysons are certain Solemnities usual at the first erection of Churches Now although the same should be blame-worthy yet this Age thanks be to God hath reasonably well for-born to incurr the danger of any such blame It cannot be laid unto many mens charge at this day living either that they have been so curious as to trouble the Bishops with placing the first Stone in the Churches they built or so scrupulous as after the erection of them to make any great ado for their Dedication In which kind notwithstanding as we do neither allow unmeet nor purpose the stiff defence of any unnecessary Custom heretofore received so we know no reason wherefore Churches should be the worse if at the first erecting of them at the making of them publick at the time when they are delivered as it were into God's own possession and when the use whereunto they shall ever serve is established Ceremonies sit to betoken such intents and to accompany such Actions be usual as in the purest times they have been When Constantine had finished an House for the Service of God at Ierusalem the Dedication he judged a matter not unworthy about the solemn performance whereof the greatest part of the Bishops in Christendom should meet together Which thing they did at the Emperors motion each most willingly setting forth that Action to their power some with Orations some with Sermons some with the sacrifice of Prayers unto God for the peace of the World for the Churches safety for the Emperour 's and his Childrens good By Athanasius the like is recorded concerning a Bishop of Alexandria in a work of the like devout magnificence So that whether Emperours or Bishops in those days were Church-founders the solemn Dedication of Churches they thought not to be a work in it self either vain or superstitious Can we judge it a thing seemly for any man to go about the building of an House to the God of Heaven with no other appearance than if his end were to rear up a Kitchen or Parlour for his own use Or when a work of such nature is finished remaineth there nothing but presently to use it and so an
that goeth with it leaveth or is apt to leave in mens mindes doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do then adde either beauty or furtherance unto it On the other side these faults prevented the force and efficacy of the thing it self when it drowneth not utterly but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God is in truth most admirable and doth much edifie if not the Understanding because it teacheth not yet surely the Affection because therein it worketh much They must have hearts very dry and tough from whom the melody of Psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a minde religiously affected delighteth Be it as Rabanus Maurus observeth that at the first the Church in this exercise was more simple and plain then we are that their singing was little more then onely a melodious kinde of pronounciation that the custom which we now use was not instituted so much for their cause which are Spiritual as to the end that into grosser and heavier mindes whom bare words do not easily move the sweetness of melody might make some entrance for good things St. Basil himself acknowledging as much did not think that from such inventions the least jot of estimation and credit thereby should be derogated For saith he whereas the Holy Spirit saw that Mankinde is unto Virtue hardly drawn and that Righteousness is the less accounted of by reason of the proveness of our affections to that which delighteth it pleased the Wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure which mingled with Heavenly Mysteries causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ear to convey as it were by stealth the treasure of good things into mans minde To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of Psalms divised for us that they which are either in years but young or touching perfection of Vertue as yet not grown to ripeness might when they think they sing learn O the wise conceit of that Heavenly Teacher which both by his skill found out a way that doing those things wherein we delight we may also learn that whereby we profit 39. And if the Prophet David did think that the very meeting of men together and their accompanying one another to the House of God should make the Bond of their Love insoluble and tie them in a League of inviolable Amity Psal. 54. 14. How much more may we judge it reasonable to hope that the like effects may grow in each of the people towards other in them all towards their Pastor and in their Pastor towards every of them between whom there daily and interchangeably pass in the hearing of God himself and in the presence of his holy Angels so many heavenly Acclamations Exultations Provocations Petitions Songs of Comfort Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving in all which particulars as when the Pastor maketh their sutes and they with one voice testifie a general assent thereunto or when he joyfully beginneth and they with like alacrity follow dividing between them the sentences wherewith they strive which shall most shew his own and stir up others zeal to the glory of that God whose name they magnifie or when he proposeth unto God their necessities and they their own requests for relief in every of them or when he lifteth up his voice like a Trumpet to proclaim unto them the Laws of God they adjoyning though not as Israel did by way of generality a chearful promise All that the Lord hath commanded we will do yet that which God doth no less approve that which favoreth more of meekness that which testifieth rather a feeling knowledge of our common imbecillity unto the several Branches thereof several lowly and humble requests for Grace at the merciful Hands of God to perform the thing which is commanded or when they wish reciprocally each others ghostly happiness or when he by exhortation raiseth them up and they by protestation of their readiness declare be speaketh not in vain unto them These interlocutory forms of speech what are they else but most effectual partly testifications and partly inflammations of all Piety When and how this custom of singing by course came up in the Church it is not certainly known Socrates maketh Ignatius the Bishop of Antioch in Syria the first beginner thereof even under the Apostles themselves But against Socrates they set the authority of Theodoret who draweth the original of it from Antioch as Socrates doth howbeit ascribing the invention to others Flavian and Diodore men which constantly stood in defence of the Apostolick Faith against the Bishop of that Church Leontius a favorer of the Arians Against both Socrates and Theodoret Platina is brought as a witness to testifie that Damasus Bishop of Rome began it in his time Of the Latine Church it may be true which Platina saith And therefore the eldest of that Church which maketh any mention thereof is St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan at the same time when Damasus was of Rome Amongst the Grecians St. Basil having brought it into his Church before they of Neocaesarea used it Sabellius the Heretick and Marcellus took occasion thereat to incense the Churches against him as being an Author of new devices in the Service of God Whereupon to avoid the opinion of Novelty and Singularity he alledgeth for that which he himself did the example of the Churches of Egypt Lybia Thebes Palestina Tharabians Phoenicians Syrians Mesopotamians and in a manner all that reverenced the custom of singing Psalms together If the Syrians had it then before Basil Antioch the Mother Church of those parts must needs have used it before Basil and consequently before Damasus The question is then how long before and whether so long that Ignatius or as ancient as Ignatius may be probably thought the first Inventors Ignatius in Trajans days suffered Martyrdom And of the Churches in Pontus and Bithynia to Trajan the Emperor his own Vicegerent there affirmeth That the onely crime he knew of them was They used to meet together at a certain day and to praise Christ with Hymns as a God Secum invicem one to another amongst themselves Which for any thing we know to the contrary might be the self-same form which Philo Iudaeus expresseth declaring how the Essens were accustomed with Hymns and Psalms to honor God sometime all exalting their voices together in one and sometime one part answering another wherein as he thought they swerved not much from the pattern of Moses and Miriam Whether Ignatius did at any time hear the Angels praising God after that sort or no what matter is it If Ignatius did not yet one which must be with us of greater Authority did I saw the Lord saith the Prophet Isaiah on an high Throne the Seraphims stood upon it one cryed to another saying Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts the whole world is full of his glory But whosoever were the Author whatsoever the Time whencesoever
finde by daily experience that those calamities may be nearest at hand readiest to break in suddenly upon us which we in regard of times or circumstances may imagine to be farthest off Or if they do not indeed approach yet such miseries as being present all men are apt to bewail with tears the wise by their Prayers should rather prevent Finally if we for our selves had a priviledge of immunity doth not true Christian Charity require that whatsoever any part of the World yea any one of all our Brethren elswhere doth either suffer or fear the same we account as our own burthen What one Petition is there found in the whole Litany whereof we shall ever be able at any time to say That no man living needeth the grace or benefit therein craved at Gods hands I am not able to express how much it doth grieve me that things of Principal Excellency should be thus bitten at by men whom God hath endued with graces both of Wit and Learning for better purposes We have from the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ received that brief Confession of Faith which hath been always a badge of the Church a mark whereby to discern Christian men from Infidels and Jews This Faith received from the Apostles and their Disciples saith Ireneus the Church though dispersed throughout the World doth notwithstanding keep as safe as if it dwels within the Walls of some one house and as uniformly hold as if it had but one onely heart and soul this as consonantly it Preacheth teacheth and delivereth as if but one tongue did speak for all At one Sun shineth to the whole World so there is no Faith but this one published the brightness whereof must enlighten all that come to the knowledge of the Truth This rule saith Tertullian Christ did institute the stream and current of this rule hath gone as far it hath continued as long as the very promulgation of the Gospel Under Constantine the Emperor about Three hundred years and upward after Christ Arius a Priest in the Church of Alexandria a suttle-witted and a marvellous fair-spoken man but discontented that one should be placed before him in honor whose superior he thought himself in desert became through envy and stomack prone unto contradiction and hold to broach at the length that Heresie wherein the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ contained but not opened in the former Creed the coequality and coeternity of the Son with the Father was denied Being for this impiety deprived of his place by the Bishop of the same Church the punishment which should have reformed him did but increase his obstinacy and give him occasion of laboring with greater earnestness elswhere to intangle unwary mindes with the snares of his damnable opinion Arius in short time had won to himself a number both of Followers and of great Defenders whereupon much disquietness on all sides ensued The Emperor to reduce the Church of Christ unto the Unity of sound Belief when other means whereof tryal was first made took no effect gathered that famous Assembly of Three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the Council of Nice where besides order taken for many things which seemed to need redress there was with common consent for the setling of all mens mindes that other Confession of Faith set down which we call the Nicene Creed whereunto the Arians themselves which were present subscribed also not that they meant sincerely and indeed to forsake their error but onely to escape deprivation and exile which they saw they could not avoid openly persisting in their former opinions when the greater part had concluded against them and that with the Emperors Royal Assent Reserving therefore themselves unto future opportunities and knowing that it would not boot them to stir again in a matter so composed unless they could draw the Emperor first and by his means the chiefest Bishops unto their part till Constantines death and somewhat after they always professed love and zeal to the Nicene Faith yet ceased not in the mean while to strengthen that part which in heart they favored and to infest by all means under colour of other quarrels their greatest Adversaries in this cause Amongst them Athanasius especially whom by the space of Forty six years from the time of his Consecration to succeed Alexander Archbishop in the Church of Alexandria till the last hour of his life in this World they never suffered to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day The heart of Constantine stoln from him Constantius Constantines Successor his scourge and torment by all the ways that malice armed with Soveraign Authority could devise and use Under Iulian no rest given him and in the days of Valentinian as little Crimes there were laid to his charge many the least whereof being just had bereaved him of estimation and credit with men while the World standeth His Judges evermore the self-same men by whom his accusers were suborned Yet the issue always on their part shame on his triumph Those Bishops and Prelates who should have accounted his cause theirs and could not many of them but with bleeding hearts and with watred checks behold a person of so great place and worth constrained to endure so soul indignities were sure by bewraying their affection towards him to bring upon themselves those molestations whereby if they would not be drawn to seem his Adversaries yet others should be taught how unsafe it was to continue his friends Whereupon it came to pass in the end that very few excepted all became subject to the sway of time other odds there was none amongst them saving onely that some fell sooner away some latter from the soundness of Belief some were Leaders in the Host of Impiety and the rest as common Soldiers either yielding through fear or brought under with penury or by flattery ensnared or else beguiled through simplicity which is the fairest excuse that well may be made for them Yes that which all men did wonder at Osius the ancientest Bishop that Christendom then had the most forward in defence of the Catholick cause and of the contrary part most feared that very Osius with whose hand the Nicene Creed it self was set down and framed for the whole Christian World to subscribe unto so far yielded in the end as even with the same hand to ratifie the Arians Confession a thing which they neither hoped to see nor the other part ever feared till with amazement they saw it done Both were perswaded that although there had been for Osius no way but either presently subscribe or die his answer and choice would have been the same that Eleazars was It doth not become our age to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Osius in hundred years old and upward were now gone to another Religion and so through mine hypocrisie for a little time of transitory life they might be deceived by me and I procure malediction and reproach to my old
age For though I were now delivered from the torments of men yet could I not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead But such was the stream of those times that all men gave place unto it which we cannot but impute partly to their own over-sight For at the first the Emperor was theirs the determination of the Council of Nice was for them they had the Arians hands to that Council So great advantages are never changed so far to the contrary but by great error It plainly appeareth that the first thing which weakned them was their security Such as they knew were in heart still affected towards Arianism they suffered by continual nearness to possess the mindes of the greatest about the Emperor which themselves might have done with very good acceptation and neglected it In Constantines life time to have setled Constantius the same way had been a duty of good service towards God a mean of peace and great quietness to the Church of Christ a labor easie and how likely we may conjecture when after that so much pains was taken to instruct and strengthen him in the contrary course after that so much was done by himself to the furtherance of Heresie yet being touched in the end voluntarily with remorse nothing more grieved him then the memory of former proceedings in the cause of Religion and that which he now foresaw in Iulian the next Physician into whose hands the body that was thus distempered must fall Howbeit this we may somewhat excuse in as much as every mans particular care to his own charge was such as gave them no leisure to heed what others practised in Princes Courts But of the two Synods of Arimine and Selencia what should we think Constantius by the Arians suggestion had devised to assemble all the Bishops of the whole World about this controversie but in two several places the Bishops of the West at Arimine in Italy the Eastern at Selencia the same time Amongst them of the East there was no stop they agreed without any great ado gave their sentence against Heresie excommunicated some chief maintainers thereof and sent the Emperor word what was done They had at Arimine about Four hundred which held the truth scarce of the adverse part Fourscore but these obstinate and the other weary of contending with them Whereupon by both it was resolved to send to the Emperor such as might inform him of the cause and declare what hindred their peaceable agreement There are chosen for the Catholick side such men as had in them nothing to be noted but boldness neither gravity nor learning nor wisdom The Arians for the credit of their faction take the eldest the best experienced the most wary and the longest practised Veterans they had amongst them The Emperor conjecturing of the rest on either part by the quality of them whom he saw sent them speedily away and with them a certain Confession of Faith ambiguously and subtilly drawn by the Arians whereunto unless they all subscribed they should in no case be suffered to depart from the place where they were At the length it was perceived that there had not been in the Catholicks either at Arimine or at Selencia so much foresight as to provide that true intelligence might pass between them what was done Upon the advantage of which Error their adversaries abusing each with perswasion that other had yielded suprized both The Emperor the more desirous and glad of such events for that besides all other things wherein they hindred themselves the gall and bitterness of certain Mens writings who spared him little for honors sake made him for their sakes the less inclinable to that truth which he himself should have honored and loved Onely in Athanasius there was nothing observed throughout the course of that long Tragedy other then such as very well became a wise man to do and a righteous to suffer So that this was the plain condition of those times The whole World against Athanasius and Athanasius against it Half an hundred of years spent in doubtful trial which of the two in the end would prevail the side which had all or else the part which had no friend but God and Death the one a Defender of his Innocency the other a Finisher of all his Troubles Now although these Contentions were cause of much evil yet some good the Church hath reaped by them in that they occasioned the learned and sound in Faith to explain such things as Heresie went about to deprave And in this respect the Creed of Athanasius first exhibited unto Iulius Bishop of Rome and afterwards as we may probably gather sent to the Emperor Iovinian for his more full information concerning that truth which Arianism so mightily did impugn was both in the East and the West Churches accepted as a treasure of inestimable price by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief Then was the Creed of Athanasius written howbeit not then so expedient to be publickly used as now in the Church of God because while the heat of division lasteth truth it self enduring opposition doth not so quietly and currantly pass throughout all mens hands neither can be of that account which afterwards it hath when the World once perceiveth the vertue thereof not onely in it self but also by the conquest which God hath given it over Heresie That which Heresie did by sinister interpretations go about to pervert in the first and most ancient Apostolick Creed the same being by singular dexterity and plainness cleared from those Heretical corruptions partly by this Creed of Athanasius written about the year Three hundred and forty and partly by that other set down in the Synod of Constantinople Forty years after comprehending together with the Nicene Creed an addition of other Articles which the Nicene Creed omitted because the controversie then in hand needed no mention to be made of them These Catholick Declarations of our Belief delivered by them which were so much nearer then we are unto the first publication thereof and continuing needful for all men at all times to know these Confessions as testimonies of our continuance in the same Faith to this present day we rather use them any other gloss or paraphrased devised by our selves which though it were to the same effect notwithstanding could not be of the like authority and credit For that of Hilary unto St. Augustine hath been ever and is likely to be always true Your most religious wisdom knoweth how great their number is in the Church of God whom the very authority of mens names doth keep in that opinion which they hold already or draw unto that which they have not before held Touching the Hymn of Glory out usual conclusion to Psalms the glory of all things is that wherein their highest perfection doth consist and the glory of God that divine excellency whereby he is eminent above all things his omnipotent
travels sufficiently cleared the truth no less for the Deity of the Holy Ghost then for the compleat Humanity of Christ there followed hereupon a final conclusion whereby those Controversies as also the rest which Paulâ—n Samosatenus Sabellius Phatinus Aâ—tius Ennomius together with the whole swarm of pestilent Demi-Arians had from time to time stirred up since the Council of Nice were both privately first at Rome in a smaller Synod and then at Constantinople in a general famous Assembly brought to a peaceable and quiet end Sevenscore Bishops and ten agreeing in that Confession which by them set down remaineth at this present hour a part of our Church Liturgy a Memorial of their Fidelity and Zeal a soveraign preservative of Gods people from the venemous infection of Heresie Thus in Christ the verity of God and the compleat substance of man were with full agreement established throughout the World till such time as the Heresie of Nesterius broached it self Dividing Christ into two Persons the Son of God and the Son of Man the one a Person begotten of God before all Worlds the other also a Person born of the Virgin Mary and in special favor chosen to be made intire to the Son of God above all men so that whosoever will honor God must together honor Christ with whose Person God hath vouchsafed to joyn himself in so high a degree of gracious respect and favor But that the self-same Person which verily is Man should properly be God also and that by reason not of two Persons linked in Amity but of two Natures Humane and Divine conjoyned in one and the same Person the God of Glory may be said as well to have suffered death as to have raised the dead from their Graves the Son of Man as well to have made as to have redeemed the World Nestorius in no case would admit That which deceived him was want of heed to the first beginning of that admirable combination of God with Man The Word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt in us The Evangelist useth the plural number Men for Manhood us for the nature whereof we consist even as the Apostle denying the Assumption of Angelical Nature saith likewise in the plural number he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham It pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take to it self some one Person amongst men for then should that one have been advanced which was assumed and no more but Wisdom to the end she might save many built her House of that Nature which is common unto all she made not this or that Man her Habitation but dwelt in us The Seeds of Herbs and Plants at the first are not in act but in possibility that which they afterwards grow to be If the Son of God had taken to himself a Man now made and already perfected it would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two Persons the one assuming and the other assumed whereas the Son of God did not assume a mans person into his own but a mans nature to his own Person and therefore took Semen the Seed of Abraham the very first original Element of our Nature before it was come to have any Personal Humane subsistence The Flesh and the Conjunction of the Flesh with God began both at one instant his making and taking to himself our flesh was but one act so that in Christâ— there is no Personal subsistence but one and that from everlasting By taking onely the nature of man he still continueth one Person and changeth but the manner of his subsisting which was before in the meer glory of the Son of God and is now in the habit of our flesh For as much therefore as Christ hath no personal subsistence but one whereby we acknowledge him to have been eternally the Son of God we must of necessity apply to the Person of the Son of God even that which is spoken of Christ according to his Humane nature For example according to the flesh he was born of the Virgin Mary baptized of Iohn in the River Iordan by Pilate adjudged to die and executed by the Jews We cannot say properly that the Virgin bore or Iohn did baptize or Pilate condemn or the Jews crucifie the Nature of Man because these all are Personal Attributes his Person is the subject which receiveth them his Nature that which maketh his Person capable or apt to receive If we should say that the Person of a Man in our Saviour Christ was the subject of these things this were plainly to intrap our selves in the very snare of the Nestorians Heresie between whom and the Church of God there was no difference saving onely that Nestorius imagined in Christ as well a Personal Humane subsistence as a Divine the Church acknowledging a substance both Divine and Humane but no other Personal subsistence then Divine because the Son of God took not to himself a mans person but the nature onely of a man Christ is a Person both Divine and Humane howbeit not therefore two persons in one neither both these in one sense but a Person Divine because he is personally the Son of God Humane because he hath really the nature of the Children of Men. In Christ therefore God and Man There is saith Paschasius a twofold substance not a twofold Person because one Person distinguisheth another whereas one nature cannot in another become extinct For the Personal Being which the Son of God already had suffered not the Substance to be Personal which he took although together with the Nature which he had the Nature also which he took continueth Whereupon it followeth against Nestorius That no Person was born of the Virgin but the Son of God no Person but the Son of God baptized the Son of God condemned the Son of God and no other Person crucified which one onely point of Christian Belief The infinite north of the Son of God is the very ground of all things believed concerning Life and Salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as Man in our behalf But for as much as St. Cyril the chiefest of those Two hundred Bishops assembled in the Council of Ephesus where the Heresie of Nestorius was condemned had in his Writings against the Arians avouched That the Word or Wisdom of God hath but one Nature which is Eternal and whereunto he assumed Flesh for the Arians were of opinion That besides Gods own Eternal Wisdom there is a Wisdom which God created before all things to the end he might thereby create all things else and that this Created Wisdom was the Word which took Flesh. Again for as much as the same Cyril had given instance in the Body and the Soul of Man no farther then onely to enforce by example against Nestorius That a visible and an invisible a mortal and an immortal Substance may united make one Person the words of Cyril were in process of time so
of Hereticks which entred closely into such mens houses as favored their opinions whom under colour of performing with them such Religious Offices they drew from the soundness of true Religion Now that perverse Opinions through the Grace of Almighty God are extinct and gone the cause of former restraints being taken away we see no reason but that private Oratories may hence forward enjoy that liberty which to have granted them heretofore had not been safe In sum all these things alledged are nothing nor will it ever be proved while the World doth continue but that the practice of the Church in cases of extream necessity hath made for private Baptism always more then against it Yea Baptism by any man in the case of necessity was the voice of the whole World heretofore Neither is Tertullian Epiphanius Augustine or any other of the Ancient against it The boldness of such as pretending Teclaes example took openly upon them both Baptism and all other Publick Functions of Priesthood Tertullian severely controlleth saying To give Baptism is in truth the Bishops Right After him it belongeth unto Priests and Deacons but not to them without authority from him received For so the honor of the Church requireth which being kept preserveth peace Were it not in this respect the Laity might do the same all sorts might give even as all sorts receive But because Emulation is the Mother of Schisms Let it content thee which art of the order of Lay-men to do it in necessity when the state of time or place or person thereunto compelleth For then is their boldness priviledged that help when the circumstance of other mens dangers craveth it What he granteth generally to Lay-persons of the House of God the same we cannot suppose he denieth to any sort or sex contained under that name unless himself did restrain the limits of his own speech especially seeing that Tertullians rule of interpretation is elswhere Specialties are signified under that which is general because they are therein comprehended All which Tertullian doth deny is That Women may be called to bear or publickly take upon them to execute Offices of Ecclesiastical Order whereof none but men are capable As for Epiphanius he striketh on the very self-same Anvil with Tertullian And in necessity if St. Augustine alloweth as much unto Laymen as Tertullian doth his not mentioning of Women is but a slender proof that his meaning was to exclude Women Finally the Council of Carthage likewise although it make no express submission may be very well presumed willing to stoop as other Positive Ordinances do to the countermands of necessity Judge therefore what the Antients would have thought if in their days it had been heard which is published in ours that because The Substance of the Sacrament doth chiefly depend on the Institution of God which is the form and as it were the life of the Sacrament therefore first If the whole Institution be not kept it is no Sacrament and secondly If Baptism be private his Institution is broken in as much as according to the orders which he hath set for Baptism it should be done in the Congregation from whose Ordinance in this point we ought not to swerve although we know that infants should be assuredly damned without Baptism O Sir you that would spurn thus at such as in case of so dreadful extremity should lie prostrate before your feet you that would turn away your face from them at the hour of their most need you that would dam up your ears and harden your hearts as Iron against the unresistable cries of Supplicants calling upon you for mercy with terms of such invocation as that most dreadful perplexity might minister if God by miracle did open the mouths of Infants to express their supposed necessity should first imagine your self in their case and them in yours This done let their Supplications proceed out of your mouth and your answer out of theirs Would you then contentedly hear My Son the Rites and Solemnities of Baptism must be kept we may not do ill that good may come of it neither are Souls to be delivered from eternal death and condemnation by breaking Orders which Christ hath set Would you in their case your self be shaken off with these answers and not rather embrace inclosed with both your arms a sentence which now is no Gospel unto you I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice To acknowledge Christs Institution the ground of both Sacraments I suppose no Christian man will refuse For it giveth them their very Nature it appointeth the Matter whereof they consist the Form of their Administration it teacheth and it blesseth them with that Grace whereby to us they are both Pledges and Instruments of life Nevertheless seeing Christs Institution containeth besides that which maketh compleat the Essence or Nature other things that onely are parts as it were of the Furniture of Sacraments the difference between these two must unfold that which the general terms of indefinite speech would confound If the place appointed for Baptism be a part of Christ Institution it is but his Institution as Sacrifice Baptism his Institution as Mercy In this case He which requireth both Mercy and Sacrifice rejecteth his own Institution of Sacrifice where the Offering of Sacrifice would hinde Mercy from being shewed External Circumstances even in the holiest and highest actions are but the lesser things of the Law whereunto those actions themselves being compared are the greater and therefore as the greater are of such importance that they must be done so in that extremity before supposed if our account of the lesser which are not to be omitted should cause omission of that which is more to be accounted of were not this our strict obedience to Christs Institution touching Mint and Cummin a disobedience to his Institution concerning Love But sith no Institution of Christ hath so strictly tied Baptism to publick Assemblies as it hath done all men unto Baptism away with these merciless and bloody sentences let them never be found standing in the Books and Writings of a Christian man they favor not of Christ nor of his most gracious and meek Spirit but under colour of exact obedience they nourish cruelty and hardness of heart 62. To leave Private Baptism therefore and to come unto Baptism by Women which they say is no more a Sacrament then any other ordinary Washing or Bathing of a Mans Body The reason whereupon they ground their opinion herein is such as making Baptism by Women void because Women are no Ministers in the Chruch of God must needs generally annihilate the Baptism of all unto whom their conceit shall apply this exception Whether it be in regard of Sex of Quality of Insufficiency or whatsoever For if want of Calling do frustrate Baptism they that Baptize without Calling do nothing be they Women or Men. To make Women Teachers in the House of God were a gross absurdity
seeing the Apostle hath said I permit not a Woman to teach And again Let your Women in Churches be silent Those extraordinary gifts of speaking with Tongues and Prophecying which God at that time did not onely bestow upon Men but on Women also made it the harder to hold them confined with private bounds Whereupon the Apostles Ordinance was necessary against Womens public Admission to teach And because when Law hath begun some one thing or other well it giveth good occasion either to draw by Judicious Exposition out of the very Law it self or to annex to the Law by Authority and Jurisdiction things of like conveniency therefore Clement extendeth this Apostolick Constitution to Baptism For saith he if we have denied them leave to teach how should any man dispence with Nature and make them Ministers of holy things seeing this unskilfulness is a part of the Grecians impiety which for the service of Women-Goddesses have Women-Priests I somewhat marvel that Men which would not willingly be thought to speak or write but with good conscience dare hereupon openly avouch Clement for a witness That as when the Church began not onely to decline but to fall away from the sincerity of Religion it borrowed a number of other prophanations of the Heathens so it borrowed this and would needs have Women-Priests as the Heathens had and that this was one occasion of bringing â—pâ—ism by Women into the Church of God Is it not plain in their own eyes that first by an evidence which forbiddeth Women to be Ministers of Baptism they endeavor to shew how Women were admitted unto that Function in the wain and declination of Christian Piety Secondly That by an evidence rejecting the Heathens and condemning them of Impiety they would prove such affection towards Heathens as ordereth the Affairs of the Church by the pattern of their example And Thirdly That out of an evidence which nameth the Heathens as being in some part a reason why the Church had no Women-Priests they gather the Heathens to have been one of the first occasions why it had So that throughout every branch of this testimony their issue is Yea and their evidence directly No. But to Womens Baptism in private by occasion of urgent necessity the reasons that onely concern Ordinary Baptism in publick are no just prejudice neither can we by force thereof disprove the practice of those Churches which necessity requiring allow Baptism in private to be Administred by Women We may not from Laws that prohibite any thing with restraint conclude absolute and unlimited prohibitions Although we deny not but they which utterly forbid such Baptism may have perhaps wherewith to justifie their orders against it For even things lawful are well prohibited when there is fear left they make the way to unlawful more easie And it may be the Liberty of Baptism by Women at such times doth sometimes embolden the rasher sort to do it where no such necessity is But whether of Permission besides Law or in Presumption against Law they do it is it thereby altogether frustrate void and as though it were never given They which have not at the first their right Baptism must of necessity be Rebaptized because the Law of Christ tieth all men to receive Baptism Iteration of Baptism once given hath been always thought a manifest contempt of that Ancient Apostolick Aphorism One Lord One Faith One Baptism Baptism not onely one in as much as it hath every where the same Substance and offereth unto all men the same Grace but one also for that it ought not to be received by any one man above once We serve that Lord which is but one because no other can be joyned with him We embrace that Faith which is but one because it admitteth no innovation That Baptism we receive which is but one because it cannot be received often For how should we practice Iteration of Baptism and yet teach that we are by Baptism born anew That by Baptism we are admitted unto the Heavenly Society of Saints that those things be really and effectually done by Baptism which are no more possible to be often done then a man can naturally be often born or civilly be often adopted into any ones Stock and Family This also is the cause why they that present us unto Baptism are entituled for ever after our Parents in God and the reason why there we receive new names in token that by Baptism we are made new Creatures As Christ hath therefore died and risen from the dead but once so that Sacrament which both extinguisheth in him our former sin and beginneth in us a new condition of life is by one onely Actual Administration for ever available according to that in the Nicene Creed I believe one Baptism for â—emission of sins And because second Baptism was ever abhorred in the Church of God as a kinde of incestuous Birth they that iterate Baptism are driven under some pretence or other to make the former Baptism void Tertullian the first that proposed to the Church Agrippinus the first in the Church that accepted and against the use of the Church Novatianus the first that publickly began to practice Rebaptization did it therefore upon these two grounds a true perswasion that Baptism is necessary and a false that the Baptism which others administred was no Baptism Novatianus his conceit was that none can administer true Baptism but the true Church of Jesus Christ that he and his followers alone were the Church and for the rest he accounted then wicked and prophane persons such as by Baptism could cleanse no man unless they first did purifie themselves and reform the faults wherewith he charged them At which time St. Cyprian with the greatest part of Affrican Bishops because they likewise thought that none but onely the true Church of God can Baptize and were of nothing more certainly perswaded then that Hereticks are as rotten Branches cut off from the Life and Body of the true Church gathered hereby That the Church of God both may with good consideration and ought to reverse that Baptism which is given by Hereticks These held and practised their own opinion yet with great protestations often made that they neither loved awhit the less nor thought in any respect the worse of them that were of a contrary minde In requital of which ingenuous moderation the rest that withstood them did it in peaceable sort with very good regard had of them as of men in Error but not in Heresie The Bishop of Rome against their Novelties upheld as beseemed him the ancient and true Apostolick Customs till they which unadvisedly before had erred became in a manner all reconciled friends unto Truth and saw that Heresie in the Ministers of Baptism could no way evacuate the force thereof Such Heresie alone excepted as by reason of unsoundness in the highest Articles of Christian Faith presumed to change and by changing to
main the Substance the Form of Baptism in which respect the Church did neither simply disannul nor absolutely ratifie Baptism by Hereticks For the Baptism which Novarianists gave stood firm whereas they whom Samosotenians had baptized were rebaptized It was likewise ordered in the Council of Arles That if any Arian did reconcile himself to the Church they should admit him without new Baptism unless by examination they found him not baptized in the Name of the Trinity Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria maketh report how there live under him a man of good reputation and of very ancient continuance in that Church who being present at the Rites of Baptism and observing with better consideration then ever before what was there done came and with weeping submission craved of his Bishop not to deny him Baptism the due of all which profess Christ seeing it had been so long sithence his evil hap to be deceived by the fraud of Hereticks and at their hands which till now he never throughly and duly weighed to take a Baptism full fraught with blasphemous impieties a Baptism in nothing like unto that which the true Church of Christ useth The Bishop was greatly moved thereat yet durst not adventure to Rebaptize but did the best he could to put him in good comfort using much perswasion with him not to trouble himself with things that were past and gone nor after so long continuance in the Fellowship of Gods people to call now in question his first entrance The poor man that law himself in this sort answered but not satisfied spent afterwards his life in continual perplexity whereof the Bishop remained fearful to give release perhaps too fearful if the Baptism were such as his own Declaration importeth For that the substance whereof was rotten at the very first is never by tract of time able to recover soundness And where true Baptism was not before given the case of Rebaptization is clear But by this it appeareth that Baptism is not void in regard of Heresie and therefore much less through any other Moral defect in the Minister thereof Under which second pretence Doâ—atists notwithstanding took upon them to make frustrate the Churches Baptism and themselves to Rebaptize their own sry For whereas some forty years after the Martyrdom of Blessed Cyprian the Emperor Dioclesian began to persecute the Church of Christ and for the speedier abolishment of their Religion to burn up their Sacred Books there were in the Church it self Traditors content to deliver up the Books of God by composition to the end their own lives might be spared Which men growing thereby odious to the rest whose constancy was greater it fortuned that after when one Caecilian was ordained Bishop in the Church of Carthage whom others endeavored in vain to defeat by excepting against him as a Traditor they whose accusations could not prevail desperately joyned themselves in one and made a Bishop of their own crue accounting from that day forward their Faction the onely true and sincere Church The first Bishop on that part was Majorinus whose Successor Donatus being the first that wrote in defence of their Schism the Birds that were hatched before by others have their names from him Arians and Donatists began both about one time Which Heresies according to the different strength of their own sinews wrought as hope of success led them the one with the choicest wits the other with the multitude so far that after long and troublesome experience the perfectest view men could take or both was hardly able to induce any certain determinate resolution whether Error may do more by the curious subtilty of sharp Discourse or else by the meer appearance of zeal and devout affection the latter of which two aids gave Donatists beyond all mens expectation as great a sway as ever any Schism or Heresie had within that reach of the Christian World where it bred and grew the rather perhaps because the Church which neither greatly feared them and besides had necessary cause to bend it self against others that aimed directly at a far higher mark the Deity of Christ was contented to let Donatists have their course by the space of Threescore years and above even from Ten years before Constantine till the time that Optatus Bishop of Nilevis published his Books against Parmenian During which term and the space of that Schisms continuance afterwards they had besides many other Secular and Worldly means to help them forward these special advantages First the very occasion of their breach with the Church of God a just hatred and dislike of Traditors seemed plausible they easily perswaded their hearers that such men could not be holy as held communion and fellowship with them that betrayed Religion Again when to dazle the eyes of the simple and to prove that it can be no Church which is not holy they had in shew and sound of words the glorious pretence of the Creed Apostolick I believe the holy Catholick Church We need not think it any strange thing that with the multitude they gain credit And avouching that such as are not of the true Church can administer no true Baptism they had for this point whole Volums of St. Cyprians own writing together with the judgment of divers Affrican Synods whose sentence was the same with his Whereupon the Fathers were likewise in defence of their just cause very greatly prejudiced both for that they could not inforce the duty of mens communion with a Church confest to be in many things blame-worthy unless they should oftentimes seem to speak as half-defenders of the faults themselves or at the least not so vehement accusers thereof as their adversaries And to withstand itâ—ration of Baptism the other Branch of the Donatists Heresie was impossible without manifest and profest rejection of Cyprian whom the World universally did in his life time admire as the greatest among Prelates and now honor as not the lowest in the Kingdom of Heaven So true we finde it by experience of all Ages in the Church of God that the teachers error is the peoples tryal harder and heavier by so much to bear as he is in worth and regard greater that mis-perswadeth them Although there was odds between Cyprians cause and theirs he differing from others of sounder understanding in that point but not dividing himself from the Body of the Church by Schism as did the Donatists For which cause saith Vincentius Of one and the same opinion we judge which may seem strange the Authors Catholick and the followers heretical we acquit the Masters and condemn the Scholars they are Heirs of Heaven which have writen those Books the defenders whereof are trodden down to the pit of Hell The Invectives of Catholick Writers therefore against them are sharp the words of Imperial Edicts by Honorius and Theodosius made to bridle them very bitter the punishments severe in revenge of their folly Howbeit for fear as we may conjecture lest much
satisfie our desires in that which else we should want so to love them on whom we bestow is Nature because in them we behold the effects of our own vertue Seeing therefore no Religion enjoyeth Sacraments the signs of Gods love unless it have also that Faith whereupon the Sacraments are built could there be any thing more convenient then that our first admittance to the Actual Receit of his Grace in the Sacrament of Baptism should be consecrated with profession of Belief which is to the Kingdom of God as a Key the want whereof excludeth Infidels both from that and from all other saving Grace We finde by experience that although Faith be an Intellectual Habit of the Minde and have her Seat in the Understanding yet an evil Moral Disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness dampeth the very Light of Heavenly Illumination and permitteth not the Minde to see what doth shine before it Men are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Their assent to his saving Truth is many times with-held from it not that the Truth is too weak to perswade but because the stream of corrupt affection carrieth them a clean contrary way That the Minde therefore may abide in the Light of Faith there must abide in the Will as constant a resolution to have no fellowship at all with the vanities and works of darkness Two Covenants there are which Christian men saith Isidor do make in Baptism the one concerning relinquishment of Satan the other touching Obedience to the Faith of Christ. In like sort St. Ambrose He which is baptized forsaketh the Intellectual Pharaoh the Prince of this World saying Abrenuncio Thee O Satan and thy Angels thy works and thy mandates I forsake utterly Tertullian having speech of wicked spirits These saith he are the Angels which we in Baptism renounce The Declaration of Iustin the Martyr concerning Baptism sheweth how such as the Church in those days did baptize made profession of Christian Belief and undertook to live accordingly Neither do I think it a matter easie for any man to prove that ever Baptism did use to be administred without Interrogatories of these two kindes Whereunto St. Peter as it may be thought alluding hath said That the Baptism which saveth us is not as Legal Purifications were a cleansing of the flesh from outward impurity but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Interrogative tryal of a good conscience towards God 64. Now the fault which they finde with us concerning Interrogatories is our moving of these Questions unto Infants which cannot answer them and the answering of them by others as in their names The Anabaptist hath many pretences to scorn at the baptism of Children First Because the Scriptures he saith do no where give Commandment to Baptize Infants Secondly For that as there is no Commandment so neither any manifest example shewing it to have been done either by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly In as much as the Word Preached and the Sacraments must go together they which are not capable of the one are no fit receivers of the other Last of all sith the Order of Baptism continued from the first beginning hath in it those things which are unfit to be applied unto Sucking Children it followeth in their conceit That the Baptism of such is no Baptism but plain mockery They with whom we contend are no enemies to the Baptism of Infants it is not their desire that the Church should hazard so many Souls by letting them run on till they come to ripeness of understanding that so they may be converted and then baptized as Infidels heretofore have been they bear not towards God so unthankful mindes as not to acknowledge it even amongst the greatest of his endless mercies That by making us his own possession so soon many advantages which Satan otherwise might take are prevented and which should be esteemed a part of no small happiness the first thing whereof we have occasion to take notice is How much hath been done already to our great good though altogether without our knowledge The Baptism of Infants they esteem as an Ordinance which Christ hath instituted even in special love and favor to his own people They deny not the practice thereof accordingly to have been kept as derived from the hands and continued from the days of the Apostles themselves unto this present onely it pleaseth them not That to Infants there should be Interrogatories proposed in Baptism This they condemn as foolish toyish and profane mockery But are they able to shew that ever the Church of Christ had any Publick Form of Baptism without Interrogatories or that the Church did ever use at the Solemn Baptism of Infants to omit those Questions as needless in this case Ioniface a Bishop in St. Augustines time knowing That the Church did Universally use this Custom of Baptising Infants with Interrogatories was desirous to learn from St. Augustine the true cause and reason thereof If saith he I should see before thee a young infant and should ask of thee whether that Infant when he cometh unto riper age will be honest and just or no Thou wouldst answer I know that to tell in these things what shall come to pass is not in the power of Mortal Man If I should ask What good or evil such an infant thinketh Thine answer hereunto must needs be again with the like uncertainty If them neither canst promise for the time to come nor for the present pronounce any thing in this case How is it that when such are brought unto Baptism their Parents there undertake what the Childe shall afterwards do Yea they are not doubtful to say It doth that which is impossible to be done by Infants At the least there is no man precisely able to affirm it done Vonchsafe me hereunto some short answer such as not onely may press me with the bare authority of Custom but also instruct me in the cause thereof Touching which difficulty whether it may truly be said for Infants at the time of their Baptism That they do believe the effect of St. Angustines answer is Yea but with this distinction a present Actual habit of Faith there is not in them there is delivered unto them that Sacrament a part of the due celebration whereof consisting in answering to the Articles of Faith because the habit of Faith which afterwards doth come with years is but a farther building up of the same edifice the first foundation whereof was laid by the Sacrament of Baptism For that which there we professed without any understanding when we afterwards come to acknowledge do we any thing else but onely bring unto ripeness the very Seed that was sown before We are then Believers because then we begun to be that which process of time doth make perfect And till we come to Actual Belief the very Sacrament of Faith is a shield as strong as after this the Faith of the Sacrament against all
the Enemies invasion doth remain but over and besides namely through Prayer and Imposition of Hands becometh yet greater yet mightier in strength so far as to raign with a kinde of Imperial Dominion over the whole Band of that roming and spoiling Adversary As much is signified by Eusebius Emissenus saying The Holy Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the Waters of Baptism doth there give that fulness which sufficeth for innocenty and afterwards exhibiteth in Confirmation an Augmentation of further Grace The Fathers therefore being thus perswaded held Confirmation as an Ordinance Apostolick always profitable in Gods Church although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those External Effects which gave it countenance at the first The cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism for most commonly they went together was sometimes in the Minister which being of inferior degree might Baptize but not Confirm as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and Iohn did confirm whereas Philip had before baptized them and in theirs of whom St. Ierome hath said I deny not but the Custom of the Churches is that the Bishop should go abroad and imposing his hands pray for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on them whom Presbyters and Deacons far off in lesser Cities have already â—aptized Which ancient Custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the example or Peter and Iohn in the Eighth of the Acts before alledged The faithful in Samaria saith he had already obtained Baptism onely that which was wanting Peter and John supplied by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to the end the Holy Ghost might be poured upon them Which also is done amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to obtain by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost By this it appeareth that when the Ministers of Baptism were persons of inferior degree the Bishops did after Confirm whom such had before Baptized Sometimes they which by force of their Ecclesiastical Calling might do as well the one as the other were notwithstanding Men whom Heresie had dis-joyned from the Fellowship of true Believers Whereupon when any Man by them Baptized and Confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce their Error there grew in some Churches very hot contention about the manner of admitting such into the Bosome of the true Church as hath been declared already in the question of Rebaptization But the generally received Custom was onely to admit them with Imposition of Hands and Prayer Of which Custom while some imagined the reason to be for that Hereticks might give Remission of Sins by Baptism but not the Spirit by Imposition of Hands because themselves had not Gods Spirit and that therefore their Baptism might stand but Confirmation must be given again The imbecillity of this ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the practice of the Church herein laboring many ways to prove That Hereticks could do neither and consequently that their Baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their Chrism for the manner of those times was in Confirming to use Anointing On the other side against Luciferians which ratified onely the Baptism of Hereticks but disannulled their Confirmations and Consecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been before specified Hereticks cannot give the Holy Ghost St. Ierome proveth at large That if Baptism by Hereticks be granted available to Remission of Sins which no man receiveth without the Spirit it must needs follow that the reason taken from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason wherefore the Church should admit Converts with any new Imposition of Hands Notwithstanding because it might be objected That if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always joyn it self with true Baptism the Church which thinketh the Bishops Confirmation after others Mens Baptism needful for the obtaining of the Holy Ghost should hold an error Saint Ierome hereunto maketh answer That the cause of this observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the Holy Ghost by the Sacrament of Baptism unless a Bishop add after it the Imposition of Hands but rather a certain congruity and fitness to honor Prelacy with such pre-eminences because the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her chief Superiors to whom if some eminent Offices of Power above others should not be given there would be in the Church as many Schisms as Priests By which answer it appeareth his opinion was That the Holy Ghost is received in Baptism that Confirmation is onely a Sacramental Complement that the reason why Bishops alone did ordinarily confirm was not because the benefit grace and dignity thereof is greater then of Baptism but rather for that by the Sacrament of Baptism Men being admitted into Gods Church it was both reasonable and convenient that if he Baptize them not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their Souls belongeth yet for honors sake and in token of his Spiritual Superiority over them because to bless is an act of Authority the performance of this annexed Ceremony should be sought for at his hands Now what effect their Imposition of Hands hath either after Baptism administred by Hereticks or otherwise St. Ierome in that place hath made no mention because all men understood that in Converts it tendeth to the fruits of Repentance and craveth in behalf of the Penitent such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of God in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which hath been before shewed Finally Sometime the cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism was in the parties that received Baptism being Infants at which age they might be very well admitted to live in the Family but because to fight in the Army of God to discharge the duties of a Christian man to bring forth the fruits and to do the Works of the Holy Ghost their time of ability was not yet come so that Baptism were not deferred there could by stay of their Confirmation no harm ensue but rather good For by this means it came to pass that Children in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of true Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their mindes a good foundation was laid betimes for direction of the course of their whole lives the Seed of the Church of God was preserved sincere and sound the Prelates and Fathers of Gods Family to whom the cure of their Souls belonged saw by tryal and examination of them a part of their own heavy burthen discharged reaped comfort by beholding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years glorified him whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every one Fatherly encouragement and exhortation Whereunto Imposition of Hands and Prayer being added our Warrant for the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarks Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and Men of God have had
of the time when siege began first to be laid against them All these not commanded by God himself but ordained by a publick Constitution of their own the Prophet Zachary expresly toucheth That St. Ierome following the Tradition of the Hebrews doth make the first a memorial of the breaking of those Two Tables when Moses descended from Mount Senai the second a memorial as well of Gods indignation condemning them to forty years travel in the Desart as of his wrath in permitting Chaldeans to waste burn and destroy their City the last a memorial of heavy tydings brought out of Iury to Ezekiel and the rest which lived as Captives in foreign parts the difference is not of any moment considering that each time of sorrow is naturally evermore a Register of all such grievous events as have hapned either in or near about the same time To these I might add sundry other Fasts above twenty in number ordained amongst them by like occasions and observed in like manner besides their weekly Abstinence Mundays and Thursdays throughout the whole year When men fasted it was not always after one and same sort but either by depriving themselves wholly of all food during the time that their Fasts continued or by abating both the quantity and kinde of Diet. We have of the one a plain example in the Ninivites Fasting and as plain a president for the other in the Prophet Daniel I was saith he in heaviness for three weeks of days I eat no pleasant Bread neither tasted Flash nor Wine Their Tables when they gave themselves to fasting had not that usual furniture of such Dishes as do cherish blood with blood but for food they had Bread for suppage Salt and for sawce Herbs Whereunto the Apostle may be thought to allude saying One believeth he may eat all things another which is weak and maketh a conscience of keeping those Customs which the Jews observe eateth Herbs This austere repast they took in the Evening after Abstinence the whole day For to forfeit a Noons meal and then to recompence themselves at night was not their use Nor did they ever accustom themselves on Sabbaths or Festivals days to fast And yet it may be a question whether in some sort they did not always fast the Sabbath Their Fastings were partly in token of Penitency Humiliation Grief and Sorrow partly in sign of devotion and reverence towards God Which second consideration I dare not peremptorily and boldy affirm any thing might induce to abstain till noon as their manner was on Fasting days to do till night May it not very well he thought that hereunto the Sacred Scripture doth give some secret kinde of Testimony Iosephus is plain That the sixth hour the day they divided into twelve was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto meat Neither is it improbable but that the Heathens did therefore so often upbraid them with Fasting on that day Besides they which found so great fault with our Lords Disciples for rubbing a few Ears of Corn in their hands on the Sabbath day are not unlikely to have aimed also at the same mark For neither was the bodily pain so great that it should offend them in that respect and the very manner of defence which our Saviour there useth is more direct and literal to justifie the breach of the Jewish custom in Fasting then in working at that time Finally the Apostles afterwards themselves when God first gave them the gift of Tongues whereas some in disdain and spight termed Grace Drunkenness it being then the day of Pentecost and but onely a fourth part of the day spent they use this as an argument against the other cavil These men saith Peter are not drunk as you suppose since as yet the third hour of the day is not over-past Howbeit leaving this in suspence as a thing not altogether certainly known and to come from Jews to Christians we finde that of private voluntarily Fastings the Apostle Saint Paul speaketh more then once And saith Tertullian they are sometime commanded throughout the Church Ex aliqua sellicitudinis Ecclesiastica causa the care and fear of the Church so requiring It doth not appear that the Apostles ordained any set and certain days to be generally kept of all Notwithstanding for as much as Christ hath fore-signified that wher himself should be taken from them his absence would soon make them apt to fast it seemeth that even as the first Festival day appointed to be kept of the Church was the day of our Lords return from the dead so the first sorrowful and mourning day was That which we now observe in memory of his departure oâ—t of this World And because there could be no abatement of grief till they saw him raised whose death was the occasion of their heaviness therefore the day he lay in the Sepulchre hath been also kept and observed as a weeping day The Custom of Fasting these two days before Easter is undoubtedly most ancient in so much that Ignatius not thinking him a Catholick Christian man which did not abhor and as the state of the Church was then avoid fasting on the Jews Sabbath doth notwithstanding except for ever that one Sabbath or Saturday which falleth out to be the Easter-Eve as with us it always doth and did sometimes also with them which kept at that time their Easter the Fourteenth day of March as the custom of the Jews was It came afterward to be an order that even as the day of Christs Resurrection so the other two in memory of his death and burial were weekly But this when Saint Ambrose lived had not as yet taken place throughout all Churches no not in Millan where himself was Bishop And for that canâ—â— he saith that although at Rome he observed the Saturdays fast because such was then the custom in Rome nevertheless in his own Church at home he did otherwise The Churches which did not observe that day had another instead thereof which was the Wednesday for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of Humiliation besides that whereon our Saviour suffered death it seemed best to make their choice of that day especially whereon the Jews are thought to have first contrived their treason together with Iudas against Christ. So that the instituting and ordaining both of these and of all other times of like exercise is as the Church shall judge expedient for mens good And concerning every Christians mans duty herein surely that which Augustine and Ambrose are before alledged to have done is such as all men favoring Equity must needs allow and follow if they affect peace As for their specified Errors I will not in this place dispute whether voluntarily Fasting with a vertuous purpose of minde be any medicinable remedy of evil or a duty acceptable unto God and in the World to come even rewardable as other offices are which proceed from Christian Piety
authority those actions that appertain to our Place and Calling can our ears admit such a speech uttered in the reverend performance of that Solemnity or can we at any time renew the memory and enter into serious cogitation thereof but with much admiration and joy Remove what these foolish words do imply and what hath the Ministry of God besides wherein to glory Whereas now forasmuch as the Holy Ghost which our Saviour in his first Ordinations gave doth no lesse concurr with Spiritual vocations throughout all ages than the Spirit which God derived from Moses to them that assisted him in his Government did descend from them to their Successors in like Authority and Place we have for the least and meanest Duties performed by vertue of Ministerial power that to dignifie grace and authorize them which no other Offices on Earth can challenge Whether we Preach Pray Baptize Communicate Condemn give Absolution or whatsoever as Disposers of God's Mysteries ourwords judgemnts acts and deeds are not ours but the Holy Ghost's Enough If unfeigaedly and in heart we did believe it enough to banish whatsoever may justly be thought corrupt either in bestowing or in using or in esteeming the same otherwise than is meet For prophanely to bestow or loosely to use or vilely to esteem of the Holy Ghost we all in shew and profession abhor Now because the Ministerie is an Office of dignitie and honour some are doubtful whether any man may seek for it without offence or to speak more properly doubtful they are not but rather bold to accuse our Discipline in this respect as not only permitting but requiring also ambitious suits or other oblique waies or means whereby to obtain it Against this they plead that our Saviour did stay till his Father sent him and the Apostles till he them that the antient Bishops in the Church of Christ were examples and patterns of the same modesty Whereupon in the end they insert Let see therefore at the length amend that custom of repairing from all parts unto the Bishop at the day of Ordination and of seeking to obtain Orders Let the custom of bringing commendatory Letters be removed let men keep themselves at home expecting there the voyce of God and the authority of such as may call them to undertake charge Thus severely they censure and control ambition if it be ambition which they take upon them to reprehend For of that there is cause to doubt Ambition as we understand it hath been accounted a Vice which seeketh after Honours inordinately Ambitious mindes esteeming it their greatest happiness to be admired reverenced and adored above others use all means lawful and unlawful which may bring them to high rooms But as for the power of Order considered by it self and as in this case it must be considered such reputation it hath in the eye of this present World that they which affect it rather need encouragement to bear contempt than deserve blame as men that carry aspiring mindes The work whereunto this power serveth is commended and the desire thereof allowed by the Apostle for good Nevertheless because the burthen thereof is heavy and the charge great it commeth many times to pass that the mindes even of virtuous men are drawn into clean contrary affections some in humility declining that by reason of hardness which others in regard of goodness onely do with servent alacrity cover So that there is not the least degree in this service but it may be both in reverence shunned and of very devotion longed for If then the desire thereof may be holy religious and good may not the profession of that desire be so likewise We are not to think it so long good as it is dissembled and evil if once we begin to open it And allowing that it may be opened without ambition what offence I beseeth you is there in opening it there where it may be furthered and satisfied in case they to whom it appertaineth think meet In vain are those desires allowed the accomplishment whereof it is not lawful for men to seek Power therefore of Ecclesiastical order may be desired the desire thereof may be professed they which profess themselves that way inclined may endeavour to bring their desires to effect and in all this no necessity of evil Is it the bringing of testimonial Letters wherein so great obliquity consisteth What more simple more plain more harmless more agreeable with the law of common humanity than that men where they are not known use for their easier access the credit of such as can best give testimony of them Letters of any other construction our Church-discipline alloweth not and these to allow is neither to require ambitious saings not to approve any indirect or unlawful act The Prophet Esay receiving his message at the hands of God and his charge by heavenly vision heard the voice of the Lord saying Whom shall I send Who shall go for us Whereunto he recordeth his own answer Then I said Here Lord I am send me Which in effect is the Rule and Canon whereby touching this point the very order of the Church is framed The appointment of times for solemn Ordination is but the publick demand of the Church in the name of the Lord himself Whom shall I send who shall go for us The confluence of men whose inclinations are bent that way is but the answer thereunto whereby the labours of sundry being offered the Church hath freedom to take whom her Agents in such case think meet and requisite As for the example of our Saviour Christ who took not to himself this honour to be made our High Priest but received the same from him which said Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec his waiting and not attempting to execute the Office till God saw convenient time may serve in reproof of usurped honours for as much as we ought not of our own accord to assume dignities whereunto we are not called as Christ was But yet it should be withal considered that a proud usurpation without any orderly calling is one thing and another the bare declaration of willingness to obtain admittance which Willingness of minde I suppose did not want in him whose answer was to the voice of his heavenly calling Behold I am come to do thy will And had it been for him as it is for us expedient to receive his Commission signed with the hands of men to seek it might better have beseemed his humility than it doth our boldness to reprehend them of Pride and Ambition that make no worse kinde of suits than by Letters of information Himself in calling his Apostles prevented all cogitations of theirs that way to the end it might truly be said of them Ye chose not me but I of mine own voluntary motion made choice of you Which kinde of undesired nomination to Ecclesiastical Places hefell divers of the most famous amongst the antient Fathers of the Church
saith Cyprian that our Lord himself did elect Apostles but Deacons after his ascension into Heaven the Apostles ordained Deacons were Stewards of the Church unto whom at the first was committed the distribution of Church-goods the care of providing therewith for the Poor and the charge to see that all things of expeace might be religiously and faithfully dealt in A part also of their Office was attendance upon their Presbyters at the time of Divine Service For which cause Ignatius to set forth the dignity of their Calling saith that they are in such case to the Bishop as if Angelical Powers did serve him These onely being the uses for which Deacons were first made if the Church have sithence extended their Ministery further than the circuit of their labour at the first was drawn we are not herein to think the Ordinance of Scripture violated except there appear some prohibition which hath abridged the Church of that liberty Which I note chiefly in regard of them to whom it seemeth a thing so monstrous that Deacons should sometime be licensed to preach whose institution was at the first to another end To charge them for this as men not contented with their own Vocations and as breakers into that which appertaineth unto others is very hard For when they are thereunto once admitted it is part of their own Vocation it appertaineth now unto them as well as others neither is it intrusion for them to do it being in such sort called but rather in us it were temerity to blame them for doing it Suppose we the Office of Teaching to be so repugnant unto the Office of Deaconship that they cannot concurr in one and the same Person What was there done in the Church by Deacons which the Apostles did not first discharge being Teachers Yea but the Apostles found the burthen of Teaching so heavy that they judged it meet to cutt off that other charge and to have Deacons which might undertake it Be it so The multitude of Christians increasing in Ierusalem and waxing great it was too much for the Apostles to teach and to minister unto Tables also The former was not to be slacked that this latter might be followed Therefore unto this they appointed others Whereupon we may rightly ground this Axiom that when the subject wherein one man's labours of sundry kindes are imployed doth wax so great that the same men are no longer able to manage it sufficiently as before the most natural way to help this is by dividing their Charge into slipes and ordaining of Under-Officers as our Saviour under twelve Apostle seventy Presbyters and the Apostles by his example seven Deacons to be under both Neither ought it to seem less reasonable that when the same men are sufficient both to continue in that which they do and also to undertake somewhat more a combination be admitted in this case as well as division in the former We may not therefore disallow it in the Church of Geneva that Calvin and Beza were made both Pastors and Readers in Divinity being men so able to discharge both To say they did not content themselves with their Pastoral vocations but brake into that which belongeth to others to alledge against them He that exhorteth on exhortation as against us He that distributeth in simplicity is alledged in great dislike of granting licence for Deacons to preach were very hard The antient custome of the Church was to yield the poor much relief especially Widows But as poor people are always querulous and apt to think themselves less respected then they should be we see that when the Apostles did what they could without hindrance to their weightier business yet there were which grudged that others had too much and they too little the Grecian Widows shorter Commons than the Hebrews By means whereof the Apostles saw it meet to ordain Deacons Now tract of time having clean worn out those first occasions for which the Deaconship was then most necessary it might the better be afterwards extended to other Services and so remain as at this present day a Degree in the Clergy of God which the Apostles of Christ did institute That the first seven Deacons were chosen out of the seventy Disciples is an errour in Epiphanius For to draw men from places of weightier unto rooms of meaner labour had not been fit The Apostles to the end they might follow teaching with more freedom committed the ministery of Tables unto Deacons And shall we think they judged it expedient to chuse so many out of those seventy to be ministers unto Tables when Christ himself had before made them Teachers It appeareth therefore how long these three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order have continued in the Church of Christ the highest and largest that which the Apostles the next that which Presbyters and the lowest that which Deacons had Touching Prophets they were such men as having otherwise learned the Gospel had from above bestowed upon them a special gift of expounding Scriptures and of foreshewing things to come Of this sort Agabus was and besides him in Ierusalem sundry others who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with the Clergy because no man's gifts or qualities can make him a Minister of holy things unless Ordination do give him power And we nowhere since Prophets to have been made by Ordination but all whom the Church did ordain where either to serve as Presbyters or as Deacons Evangelists were Presbyters of principal sufficiency whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need They whom we finde to have been named in Scripture Evangelists Ananias Apollos Timothy and others were thus employed And concerning Evangelists afterwards in Trajans dayes the History Ecclesiastical noteth that many of the Apostle's Disciples and Scholars which were then alive and did with singular love of Wisdom affect the Heavenly Word of God to shew their willing mindes in executing that which Christ first of all requireth at the hands of men they sold their Possessions gave them to the Poor and betaking themselves to travel undertook the labour of Evangelists that is they painfully preached Christ and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the Doctrine of Faith Finally whom the Apostle nameth Pastors and Teachers what other were they than Presbyters also howbeit settled in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evangelists I beseech them therefore which have hitherto troubled the Church with questions about Degrees and Offices of Ecclesiastical Calling because they principally ground themselves upon two places that all partiality laid aside they would sincerely weigh and examine whether they have not mis-interpreted both places and all by surmising incompatible Offices where nothing is meant but sundry graces gifts and abilities which Christ bestowed To them of Corinth his words are these God placed in the Church first of all some Apostles Secondly Prophets Thirdly Teachers after
them Powers then gifts of Cures Aides Governments kindes of Languages Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Is there power in all Have all grace to cure Do all speak with Tongues Can all interpret But be you desirous of the better graces They which plainly discern first that some one general thing there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches and do secondly conceive that general to be Church-Offices besides a number of other difficulties can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might concurr in one man and peradventure in some one all which mixture notwithstanding their form of discipline doth most shun On the other side admit that Communicants of special infused grace for the benefit of Members knit into one body the Church of Christ are here spoken of which was in truth the plain drift of that whole Discourse and see if every thing do not answer in due place with the fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meane For why are Apostles the first but because unto them was granted the Revelation of all Truth from Christ immediately Why Prophets the second but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner Teachers the next because whatsoever was known to them it came by hearing yet God withal made them able to instruct which every one could not do that was taught After Gifts of Edification there follow general abilities to work things above Nature Grace to cure men of bodily Diseases Supplies against occurrent defects and impediments Dexterities to govern and direct by counsel Finally aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues Which Graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and given were a cause why not onely they all did furnish up the whole Body but each benefit and help other Again the same Apostle other-where in like sort To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He therefore gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ. In this place none but gifts of Instruction are exprest And because of Teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by Revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach were farr beyond other Pastors they are as having received one way less than Prophets and another way more than Teachers set accordingly between both For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by Office or Power given them through Ordination but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost For in Christian Religion this being the ground of our whole Belief that the promises which God of old had made by his Prophets concerning the wonderful Gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Reign of the true Messias should be made glorious were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their Conversion to Christian Faith the Church had her Ministers chosen unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination Now because the Apostle in reckoning degrees and varieties of Grace doth mention Pastors and Teachers although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministery but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost divers learned and skilfull men have so taken it as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical Persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ which thing we are not to learn from thence but out of other parts of holy Scripture whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolick did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order at the first Apostles Presbyters and Deacons afterwards in stead of Apostles Bishops concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book There is an errour which beguileth many who doe much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature onely of their labours and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tyed by irrevocable Ordination we finde them alwayes exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders alone are natural parts Touching Widows of whom some men are perswaded that if such as Saint Paul describeth may be gotten we ought to retain them in the Church for ever Certain mean Services there were of Attendance as about Women at the time of their Baptism about the Bodies of the sick and dead about the necessities of Travellers Way-faring men and such like wherein the Church did commonly life them when need required because they lived of the Alms of the Church and were fittest for such purposes Saint Paul doth therefore to avoid scandal require that none but Women well-experienced and vertuously given neither any under threescore years of age should be admitted of that number Widows were never in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination to make them Ecclesiastical Persons were absurd The antientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order specified and no moe When your Captain saith Tertullian that is to say the Deacons Presbyters and Bishops fly who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant Again What should I mention Lay-men saith Optatus yea or divers of the Ministery it self To what purpose Deacons which are in the third or Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood when the very Heads and Princes of all even certain of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with the loss of Heaven Heaps of Allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless I may securely therefore conclude that there are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same Degrees of Ecclesiastical Order namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves As for Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates Arch-deacons
presume him as willing to forego for our benefit as alwayes to use and convert to our benefit whatsoever our Religion hath honoured him withall But surely under the name of that which may be many things that should not be are often done By means whereof the Church most commonly for Gold hath Flanel and whereas the usual Saw of old was Glaucus his change the Proverb is now A Church-bargain And for fear left Covetousness alone should linger out the time too much and not be able to make havock of the House of God with that expedition which the mortal enemy thereof did vehemently wish he hath by certain strong inchantments so deeply bewitcht Religion it self as to make it in the end an earnest Sollicitour and an eloquent Perswader of Sacriledge urging confidently that the very best service which men of Power can do to Christ is without any more Ceremony to sweep all and to leave the Church as hare as in the day it was first born that fulness of bread having made the Children of the Houshold wanton it is without any scruple to be taken away from them and thrown to Doggs that they which laid the prices of their Lands as offerings at the Apostles feet did but sow the seeds of Superstition that they which indowed Churches with Lands poysoned Religion that Tythes and Oblations are now in the sight of God as the sacrificed bloud of Goats that if we give him our hearts and affections our goods are better bestowed otherwise that Polycarp's Disciple should not have said We offer unto God our goods as tokens of thankfulness for that we receive neither Origen He which worshippeth God must by Gifts and oblations acknowledge him the Lord of all In a word that to give unto God is errour reformation of errour to take from the Church that which the blindness of former Ages did unwisely give By these or the like suggestions received with all joy and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christian world they have brought to passe that as David doth say of Man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion and Service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years or if strength do serve unto fourscore what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whatsoever they be that behold it Thus have the best things been overthrown not so much by puissance and might of Adversaries as through defect of counsel in them that should have upheld and defended the same 80. There are in a Minister of God these four things to be considered his Ordination which giveth him power to meddle with things sacred the charge or portion of the Church allotted unto him for exercise of his Office the performance of his Duty according to the exigence of his Charge and lastly the maintenance which in that respect he receiveth All Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons which either concern the bestowing or the using of the power of Ministerial Order have relation to these four Of the first we have spoken before at large Concerning the next for more convenient discharge of Eclcesiastical Duties as the body of the People must needs be severed by divers Precincts so the Clergy likewise accordingly distributed Whereas therefore Religion did first take place in Cities and in that respect was a cause why the name of Pagans which properly signifieth a Countrey people came to be used in common speech for the same that Infidels and Unbelievers were it followed thereupon that all such Cities had their Ecclesiastical Colledges consisting of Deacons and of Presbyters whom first the Apostles or their Delegates the Evangelists did both ordain and govern Such were the Colledges of Ierusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth and the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now because Religion and the cure of Souls was their general charge in common over all that were near about them neither had any one Presbyter his several Cure apart till Evaristus Bishop in the See of Rome about the year 112. began to assign Precincts unto every Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compasse whereof himself should take charge alone the commodiousnesse of this invention caused all parts of Christendom to follow it and at the length amongst the rest our own Churches about the year 636. became divided in like manner But other distinction of Churches there doth not appear any in the Apostles Writings save onely according to those Cities wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and erected Ecclesiastical Colledges Wherefore to ordain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout every City and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout every Church doe in them signifie the same thing Churches then neither were nor could be in so convenient sort limited as now they are first by the bounds of each state and then within each state by more particular Precincts till at the length we descend unto several Congregations termed Parishes with farr narrower restraint than this Name at the first was used And from hence hath grown their errour who as oft as they read of the duty which Ecclesiastical Persons are now to perform towards the Church their manner is alwayes to understand by that Church some particular Congregation of Parish Church They suppose that there should now be no man of Ecclesiastical Order which is not tyed to some certain Parish Because the names of all Church-Officers are words of relation because a Shepheard must have his Flock a Teacher his Scholars a Minister his Company which he ministreth unto therefore it seemeth a thing in their eyes absurd and unreasonable that any man should be ordained a Minister otherwise than onely for some particular Congregation Perceive they not how by this meane they make it unlawful for the Church to imploy men at all in converting Nations For if so be the Church may not lawfully admit to an Ecclesiastical Function unlesse it tye the party admitted unto some particular Parish then surely a thanklesse labour it is whereby men seek the Conversion of Infidels which know not Christ and therefore cannot be as yet divided into their special Congregations and Flocks But to the end it may appear how much this one thing amongst many more hath been mistaken there is first no Precept requiring that Presbyters and Deacons be made in such sort and not otherwise Albeit therefore the Apostles did make them in that order yet is not their Example such a Law as without all exception bindeth to make them in no other order but that Again if we will consider that which the Apostles themselves did surely no man can justly say that herein we practise any thing repugnant to their example For by them there was ordained onely in each Christian City a Colledge of Presbyters and Deacons to administer holy things Evaristus did a hundred years after
referring the name of a Title especially to the maintenance of the Minister infringe all Ordinations made except they which receive Orders be first intituled to a competent Ecclesiastical Benefice and which is most ridiculously strange except besides their present Title to some such Benefice they have likewise some other Title of Annual Rent or Pension whereby they may he relieved in case through infirmity sickness or other lawful impediment they grow unable to execute their Ecclesiastical Function So that every man lawfully ordained must bring a Bow which hath two strings a Title of present Right and another to provide for future possibility or chance Into these absurdities and follies they slide by mis-conceiving the true purpose of certain Canons which indeed have forbidden to ordain a Minister without a Title not that simply it is unlawful so to ordain but because it might grow to an inconvenience if the Church did not somewhat restrain that liberty For seeing they which have once received Ordination cannot again return into the World it behoveth them which Ordain to fore-see how such shall be afterwards able to live lest their poverty and destitution should redound to the disgrace and discredit of their Calling Which evil prevented those very Lawes which in that respect forbid doe expresly admit Ordinations to be made at large and without Title namely if the Party so ordained have of his own for the sustenance of this life or if the Bishop which giveth him Orders will finde him competent allowance till some place of Ministration from whence his maintenance may arise be provided for him or if any other fit and sufficient means be had against the danger before mentioned Absolutely therefore it is not true that any antient Canon of the Church which is or ought to be with us in force doth make Ordinations at large unlawful and as the state of the Church doth stand they are most necessary If there be any conscience in men â—ouching that which they write or speak let them consider as well what the present condition of all things doth now suffer as what the Ordinances of former Ages did appoint as well the weight of those Causes for which our Affairs have altered as the reasons in regard whereof our Fathers and Predecessours did sometime strictly and severely keep that which for us to observe now is neither meet nor alwayes possible In this our present Cause and Controversie whether any not having Title of Right to a Benefice may be lawfully ordained a Minister is it not manifest in the eyes of all men that whereas the name of a Benefice doth signifie some standing Ecclesiastical Revenue taken out of the Treasure of God and allotted to a Spiritual Person to the end he may use the same and enjoy it as his own for term of life unless his default cause Deprivation The Clergy for many years after Christ had no other Benefices but onely their Canonical Portions or monethly Dividends allowed them according to their several degrees and qualities out of the Common Stock of such Gifts Oblations and Tythes as the servour of Christian Piety did then yield Yea that even when Ministers had their Churches and Flocks assigned unto them in several yet for maintenance of life their former kinde of allowance continued till such time as Bishops and Churches Cathedral being sufficiently endowed with Lands other Presbyters enjoyed in stead of their first Benefices the Tythes and Profits of their own Congregations whole to themselves Is it not manifest that in this Realm and so in other the like Dominions where the tenure of Lands is altogether grounded on Military Laws and held as in Fee under Princes which are not made Heads of the People by force of voluntary Election but born the Soveraign Lords of those whole and intire Territories which Territories their famous Progenitours obtaining by way of Conquest retained what they would in their own hands and divided the rest to others with reservation of Soveraignty and Capital Interest the building of Churches and consequently the assigning of either Parishes or Benefices was a thing impossible without consent of such as were principal Owners of Land in which consideration for their more encouragement hereunto they which did so farr benefit the Church had by common consent granted as great equity and reason was a right for them and their Heirs till the Worlds end to nominate in those Benefices men whose quality the Bishop allowing might admit them thereunto Is it not manifest that from hence inevitably such inequality of Parishes hath grown as causeth some through the multitude of people which have refort unto one Church to be more than any one man can welld and some to be of that nature by reason of Chappels annex'd that they which are Incumbents should wrong the Church if so be they had not certain Stipendaries under them because where the Crops of the Profit or Benefice is but one the Title can be but one man 's and yet the charge may require more Not to mention therefore any other reason whereby it may clearly appear how expedient it is and profitable for this Church to admit Ordinations without Title this little may suffice to declare how impertinent their allegations against it are out of antient Canons how untrue their confident asseverations that onely through negligence of Popish Prelates the custom of making such kinde of Ministers hath prevailed in the Church of Rome against their Canons and that with us it is expresly against the Laws of our own Government when a Minister doth serve as a Stipendary Curate which kinde of Service neverthelesse the greatest Rabbins of that part doe altogether follow For howsoever they are loath peradventure to be named Curates Stipendaries they are and the labour they bestow is in other mens Cures a thing not unlawfull for them to doe yet unseemly for them to condemn which practise it I might here discover the like over-sight throughout all their Discourses made in behalf of the Peoples pretended right to elect their Ministers before the Bishop may lawfully ordain But because we have otherwhere at large disputed of popular Elections and of the right of Patronage wherein is drowned whatsoever the people under any pretence of colour may seem to challenge about Admission and Choyce of the Pastours that shall feed their Souls I cannot see what one Duty there is which alwayes ought to goe before Ordination but onely care of the Partie's worthinesse as well for integrity and vertue as knowledge yea for vertue more in as much as defect of knowledge may sundry wayes be supplyed but the scandal of vicious and wicked life is a deadly evil 81. The truth is that of all things hitherto mentioned the greatest is that threefold blott or blemish of notable ignorance unconscionable absence from the Cures whereof men have taken charge and unsatiable hunting after Spiritual preferments without either care or conscience of the publick good Whereof to the end
do admit which may be thought repugnant to any thing hitherto alledged and in what special consideration they seem to admit the same Considering therefore that to furnish all places of Cure in this Realm it is not an Army of twelve thousand Learned men that would suffice nor two Universities that can always furnish as many as decay in so great a number nor a fourth part of the Livings with Cure that when they fall are able to yield sufficient maintenance for Learned men is it not plain that unless the greatest part of the People should be left utterly without the publick use and exercise of Religion there is no remedy but to take into the Ecclesiastical Order a number of men meanly qualified in respect of Learning For whatsoever we may imagine in our private Closers or talk for Communication-sake at our Boords yea or write in our Books through a notional conceit of things needful for performance of each man's duty if once we come from the Theory of Learning to take out so many Learned men let them be diligently viewed out of whom the choice shall be made and thereby an estimate made what degree of skill we must either admit or else leave numbers utterly destitute of Guides and I doubt not but that men indued with sense of common equity will soon discern that besides eminent and competent knowledge we are to descend to a lower step receiving knowledge in that degree which is but tolerable When we commend any man for learning our speech importeth him to be more than meanly qualified that way but when Laws do require learning as a quality which maketh capable of any Function our measure to judge a learned man by must be some certain degree of learning beneath which we can hold no man so qualified And if every man that listeth may set that degree himself how shall we ever know when Laws are broken when kept seeing one man may think a lower degree sufficient another may judge them unsufficient that are not qualified in some higher degree Wherefore of necessity either we must have some Judge in whose conscience they that are thought and pronounced sufficient are to be so accepted and taken or else the Law it self is to set down the very lowest degree of fitness that shall be allowable in this kinde So that the question doth grow to this issue Saint Paul requireth Learning in Presbyters yea such Learning as doth inable them to exhort in Doctrine which is sound and to disprove them that gain-say it What measure of ability in such things shall serve to make men capable of that kinde of Office he doth not himself precisely determine but referreth it to the Conscience of Titus and others which had to deal in ordaining Presbyters We must therefore of necessity make this demand whether the Church lacking such as the Apostle would have chosen may with good conscience take out of such as it hath in a meaner degree of fitness them that may serve to perform the service of publick Prayer to minister the Sacraments unto the People to solemnize Marriage to visit the Sick and bury the Dead to instruct by reading although by Preaching they be not as yet so able to benefit and feed Christ's flock We constantly hold that in this case the Apostles Law is not broken Herequireth more in Presbyters than there is found in many whom the Church of England alloweth But no man being tyed unto impossibilities to do that we cannot we are not bound It is but a stratagem of theirs therefore and a very indirect practise when they publish large declamations to prove that Learning is required in the Ministry and to make the silly people believe that the contrary is maintained by the Bishops and upheld by the Laws of the Land whereas the question in truth is not whether Learning be required but whether a Church wherein there is not sufficient store of Learned men to furnish all Congregations should do better to let thousands of Souls grow savage to let them live without any publick service of God to let their Children dye unbaptised to with-hold the benefit of the other Sacrament from them to let them depart this World like Pagans without any thing so much as readd unto them concerning the way of life than as it doth in this necessity to make such Presbyters as are so farr forth sufficient although they want that ability of Preaching which someothers have In this point therefore we obey necessity and of two evils we take the less in the rest a publick utility is sought and in regard thereof some certain inconveniencies tolerated because they are recompenced with greater good The Law giveth liberty of Non-residence for a time to such as will live in Universities if they faithfully there labour to grow in knowledge that so they may afterwards the more edifie and the better instruct their Congregations The Church in their absence is not destitute the Peoples salvation not neglected for the present time the time of their absence is in the intendment of Law bestowed to the Churches great advantage and benefit those necessary helps are procured by it which turn by many degrees more to the Peoples comfort in time to come than if their Pastours had continually abidden with them So that the Law doth hereby provide in some part to remedy and help that evil which the former necessity hath imposed upon the Church For compare two men of equal meanness the one perpetually resident the other absent for a space in such sort as the Law permitteth Allot unto both some nine years continuance with Cure of Souls And must not three years absence in all probability and likelihood make the one more profitable than the other unto God's Church by so much as the increase of his knowledge gotten in those three years may adde unto six years travel following For the greater ability there is added to the instrument wherewith it pleaseth God to save Souls the more facility and expedition it hath to work that which is otherwise hardlier effected As much may be said touching absence granted to them that attend in the families of Bishops which Schools of gravity discretion and wisedom preparing men against the time that they come to reside abroad are in my poor opinion even the fittest places that any ingenious minde can with to enter into between departure from private study and access to a more publick charge of Souls yea no less expedient for men of the best sufficiency and most maturity in knowledge than the very Universities themselves are for the ripening of such as be raw Imployment in the Families of Noble-men or in Princes Courts hath another end for which the self-same leave is given not without great respect to the good of the whole Church For assuredly whosoever doth well observe how much all inferiour things depend upon the orderly courses and motions of those greater Orbes will hardly judge it either meet or good
why in all the projects of their Discipline it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the Key of Spiritual Authority out of the hands of former Governours and equally to possess therewith the Pastors of all several Congregations the people first for surer accomplishment and then for better defence thereof are pretended necessary Actors in those things whereunto their ability for the most part is as slender as their title and challenge unjust Notwithstanding whether they saw it necessary for them to perswade the people without whose help they could do nothing or else which I rather think the affection which they bear towards this new Form of Government made them to imagin it Gods own Ordinance Their Doctrine is that by the Law of God there must be for ever in all Congregations certain Lay-Elders Ministers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in as much as our Lord and Saviour by Testament for so they presume hath left all Ministers or Pastors in the Church Executors equally to the whole power of Spiritual Jurisdiction and with them hath joyned the people as Colleagues By maintenance of which Assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it as a matter of their own interest and for that if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them the colour of Divine Authority assumed for the Grace and Countenance of that Power in the vulgar sort furnisheth their Leaders with great abundance of matter behoveful of their encouragement to proceed alwaies with hope of fortunate success in the end considering their cause to be as David's was a just defence of power given them from above and consequently their Adversaries quarrel the same with Saul's by whom the Ordinance of God was withstood Now on the contrary side if this their surmise prove false if such as in Justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alledged as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial let them then consider whether those words of Corah Dathan and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron It is too much that ye take upon you seeing all the Congregation is holy be not the very true Abstract and abridgment of all their published Admonitions Demonstrations Supplications and Treatises whatsoever whereby they have laboured to void the rooms of their Spiritual Superiours before Authorized and to advance the new fancied Scepter of Lay Presbyterial Power The Nature of Spiritual Iurisdiction BUt before there can be any setled Determination whether Truth do rest on their part or on ours touching Lay-Elders we are to prepare the way thereunto by explication of some things requisite and very needful to be considered as first how besides that Spiritual Power which is of Order and was instituted for performance of those duties whereof there hath been Speech already had there is in the Church no less necessary a second kind which we call the Power of Jurisdiction When the Apostle doth speak of ruling the Church of God and of receiving accusations his words have evident reference to the Power of Jurisdiction Our Saviours words to the Power of Order when he giveth his Disciples charge saying Preach Baptize Do this in Remembrance of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn A Bishop saith Ignatius doth bear the Image of God and of Christ of God in ruling of Christ in administring holy things By this therefore we see a manifest difference acknowledged between the Power of Ecclesiastical Order and the power of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical The Spiritual Power of the Church being such as neither can be challenged by right of Nature nor could by humane Authority be instituted because the forces and effects thereof are Supernatural and Divine we are to make no doubt or question but that from him which is the Head it hath descended unto us that are the Body now invested therewith He gave it for the benefit and good of Souls as a mean to keep them in the path which leadeth unto endless felicity a bridle to hold them within their due and convenient bounds and if they do go astray a forcible help to reclaim them Now although there be no kind of Spiritual Power for which our Lord Iesus Christ did not give both commission to exercise and direction how to use the same although his Laws in that behalf recorded by the holy Evangelists be the only ground and foundation whereupon the practice of the Church must sustain it self yet as all multitudes once grown to the form of Societies are even thereby naturally warranted to enforce upon their own subjects particularly those things which publick wisdom shall judge expedient for the common good so it were absurd to imagine the Church it self the most glorious amongst them abridged of this liberty or to think that no Law Constitution or Canon can be further made either for Limitation or Amplification in the practice of our Saviours Ordinances whatsoever occasion be offered through variety of times and things during the state of this inconstant world which bringeth forth daily such new evills as must of necessity by new remedies be redrest did both of old enforce our venerable Predecessor and will alwaies constrain others sometime to make sometime to abrogate sometime to augment and again to abridge sometime in sum often to vary alter and change Customs incident unto the manner of exercising that Power which doth it self continue alwaies one and the same I therefore conclude that Spiritual Authority is a Power which Christ hath given to be used over them which are subject unto it for the eternal good of their Souls according to his own most Sacred Laws and the wholsome positive Constitutions of his Church In Doctrine referred unto Action and Practice as this is which concerns Spiritual Jurisdiction the first sound and perfect understanding is the knowledge of the End because thereby both Use doth frame and Contemplation judge all things Of Penitency the chiefest End propounded by Spiritual Iurisdiction Two kinds of Penitency the one a Private Duty toward God the other a Duty of external Discipline Of the vertue of Repentance from which the former Duty proceedeth and of Contrition the first part of that Duty SEeing that the chiefest cause of Spiritual Jurisdiction is to provide for the health and safety of Mens Souls by bringing them to see and Repent their grievous offences committed against God as also to reform all injuries offered with the breach of Christian Love and Charity toward their brethren in matters of Ecclesiastical Cognizance the use of this Power shall by so much the plainlier appear if first the nature of Repentance it self be known We are by Repentance to appease whom we offend by Sin For which cause whereas all Sin deprives us of the favour of Almighty God our way of Reconciliation with him is the inward secret Repentance of the heart which inward
her tears Our Lord doth love that many should become suppliant for one In like sort long before him Tertullian Some few assembled make a Church and the Church is as Christ himself When thou dost therefore put forth thy hands to the knees of thy brethren thou touchest Christ it is Christ unto whom thou art a supplicant so when they pour one tears over them it is even Christ that taketh compassion Christ which prayeth when they pray Neither can that easily be denyed for which the Son is himself contented to become a suitor Whereas in these considerations therefore voluntary Penitents had been long accustomed for great and grievous crimes though secret yet openly both to repent and confess as the Canons of Antient Discipline required the Greek Church first and in processe of time the Latine altered this order judging it sufficient and more convenient that such offenders should do Penance and make confession in private onely The cause why the Latins did Leo declareth saying Although the ripeness of faith be commendable which for the fear of God doth not fear to incur shame before all men yet because every ones crimes are not such that it can be free and safe for them to make publication of all things wherein repentance is necessary let a custome so unfit to be kept be abrogated lest many forbear to use remedies of penitency whilst they either blush or are afraid to acquaint their enemies with those acts for which the Laws may take hold upon them Besides it shall win the more Repentance if the Consciences of Sinners be not emptied into the peoples ears And to this only cause doth Sozomen impure the change which the Grecians made by ordaining throughout all Churches certain Penitentiaries to take the Confessions and appoint the Penances of secret offenders Socrates for this also may be true that more inducements then one did set forward an alteration so generally made affirmeth the Grecians and not unlikely to have specially respected therein the occasion which the Novatianists took at the multititude of publick Penitents to insult over the Discipline of the Church against which they still cryed out wheresoever they had time and place He that sheweth Sinners favour doth but teach the innocent to Sin And therefore they themselves admitted no man to their Communion upon any Repentance which once was known to have offended after Baptism making Sinners thereby not the fewer but the closer and the more obdurate how fair soever their pretence might seem The Grecians Canon for some one Presbyter in every Church to undertake the charge of Penitency and to receive their voluntary Confessions which had sinned after Baptism continued in force for the space of above some hundred years till Nectarius and the Bishops of Churches under him begun a second alteration abolishing even that Confession which their Penitentiaries took in private There came to the Penitentiary of the Church of Constantinople a certain Gentlewoman and to him she made particular Confession of her faults committed after Baptism whom thereupon he advised to continue in Fasting and Prayer that as with tongue she had acknowledged her Sins so there might appear likewise in her some work worthy of Repentance But the Gentlewoman goeth forward and detecteth her self of a crime whereby they were forced to dis-robe an Ecclesiastical person that is to degrade a Deacon of the same Church When the matter by this mean came to publick notice the people were in a kind of tumult offended not onely at that which was done but much more because the Church should thereby endure open infamy and scorn The Clergy was perplexed and altogether doubtfull what way to take till one Eudemon born in Alexandria but at that time a Priest in the Church of Constantinople considering that the causes of voluntary Confession whether publick or private was especially to seek the Churches ayd as hath been before declared lest men should either not communicate with others or wittingly hazard their Souls if so be they did communicate and that the inconvenience which grew to the whole Church was otherwise exceeding great but especially grievous by means of so manifold offensive detections which must needs be continually more as the world did it self wax continually worse for Antiquity together with the gravity and severity thereof saith Sozomen had already begun by little and little to degenerate into loose and careless living whereas before offences were less partly through bashfulness in them which open their own faults and partly by means of their great austerity which sate as judges in this business these things Eudaemon having weighed with himself resolved easily the mind of Nectarius that the Penitentiaries office must be taken away and for participation in Gods holy mysteries every man be left to his own Conscience which was as he thought the onely means to free the Church from danger of Obloquie and Disgrace Thus much saith Socrates I am the bolder to relate because I received it from Eudaemons own mouth to whom mine answer was at that time Whether your counsel Sir have been for the Churches good or otherwise God knoweth But I see you have given occasion whereby we shall not now any more reprehend one anothers faults nor observe that Apostolick precept which saith Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darknesse but rather be ye also Reprovers of them With Socrates Sozomen both agreeth in the occasion of abolishing Penitentiaries and moreover testifieth also that in his time living with the younger Theodosius the same Abolition did still continue and that the Bishops had in a manner every where followed the example given them by Nectarius Wherefore to implead the truth of this History Cardinal Baronius alledgeeth that Socrates Sozomen and Eudaemon were all Novatianists and that they falsifie in saying for so they report that as many as held the Consubstantial Being of Christ gave their assent to the abrogation of the forehearsed Canon The summe is he would have it taken for a Fable and the World to be perswaded that Nectarius did never any such thing Why then should Socrates first and afterwards Sozomen publish it To please their Pew-fellows the Disciples of Novatien A poor gratification and they very silly Friends that would take Lyes for Good-turns For the more acceptable the Matter was being deemed true the lesse they must needs when they found the contrary either credit or affect him which had deceived them Notwithstanding we know that joy and gladness rising from false information do not onely make men so forward to believe that which they first hear but also apt to scholie upon it and to report as true whatsoever they wish were true But so farr is Socrates from any such purpose that the Fact of Nectarius which others did both like and follow he doth disallow and reprove His speech to Eudemon before set down is proof sufficient that he writeth nothing but what was famously known to all
and what himself did wish had been otherwise As for Sozomen his correspondency with Hereticks having shewed to what end the Church did first ordain Penitentiaries he addeth immediately that Novatianists which had no care of Repentance could have no need of this Office Are these the words of a Friend or Enemy Besides in the entrace of that whole Narration Not to sinne saith he at all would require a Nature more divine than ours is But God hath commanded to pardon Sinners yea although they transgresse and offend often Could there be any thing spoken more directly opposite to the Doctrine of Novatian Eudaemon was Presbyter under Nectarius To Novatianists the Emperour gave liberty of using their Religion quietly by themselves under a Bishop of their own even within the City for that they stood with the Church in defence of the Catholick Faith against all other Hereticks besides Had therefore Eudaemon favoured their heresie their Camps were not pitched so farr off but he might at all times have found easie accesse unto them Is there any man that hath lived with him and hath touched him that way if not why suspect we him more than Nectarius Their report touching Grecian Catholick Bishops who gave approbation to that which was done and did also the like themselves in their own Churches we have no reason to discredit without some manifest and clear evidence brought against it For of Catholick Bishops no likelihood but that their greatest respect to Nectarius a man honored in those parts no lesse than the Bishop of Rome himself in the Western Churches brought them both easily and speedily unto conformity with him Arrians Eunomians Apollinarians and the rest that stood divided from the Church held their Penitentiaries as before Novatianists from the beginning had never any because their opinion touching Penitency was against the practice of the Church therein and a cause why they severed themselves from the Church so that the very state of things as they then stood giveth great shew of probability to his speech who hath affirmed That they onely which held the Sonne consubstantial with the Father and Novatianists which joyned with them in the same Opinion had no Penitentiaries in their Churches the rest retained them By this it appeareth therefore how Baronius finding the Relation plain that Nectarius did abolish even those private secret Confessions which the People had been before accustomed to make to him that was Penitentiary laboureth what he may to discredit the Authors of the Report and to leave it imprinted in mens mindes that whereas Nectarius did but abrogate publick Confession Novatianists have maliciously forged the abolition of Private as if the oddes between these two were so great in the ballance of their Judgement which equally hated or contemned both or as if it were not more clear than light that the first alteration which established Penitentiaries took away the burthen of Publick Confession in that kinde of Penitents and therefore the second must either abrogate Private or nothing Cardinal Bellarmine therefore finding that against the Writers of the History it is but in vain to stand upon so doubtful terms and exceptions endeavoureth mightily to prove even by their report no other Confession taken away then Publick which Penitentiaries used in Private to impose upon Publick Offenders For why It is saith he very certain that the Name of Penitents in the Fathers Writings signifieth onely Publick Penitents certain that to hear the Confessions of the rest now more than one could possibly have done certain that Sozomen to shew how the Latine Church retained in his time what the Greek had clean cast off declareth the whole Order of Publick Penitency used in the Church of Rome but of Private he maketh no mention And in these Considerations Bellarmine will have it the meaning both of Socrates and Sozomen that the former Episcopal Constitution which first did erect Penitentiaries could not concern any other Offenders than such as Publickly had sinned after Baptisme That onely they were prohibited to come to the Holy Communion except they did first in secret confesse all their Sinnes to the Penitentiary by his appointment openly acknowledge their open Crimes and doe publick Penance for them That whereas before Novatian's uprising no man was constrainable to confesse publickly any Sinne this Canon enforced Publick Offenders thereunto till such time as Nectarius thought good to extinguish the Practice thereof Let us examine therefore these subtile and fine Conjectures whether they be able to hold the touch It seemeth good saith Socrates to put down the office of these Priests which had charge of Penitency what charge that was the kindes of Penitency then usual must make manifest There is often speech in the Fathers Writings In their Books frequent mention of Penitency exercised within the Chambers of our Heart and seen of God and not communicated to any other the whole charge of which Penitency is imposed of God and doth rest upon the Sinner himself But if Penitents in secret being guilty of Crimes whereby they knew they had made themselves unfit Guests for the Table of our Lord did seek direction for their better performance of that which should set them clear it was in this case the Penitentiaries Office to take their Confessions to advise them the best way he could for their Souls good to admonish them to counsel them but not to lay upon them more than private Penance As for notorious wicked Persons whose Crimes were known to convict judge and punish them was the Office of the Ecclesiastical Consistory Penitentiaries had their Institution to another end But unlesse we imagine that the antient time knew no other Repentance then publick or that they had little occasion to speak of any other Repentance or else that in speaking thereof they used continually some other Name and not the name of Repentance whereby to express private Penitency how standeth it with reason that whensoever they write of Penitents it should be thought they meant only Publick Penitents The truth is they handle all three kindes but private and voluntary Repentance much oftner as being of farr more general use whereas Publick was but incident unto few and not oftner than once incident unto any Howbeit because they do not distinguish one kinde of Penitency from another by difference of Names our safest way for Construction is to follow circumstance of Matter which in this Narration will not yield it self applyable onely unto Publick penance do what they can that would so expound it They boldly and confidently affirm That no man being compellable to confesse publickly any Sinne before Novatius time the end of instituting Penitentiaries afterwards in the Church was that by them men might be constrained unto publick Confession Is there any Record in the World which doth testifie this to be true There is that testifie the plain contrary For Sozomen declaring purposely the cause of their Institution saith That whereas men openly craving Pardon at
God's hands for Publick Confession the last act of Penitency was alwayes made in the form of a contrite Prayer unto God it could not be avoided but they must withall confesse what their offences were This is the opinion of their Prelate seemed from the first beginning as we may probably think to be somewhat burthensome that men whose Crimes were unknown should blaze their own Faults as it were on the Stage acquainting all the People with whatsoever they had done amisse And therefore to remedy this Inconvenience they laid the charge upon one onely Priest chosen out of such as were of best Conversation a silent and a discreet man to whom they which had offended might resort and lay open their Lives He according to the quality of every one's Transgressions appointed what they should do or suffer and left them to execute it upon themselves Can we wish a more direct and evident testimonie that the Office here spoken of was to ease voluntary Penitents from the burthen of publick Confessions and not to constrain notorious Offenders thereunto That such Offenders were not compellable to open Confessions till Novatian's time that is to say till after the dayes of Persecution under Decius the Emperour they of all men should not so peremptorily avouch which whom if Fabian Bishop of Rome who suffered Martyrdom in the first year of Decius be of any authority and credit it must inforce them to reverse their Sentence his words are so plain and clear against them For such as commit those Crimes whereof the Apostle hath said They that do them shall never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven must saith he be forced unto amendment because they slipp down to Hell if Ecclesiastical Authority stay them not Their conceit of Impossibility that one man should suffice to take the general charge of Penitency in such a Church as Constantinople hath risen from a meer erroneous supposal that the Antient manner of private Confession was like the Shrift at this day usual in the Church of Rome which tyeth all men at one certain time to make Confession whereas Confession was then neither looked for till men did offer it nor offered for the most part by any other than such as were guilty of haynous Transgressions nor to them any time appointed for that purpose Finally The drift which Sozomen had in relating the Discipline of Rome and the Form of publick Penitency there retained even till his time is not to signifie that onely publick Confession was abrogated by Nectarius but that the West or Latin Church held still one and the same Order from the very beginning and had not as the Greek first cut off publick voluntary Confession by ordaining and then private by removing Penitentiaries Wherefore to conclude It standeth I hope very plain and clear first against the one Cardinal that Nectarius did truly abrogate Confession in such sort as the Ecclesiastical History hath reported and secondly as clear against them both that it was not publick Confession onely which Nectarius did abolish The Paradox in maintenance whereof Hessels wrote purposely a Book touching this Argument to shew that Nectarius did but put the Penitentiary from his Office and not take away the Office it self is repugnant to the whole advice which Eudaemon gave of leaving the People from that time forward to their own Consciences repugnant to the Conference between Socrates and Eudamon wherein complaint is made of some inconvenience which the want of the Office would breed Finally repugnant to that which the History declareth concerning other Churches which did as Nectarius had done before them not in deposing the same man for that was impossible but in removing the same Office out of their Churches which Nectarius had banished from his For which cause Bellarmin doth well reject the opinion of Hessels howsoever it please Pamelius to admire it as a wonderful happy Invention But in sum they are all gravelled no one of them able to go smoothly away and to satisfie either others or himself with his own conceit concerning Nectarius Only in this they are stiff that Auricular Confession Nectarius did not abrogate left if so much should be acknowledged it might enforce them to grant that the Greek Church at that time held not Confession as the Latin now doth to be the part of a Sacrament instituted by our Saviour Jesus Christ which therefore the Church till the Worlds end hath no power to alter Yet seeing that as long as publick voluntary Confession of private Crimes did continue in either Church as in the one it remained not much above 200. years in the other about 400. the only acts of such Repentance were first the Offender's intimation of those Crimes to some one Presbyter for which imposition of Penance was sought Secondly the undertaking of Penance imposed by the Bishop Thirdly after the same performed and ended open Confession to God in the hearing of the whole Church Whereupon Fourthly ensued the Prayer of the Church Fifthly then the Bishop's imposition of hands and so Sixthly the Parties reconciliation or restitution to his former right in the holy Sacrament I would gladly know of them which make onely private Confession a part of their Sacrament of Penance how it could be so in those times For where the Sacrament of Penance is ministred they hold that Confession to be Sacramental which he receiveth who must absolve whereas during the fore-rehearsed manner of Penance it can no where be shewed that the Priest to whom secret information was given did reconcile or absolve any For how could he when Publick Confession was to goe before Reconciliation and Reconciliation likewise in publick thereupon to ensue â— So that if they did account any Confession Sacramental it was surely publicke which is now abolish'd in the Church of Rome and as for that which the Church of Rome doth so esteem the Ancient neither had it in such estimation nor thought it to be of so absolute necessity for the taking away of Sinne But for any thing that I could ever observe out of them although not onely in Crimes open and notorious which made men unworthy and uncapable of holy Mysteries their Discipline required first publicke Penance and then granted that which Saint Hierona mentioneth saying The Priest layeth his hand upon the Penitent and by invocation intreateth that the holy Ghost may return to him again and so after having enjoyned solemnly all the People to pray for him reconcileth to the Altar him who was delivered to Satan for the destruction of his Flesh that his Spirit might be safe in the day of the Lord. Although I say not onely in such Offences being famously known to the World but also if the same were committed secretly it was the custom of those times both that private Intimation should be given and publick Confession made thereof in which respect whereas all men did willingly the one but would as willingly have withdrawn themselves from the other
cruel were a sinne most grievous considering that the people of God should be easie to relent as Joseph was towards his Brethren Finally if so it fall out that the death of him which was injured prevent his submission which did offend let him then for so they determine that he ought goe accompanied with ten others unto the Sepulchre of the Dead and there make confession of the Fault saying I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and against this man to whom I have done such or such injury and if Money be due let it be restored to his Heirs or in case he have none known leave it with the house of Iudgement That is to say with the Senators Ancients and Guides of Israel We hold not Christian people tyed unto Jewish Orders for the manner of Restitution but surely Restitution we must hold necessary as well in our own Repentance as theirs for Sinnes of wilful oppression and wrong Now although it suffices that the Offices wherewith we pacifie God or private men be secretly done yet in Cases where the Church must be also satisfied it was not to this end and purpose unnecessary that the antient Discipline did farther require outward signes of Contrition to be shewed Confession of Sinnes to be made openly and those Works to be apparent which served as Testimonies for Conversion before men Wherein if either Hypocrisie did at any time delude their Judgment they knew that God is he whom Maskes and Mockeryes cannot blinde that he which seeth mens hearts would judge them according unto his own evidence and as Lord correct the Sentence of his Servants concerning matters beyond their reach Or if such as ought to have kept the Rules of Canonical Satisfaction would by sinister means and practises undermine the same obtruding presumptuously themselves to the participation of Christ's most sacred Mysteries before they were orderly re-admitted thereunto the Church for contempt of holy things held them incapable of that Grace which God in the Sacrament doth impart to devout Communicants and no doubt but he himself did retain bound whom the Church in those cases refused to loose The Fathers as may appear by sundry Decrees and Canons of the Primitive Church were in matter specially of publick Scandal provident that too much facility of pardoning might not be shewed He that casteth off his lawful wife saith Saint Basil and doth take another it adjudged an Adulterer by the verdict of our Lord himself and by our Fathers it is Canonically ordained that such for the space of a year shall mourn for two years space hear three years be prostrate the seventh year assemble with the faithful in Prayer and after that be admitted to communicate if with tears they bewail their fault Of them which had fallen from their faith in the time of Emperour Licinius and were not thereunto forced by any extream usage the Nicene Synod under Constantine ordained that earnestly repenting they should continue three years Hearers seven years be prostrate and two years communicate with the people in prayer before they came to receive the oblation Which rigour sometimes they tempered nevertheless with lenity the self-same Synod having likewise defined That whatsoever the cause were any man desirous at the time of departure out of this life to receive the Eucharist might with examination and tryal have it granted him by the Bishop Yea besides this case of special commiseration there is a Canon more large which giveth always liberty to abridge or extend out the time as the Parties meek or sturdy disposition should require By means of which Discipline the Church having power to hold them many years in suspence there was bred in the mindes of the Penitents through long and daily practise of submission a contrary habit unto that which before had been their ruine and for ever afterwards wariness not to fall into those snares out of which they knew they could not easily winde themselves Notwithstanding because there was likewise hope and possibility of shortning the time this made them in all the Parts and Offices of their Repentance the more fervent In the first station while they onely beheld others passing towards the Temple of God whereunto for themselves to approach it was not lawful they stood as miserable forlorn men the very patterns of perplexity and woe In the second when they had the favour to wait at the doors of God where the sound of his comfortable word might be heard none received it with attention like to theirs Thirdly being taken and admitted to the next degree of Prostrates at the feet yet behinde the back of that Angel representing God whom the rest saw face to face their tears and entreaties both of Pastour and People were such as no man could resist After the fourth step which gave them liberty to hear and pray with the rest of the People being so near the haven no diligence was then flacked which might hasten admission to the Heavenly Table of Christ their last desire It is not therefore a thing to be marvelled at though Saint Cyprian took it in very ill part when open Back-sliders from the faith and sacred Religion of Christ laboured by sinister practise to procure from imprisoned Saints those requests for present absolution which the Church could neither yield unto with safety of Discipline nor in honour of Martyrdom easily deny For what would thereby ensue they needed not to conjecture when they saw how every man which came so commended to the Church by Letters thought that now he needed not to crave but might challenge of duty his peace taking the matter very highly if but any little forbearance or small delay was used He which is overthrown saith Cyprian menaceth them that stand the wounded them that were never toucht and because presently he hath not the body of our Lord in his foul imbrued hands nor the blood within his polluted lips the miscreant fumeth at God's Priests Such is thy madness O thou furious man thou art angry with him which laboureth to turn away God's anger from thee him thou threatnest which sueth unto God for grace and mercy on thy behalf Touching Martyrs he answereth That it ought not in this case to seem offensive though they were denied seeing God himself did refuse to yield to the piety of his own righteous Saints making suit for obdurate Iews As for the Parties in whose behalf such shifts were used to have their desire was in very truth the way to make them the more guilty Such peace granted contrary to the rigour of the Gospel contrary to the Law of our Lord and God doth but under colour of merciful relaxation deceive Sinners and by soft handling destroy them a grace dangerous for the Giver and to him which receiveth it nothing at all available The patient expectation that bringeth health is by this means not regarded recovery of soundness not sought for by the only medicine available which is
Stupidity the highest top of Wisdom and Commiseration the deadlyest sin became by Institution and Study the very same which the other had been before through a secret natural Distemper upon his Conversion to the Christian Faith and recovery from Sickness which moved him to receive the Sacrament of Baptisme in his Bed The Bishops contrary to the Canons of the Church would needs in special love towards him ordain him Presbyter which favour satisfied not him who thought himself worthy of greater Place and Dignity He closed therefore with a number of well-minded men and not suspicious what his secret purposes were and having made them sure unto him by fraud procureth his own Consecration to be their Bishop His Prelacy now was able as he thought to countenance what he intended to publish and therefore his Letters went presently abroad to sundry Churches advising them never to admit to the Fellowship of Holy Mysteryes such as had after Baptisme offered Sacrifice to Idols There was present at the Council of Nice together with other Bishops one Acesius a Novatianist touching whose diversity in opinion from the Church the Emperour desirous to hear some reason asked of him certain Questions for Answer whereunto Acesius weaveth out a long History of things that hapned in the Persecution under Decius And of men which to savelife forsook Faith But in the end was a certain bitter Canon framed in their own School That men which fall into deadly sin after holy Baptism ought never to be again admitted to the Communion of Divine Mysteries That they are to be exhorted unto Repentance howbeit not to be put in hope that Pardon can be bad at the Priest's hands but with God which hath Soveraign Power and Authority in himself to remit sins it may be in the end they shall finde Mercy These Followers of Novatian which gave themselves the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clean pure and unspotted men had one point of Montanism more than their Master did professe for amongst Sinnes unpardonable they reckoned second Marriages of which opinion Tertullian making as his usual manner was a salt Apology Such is saith he our stony hardness that defaming our Comforter with a kinde of enormity in Discipline we dam up the doors of the Church no less against twice-married men then against Adulterers and Fornicators Of this sort therefore it was ordained by the Nycene Synod that if any such did return to the Catholick and Apostolick unity they should in Writing binde themselves to observe the Orders of the Church and Communicate as well with them which had been often married or had fallen in time of Persecution as with other sort of Christian people But further to relate or at all to refel the errour of mis-believing men concerning this point is not now to our present purpose greatly necessary The Church may receive no small detriment by corrupt practice even there where Doctrine concerning the substance of things practised is free from any great or dangerous corruption If therefore that which the Papacy doth in matter of Confessions and Absolution be offensive if it palpably serve in the use of the Keyes howsoever that which it teacheth in general concerning the Churches power to retain and forgive sinnes be admitted true have they not on the one side as much whereat to be abasht as on the other wherein to rejoyce They binde all men upon pain of everlasting condemnation and death to make Confessions to their Ghostly Fathers of every great offence they know and can remember that they have committed against God Hath Christ in his Gospel so delivered the Doctrine of Repentance unto the World Did his Apostles so preach it to Nations Have the Fathers so believed or so taught Surely Novatian was not so merciless in depriving the Church of power to Absolve some certain Offenders as they in imposing upon all a necessity thus to confess Novatian would not deny but God might remit that which the Church could not whereas in the Papacy it is maintained that what we conceal from men God himself shall never pardon By which over-sight as they have here surcharged the World with multitude but much abated the weight of Confessions so the careless manner of their Absolution hath made Discipline for the most part amongst them a bare Formality Yea rather a mean of emboldening unto vicious and wicked life then either any help to prevent future or medicine to remedy present evils in the Soul of man The Fathers were slow and alwayes fearful to absolve any before very manifest tokens given of a true Penitent and Contrite spirit It was not their custom to remit sin first and then to impose works of satisfaction as the fashion of Rome is now in so much that this their preposterous course and mis-ordered practises hath bred also in them an errour concerning the end and purpose of these works For against the guiltiness of sin and the danger of everlasting condemnation thereby incurâ—ed Confession and Absolution succeeding the same are as they take it a remedy sufficient and therefore what their Penitentiaries do think to enjoyn farther whether it be a number of Ave-Maries dayly to be scored up a Journey of Pilgrimage to be undertaken some few Dishes of ordinary Diet to be exchanged Offerings to be made at the shrines of Saints or a little to be scraped off from Mens superfluities for relief of poor People all is in lieu or exchange with God whose Justice notwithstanding our Pardon yet oweth us still some Temporal punishment either in this or in the life to come except we quit it our selves here with works of the former kinde and continued till the ballance of God's most strict severity shall finde the pains we have taken equivalent with the plagues which we should endure or else the mercy of the Pope relieve us And at this Postern-gate cometh in the whole Mart of Papal Indulgences so infinitely strewed that the pardon of Sinne which heretofore was obtained hardly and by much suit is with them become now almost impossible to be escaped To set down then the force of this Sentence in Absolving Penitents There are in Sinne these three things The Act which passeth away and vanisheth The Pollution wherewith it leaveth the Soul defiled And the Punishment whereunto they are made subject that have committed it The act of Sin is every deed word and thought against the Law of God For Sinne is the transgression of the Law and although the deed it self do not continue yet is that bad quality permanent whereby it maketh the Soul unrighteous and deformed in God's sight From the Heart come evil Cogitations Murthers Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Testimonies Slanders These are things which defile a man They do not only as effects of impurity argue the Nest no be unclean out of which they came but as causes they strengthen that disposition unto Wickedness which brought them forth They are both fruits and seeds
to keep the wound of Contrition bleeding they unfold the circumstances of their Transgressions and endeavour to leave nothing which may be heavy against themselves Yet do what they can they are still fearful lest herein also they do not that which they ought and might Come to Prayer their coldnesse taketh all heart and courage from them with fasting albeit their Flesh should be withered and their Blood clean dryed up would they ever the lesse object What is this to David's humiliation Wherein notwithstanding there was not any thing more than necessary In works of Charity and Alms-deed It is not all the World can perswade them they did ever reach the poor bounty of the Widdow's two Mites or by many millions of Leagues come near to the mark which Cornelius touched so farr they are off from the proud surmise of any Penitential Supererrogation in miserable wretched Wormes of the Earth Notwithstanding for as much as they wrong themselves with over-rigorous and extreme Exactions by means whereof they fall sometimes into such Perplexities as can hardly be allayed It hath therefore pleased Almighty God in tender commiseration over these imbecillities of men to ordain for their Spiritual and Ghostly comfort consecrated Persons which by Sentence of Power and Authority given from above may as it were out of his very mouth ascertain timerous and doubtful mindes in their own particular ease them of all their scrupulosities leave them settled in Peace and satisfied touching the Mercy of God towards them To use the benefit of this help for the better satisfaction in such cases is so natural that it can be forbidden no man but yet not so necessary that all men should be in case to need it They me of the two the happier therefore that can content and satisfie themselves by judging discreetly what they perform and soundly what God doth require of them For having that which is most material the substance of Penitency rightly bred touching signes and tokens thereof we may affirm that they do boldly which imagine for every offence a certain proportionable degree in the Passions and Griefs of Minde whereunto whosoever aspireth not repenteth in vain That to frustrate mens Confession and Considerations of Sinne except every Circumstance which may aggravate the same be unript and laid in the Ballance is a mercilesse extremity although it be true that as near as we can such Wounds must be searched to the very bottom Last of all to set down the like stint and to shut up the doors of Mercy against Penitents which come short thereof in the devotion of their Prayers in the continuance of their Falls in the largeness and bounty of their Almes or in the course of any other such like Duties is more than God himself hath thought meet and consequently more than mortal men should presume to do That which God doth chiefly respect in mens penitency is their Hearts The Heart is it which maketh Repentance sincere Sincerity that which findeth favour in God's sight and the favour of God that which supplyeth by Gracious acceptation whatsoever may seem defective in the faithful hearty and true Offices of his Servants Take it saith Chrysostome upon my credit Such is God's merciful inclination towards men that repentance offered with a single and sincere minde he never refuseth no not although we be come to the very top of Iniquity If there be a will and desire to return he receiveth imbraceth and omitteth nothing which may restore us to former happiness yea that which is yet above all the rest albeit we cannot in the duty of satisfying him attain what we ought and would but come farre behinde our mark he taketh neverthelesse in good worth that little which we doe be it never so mean we lose not our labour therein The least and lowest step of Repentance in Saint Chrysostome's Judgement severeth and setteth us above them that perish in their Sinne I therefore will end with Saint Augustine's Conclusion Lord in thy Booke and Volume of Life all shall be written as well the Least of thy Saints as the Chiefest Let not therefore the Unperfect fear Let them onely proceed and go forward OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK VII Their Sixth Assertion That there ought not to be in the Church Bishops indued with such Authority and Honour as ours are The Matter contained in this Seventh Book 1. THe state of Bishops although sometime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seems to please God yet by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author 2. What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong unto his office as he is a Bishop 3. In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority and in is the first thing condemned their superiority over other Ministers what kinde of superiority in Ministers it â—â— which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful 4. From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops 5. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint 6. What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had 7. After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them 8. How far the power of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of territory or local compass 9. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius 10. In what respect Episcopal Regiment is gainsaid by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day 11. Their arguments in disgrace of Regiment by Bishops as being a meer invention of man and not found in Scripture answered 12. Their arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church 13. The fore-alleadged Arguments answered 14. An answer unto those things which are objected concerning the difference between that Power which Bishops now have and that which ancient Bishops had more then other Presbyters 15. Concerning the civil Power and Authority which our Bishops have 16. The Arguments answered whereby they would prove that the Law of God and the judgement of the best in all ages condemneth the ruling superiority of our Minister over another 17. The second malicious thing wherein the state of Bishops suffereth oblaquy is their Honour 18. What good doth publickly grow from the Prelacy 19. What kinds of Honor be due unto Bishops 20. Honor in Title Place Ornament Attendance and Priviledge 21. Honor by endowment with Lands and Livings 22. That of Ecclessiastical Goods and consequently of the Lands and Livings which Bishops enjoy the propriety belongs unto God alone 23. That Ecclesiastical persons are receivers of Gods Rents and that the honour of Prelates is to be thereof his chief Receivers not without liberty from him granted of converting the same unto their own use even in large manner 24. That for their unworthiness to deprive both them and their
Successors of such Goods and to convey the same unto men of secular callings now extream Sacrilegious Injustice I. I Have heard that a famous Kingdom in the world being sollicited to reform such disorders as all men saw the Church exceedingly burthened with when of each degree great multitudes thereunto inclined and the number of them did every day so encrease that this intended work was likely to take no other effect then all good men did wish and labour for A Principal actor herein for zeal and boldness of Spirit thought it good to shew them betimes what it was which must be effected or else that there could be no work of perfect Reformation accomplished To this purpose in a solemn Sermon and in a great Assembly he described unto them the present quality of their publick Estate by the parable of a tree huge and goodly to look upon but without that fruit which it should and might bring forth affirming that the only way of redress was a full and perfect establishment of Christs Discipline for so their manner is to entitle a thing hammered out upon the forge of their own invention and that to make way of entrance for it there must be three great limbs cut off from the body of that stately tree of the Kingdom Those three limbs were three sorts of men Nobles whose high Estate would make them otherwise disdain to put their necks under that yoke Lawyers whose Courts being not pulled down the new Church Consistories were not like to flourish Finally Prelates whose ancient Dignity and the simplicity of their intended Church-Discipline could not possibly stand together The proposition of which device being plausible to active spirits restless through desire of innovation whom commonly nothing doth more offend then a change which goeth fearfully on by slow and suspicious paces the heavier and more experienced sort began presently thereat to pull back their feet again and exceedingly to fear the stratagem of Reformation for ever after Whereupon ensued those extream conflicts of the one part with the other which continuing and encreasing to this very day have now made the state of that flourishing Kingdom even such as whereunto we may most fitly apply those words of the Prophet Ieremiah Thy breach is great like the Sea who can heal thee Whether this were done in truth according to the constant affirmation of some avouching the same I take not upon me to examine That which I note therein is How with us that policie hath been corrected For to the Authors of pretended Reformation with us it hath not seemed expedient to offer the edge of the axe unto all three boughs at once but rather to single them and strike at the weakest first making show that the lop of that one shall draw the more abundance of sap to the other two that they may thereby the better prosper All prosperity felicity and peace we wish multiplied on each Estate as far as their own hearts desire is But let men know that there is a God whose eye beholdeth them in all their ways a God the usual and ordinary course of whose justice is to return upon the head of malice the same devices which it contriveth against others The foul practices which have been used for the overthrow of Bishops may perhaps wax bold in process of time to give the like assault even there from whence at this present they are most seconded Nor let it over-dismay them who suffer such things at the hands of this most unkind world to see that heavenly estate and dignity thus conculcated in regard whereof so many their Predecessors were no less esteemed then if they had not been men but Angels amongst men With former Bishops it was as with Iob in the days of that prosperity which at large he describeth saying Unto me men gave eaâ— they waited and held their tongue at my counsel after my words they replied not I appointed out their way and did sit as chief I dwelt as it had been a King in an Army At this day the case is otherwise with them and yet no otherwise then with the self same Iob at what time the alteration of his estate wrested these contrary speeches from him But now they that are younger then I mock at me the children of fools and off-spring of slaves creatures more base then the earth they tread on such as if they did show their heads young and old would shout at them and chase them through the streets with a cry their song I am I am a theam for them to talk on An injury less grievous if it were not offered by them whom Satan hath through his fraud and subtilty so far beguiled as to make them imagine herein they do unto God a part of most faithful service Whereas the lord in truth whom they serve herein is as St. Cyprian telleth them like not Christ for he it is that doth appoint and protect bishops but rather Christs adversary and enemy of his Church A thousand five hundred years and upward the Church of Christ hath now continued under the sacred Regiment of Bishops Neither for so long hath Christianity been ever planted in any Kingdom throughout the world but with this kind of government alone which to have been ordained of God I am for mine own part even as resolutely perswaded as that any other kind of Government in the world whatsoever is of God In this Realm of England before Normans yea before Saxons there being Christians the chief Pastors of their souls were Bishops This order from about the first establishment of Christian Religion which was publiquely begun through the vertuous disposition of King Lucius not fully two hundred years after Christ continued till the coming in of the Saxons By whom Paganism being every where else replanted only one part of the Island whereinto the ancient natural inhabitants the Britains were driven retained constantly the faith of Christ together with the same form of spiritual Regiment which their Fathers had before received Wherefore in the Histories of the Church we find very ancient mention made of our own Bishops At the Council of Ariminum about the year 359 Britain had three of her Bishops present At the arrival of Augustine the Monk whom Gregory sent hither to reclaim the Saxons from Gentility about six hundred years after Christ the Britains he found observers still of the self same Government by Bishops over the rest of the Clergy under this form Christianity took root again where it had been exiled Under the self same form it remained till the days of the Norman Conqueror By him and his successors thereunto sworn it hath from that time till now by the space of above five hundred years more been upheld O Nation utterly without knowledge without sense We are not through error of mind deceived but some wicked thing hath undoubtedly bewitched us if we forsake that Government the use whereof universal experience hath
for so many years approved and betake our selves unto a Regiment neither appointed of God himself as they who favour it pretend nor till yesterday ever heard of among men By the Jews Festus was much complained of as being a Governor marvellous corrupt and almost intolerable Such notwithstanding were they who came after him that men which thought the publique condition most afflicted under Festur began to wish they had him again and to esteem him a Ruler commendable Great things are hoped for at the hands of these new Presidents whom Reformation would bring in Notwithstanding the time may come when Bishops whose Regiment doth now seem a yoke so heavy to bear will be longed for again even by them that are the readiest to have it taken from off their necks But in the hands of Divine Providence we leave the ordering of all such events and come now to the Question it self which is raised concerning Bishops For the better understanding whereof we must before hand set down what is meant when in this Question we name a Bishop II. For whatsoever we bring from Antiquity by way of defence in this cause of Bishops it is cast off as impertinent matter all is wiped away with an odd kind of shifting Answer That the Bishops which now are be not like unto them which were We therefore beseech all indifferent Judges to weigh sincerely with themselves how the case doth stand If it should be at this day a controversie whether Kingly Regiment were lawful or no peradventure in defence thereof the long continuance which it hath had sithence the first beginning might be alleadged mention perhaps might be made what Kings there were of old even in Abrahams time what Soveraign Princes both before and after Suppose that herein some man purposely bending his wit against Sovereignty should think to elude all such allegations by making ample discovery through a number of particularities wherein the Kings that are do differ from those that have been and should therefore in the end conclude That such ancient examples are no convenient proofs of that Royalty which is now in use Surely for decision of truth in this case there were no remedy but only to shew the nature of Sovereignty to sever it from accidental properties to make it clear that ancient and present Regality are one and the same in substance how great odds soever otherwise may seem to be between them In like manner whereas a Question of late hath grown whether Ecclesiastical Regiment by Bishops be lawful in the Church of Christ or no In which Question they that hold the Negative being pressed with that generally received order according whereunto the most renowned Lights of the Christian World have governed the same in every age as Bishops seeing their manner is to reply that such Bishops as those ancient were ours are not There is no remedy but to shew that to be a Bishop is now the self same thing which it hath been that one definition agreeth fully and truly as well to those elder as to these latter Bishops Sundry dissimilitudes we grant there are which notwithstanding are not such that they cause any equivocation in the name whereby we should think a Bishop in those times to have had a clean other definition then doth rightly agree unto Bishops as they are now Many things there are in the state of Bishops which the times have changed Many a Parsonage at this day is larger then some ancient Bishopricks were many an antient Bishop poorer then at this day sundry under them in degree The simple hereupon lacking judgement and knowledge to discern between the nature of things which changeth not and these outward variable accidents are made beleeve that a Bishop heretofore and now are things in their very nature so distinct that they cannot be judged the same Yet to men that have any part of skill what more evident and plain in Bishops then that augmentation or diminution in their precincts allowances priviledges and such like do make a difference indeed but no essential difference between one Bishop and another As for those things in regard whereof we use properly to term them Bishops those things whereby they essentially differ from other Pastors those things which the natural definition of a Bishop must contain what one of them is there more or less appliable unto Bishops now than of old The name Bishop hath been borrowed from the Grecians with whom it signifieth One which hath principal charge to guide and Oversee others The same word in Ecclesiastical writings being applied unto Church-governors at the first unto all and not unto the chiefest only grew in short time peculiar and proper to signifie such Episcopal Authority alone as the chiefest Governors exercised over the rest for with all Names this is usual that in as much as they are not given till the things whereunto they are given have bin sometime first observed therefore generally Things are antienter then the Names whereby they are called Again sith the first things that grow into general observation and do thereby give men occasion to find Names for them are those which being in many Subjects are thereby the easier the oftner and the more universally noted it followeth that names imposed to signifie common qualities or operations are ancienter then is the restraint of those names to note an excellency of such qualities or operations in some one or few amongst others For example the name Disciple being invented to signifie generally a learner it cannot choose but in that signification be more ancient then when it signifieth as it were by a kind of appropriation those Learners who being taught of Christ were in that respect termed Disciples by an excellency The like is to be seen in the name Apostle the use whereof to signifie a messenger must needs be more ancient then that use which restraineth it unto Messengers sent concerning Evangelical affairs yea this use more ancient then that whereby the same word is yet restrained farther to signifie only those whom our Saviour himself immediately did send After the same manner the Title or Name of a Bishop having been used of old to signifie both an Ecclesiastical Overseer in general and more particularly also a Principal Ecclesiastical Overseer it followeth that this latter restrained signification is not so ancient as the former being more common Yet because the things themselves are always ancienter then their names therefore that thing which the restrained use of the word doth import is likewise ancienter then the restraint of the word is and consequently that power of chief Ecclesiastical Overseers which the term of a Bishop importeth was before the restrained use of the name which doth import it Wherefore a lame and an impotent kind of reasoning it is when men go about to prove that in the Apostles times there was no such thing as the restrained name of a Bishop doth now signifie because in their writings
there is found no restraint of that name but only a general use whereby it reacheth unto all spiritual Governors and Overseers But to let go the name and to come to the very nature of that thing which is thereby signified in all kindes of Regiment whether Ecclesiastical or Civil as there are sundry operations publique so likewise great inequality there is in the same operations some being of principal respect and therefore not fit to be dealt in by every one to whom publique actions and those of good importance are notwithstanding well and â—itly enough committed From hence have grown those different degrees of Magistrates or publique persons even Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Amongst Ecclesiastical Persons therefore Bishops being chief ones a Bishops function must be defined by that wherein his Chiefty consisteth A Bishop is a Minister of God unto whom with permanent continuance there is given not only power of administring the Word and Sacraments which power other Presbyrers have but also a further power to ordain Ecclesiastical persons and a power of Chiefty in Government over Presbyters as well as Lay men a power to be by way of jurisdiction a Pastor even to Pastors themselves So that this Office as he is a Presbyter or Pastor consisteth in those things which are common unto him with other Pastors as in ministring the Word and Sacraments But those things incident unto his Office which do properly make him a Bishop cannot be common unto him with other Pastors Now even as Pastors so likewise Bishops being principal Pastors are either at large or else with restraint At large when the subject of their Regiment is indefinite and not tyed to any certain place Bishops with restraint are they whose Regiment over the Church is contained within some definite local compass beyond which compass their jurisdiction reacheth not Such therefore we always mean when we speak of that Regiment by Bishops which we hold a thing most lawful divine and holy in the Church of Christ. III. In our present regiment by Bishops two things there are complained of the one their great Authority and the other their great Honor. Touching the Authority of our Bishops the first thing which therein displeaseth their Adversaries is the Superiority which Bishops have over other Ministers They which cannot brook the Superiority which Bishops have do notwithstanding themselves admit that some kind of difference and inequality there may be lawfully amongst Ministers Inequality as touching gifts and graces they grant because this is so plain that no mist in the world can be cast before mens eyes so thick but that they needs must discern thorow it that one Minister of the Gospel may be more learneder holier and wiser better able to instruct more apt to rule and guide them then another Unless thus much were confest those men should lose their fame and glory whom they themselves do entitle the Lights and grand Worthies of this present age Again a priority of Order they deny not but that there may be yea such a priority as maketh one man amongst many a principal Actor in those things whereunto sundry of them must necessarily concur so that the same be admitted only during the time of such actions and no longer that is to say just so much superiority and neither more nor less may be liked of then it hath pleased them in their own kind of regiment to set down The inequality which they complain of is That one Minister of the Word and Sacraments should have a permanent superiority above another or in any sort a superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over other Ministers By us on the contrary side inequality even such inequality as unto Bishops being Ministers of the Word and Sacraments granteth a superiority permanent above Ministers yea a permanent superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over them is maintained a thing allowable lawful and good For superiority of power may be either above them or upon them in regard of whom it is termed superiority One Pastor hath superiority of power above another when either some are authorised to do things worthier then are permitted unto all some are preferred to be principal Agents the rest Agents with dependency and subordination The former of these two kinds of superiority is such as the High-Priest had above other Priests of the Law in being appointed to enter once a year the holy place which the rest of the Priests might not do The latter superiority such as Presidents have in those actions which are done by others with them they nevertheless being principal and chief therein One Pastor hath superiority of power not only above but upon another when some are subject unto others commandment and judicial controlment by vertue of publique jurisdiction Superiority in this last kinde is utterly denied to be allowable in the rest it is only denied that the lasting continuance and settled permanency thereof is lawful So that if we prove at all the lawfulness of superiority in this last kind where the same is simply denied and of permanent superiority in the rest where some kind of superiority is granted but with restraint to the term and continuance of certain actions with which the same must as they say expire and cease If we can show these two things maintainable we bear up sufficiently that which the adverse party endeavoureth to overthrow Our desire therefore is that this issue may be strictly observed and those things accordingly judged of which we are to alleadge This we boldly therefore set down as a most infallible truth That the Church of Christ is at this day lawfully and so hath been sit hence the first beginning governed by Bishops having permanent superiority and ruling power over other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments For the plainer explication whereof let us briefly declare first The birth and original of the same power whence and by what occasion it grew Secondly What manner of power antiquity doth witness Bishops to have had more then Presbyters which were no Bishops Thirdly After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches under them according to the like testimonial evidence of antiquity Fourthly How far the same Episcopal power hath usually extended unto what number of persons it hath reached what bounds and limits of place it hath had This done we may afterwards descend unto those by whom the same either hath been heretofore or is at this present hour gainsaid IV. The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were his blessed Apostles for the Office whereunto Matthias was chosen the sacred History doth term ' E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Episcopal Office Which being spoken expresly of one agreeth no less unto them all then unto him For which cause St. Cyprian speaking generally of them all doth call them Bishops They which were termed Apostles as being sent of Christ to publish his Gospel throughout the world and were named likewise
Bishops in that the care of Government was also committed unto them did no less perform the offices of their Episcopal Authority by governing then of their Apostolical by teaching The word ' E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressing that part of their office which did consist in Regiment proveth not I grant their chiefty in regiment over others because as then that name was common unto the function of their inferiors and not peculiar unto theirs But the History of their actions sheweth plainly enough how the thing it self which that name appropriated importeth that is to say even such spiritual chiefty as we have already defined to be properly Episcopal was in the holy Apostles of Christ. Bishops therefore they were at large But was it lawful for any of them to be a Bishop with restraint True it is their charge was indefinite yet so that in case they did all whether severally or joyntly discharge the Office of proclaiming every where the Gospel and of guiding the Church of Christ none of them casting off his part in their burthen which was laid upon them there doth appear no impediment but that they having received their common charge indefinitely might in the execution thereof notwithstanding restrain themselves or at leastwise be restrained by the after commandment of the Spirit without contradiction or repugnancy unto that charge more indefinite and general before given them especially if it seemed at any time requisite and for the greater good of the Church that they should in such sort tye themselves unto some special part of the flock of Jesus Christ guiding the same in several as Bishops For first notwithstanding our Saviours commandment unto them all to go and preach unto all Nations Yet some restraint we see there was made when by agreement between Paul and Peter moved with those effects of their labours which the providence of God brought forth the one betook himself unto the Gentiles the other unto the Jews for the exercise of that Office of every where preaching A further restraint of their Apostolical labours as yet there was also made when they divided themselves into several parts of the world Iohn for his charge taking Asia and so the residue other quarters to labour in If nevertheless it seem very hard that we should admit a restraint so particular as after that general charge received to make any Apostle notwithstanding the Bishop of some one Church what think we of the Bishop of Ierusalem Iames whose consecration unto that Mother See of the world because it was not meet that it should at any time be left void of some Apostle doth seem to have been the very cause of St. Pauls miraculous vocation to make up the number of the Twelve again for the gathering of nations abroad even as the martyrdom of the other Iames the reason why Barnabas in his stead was called Finally Apostles whether they did settle in any one certain place◠as Iames or else did otherwise as the Apostle Paul Episcopal Authority either at large or either restraint they had and exercised Their Episcopal power they sometimes gave unto others to exercise as agents only in their stead and as it were by commission from them Thus Titus and thus Timothy at the first though afterwards indued with Apostolical power of their own For in process of time the Apostles gave Episcopal Authority and that to continue always with them which had it We are able to number up them saith Irenaus who by the Apostles were made Bishops In Rome he affirmeth that the Apostles themselves made Linus the first Bishop Again of Polycarp he saith likewise that the Apostles made him Bishop of the Church of Smyrna Of Antioch they made Evodius Bishop as Ignatius witnesseth exhorting that Church to tread in his holy steps and to follow his vertuous example The Apostles therefore were the first which had such authority and all others who have it after them in orderly sort are their lawful Successors whether they succeed in any particular Church where before them some Apostle hath been seated as Simon succeeded Iames in Ierusalem or else be otherwise endued with the same kind of Bishoply power although it be not where any Apostle before hath been For to succeed them is after them to have that Episcopal kind of power which was first given to them All Bishops are saith Ierome the Apostles successors In like sort Cyprian doth term Bishops Prepositos qui Apostolis vicaria ordinatione succedunt From hence it may happily seem to have grown that they whom now we call Bishops were usually termed at the first Apostles and so did carry their very names in whose rooms of spiritual authority they succeeded Such as deny Apostles to have any successors at all in the office of their Apostleship may hold that opinion without contradiction to this of ours if they well explain themselves in declaring what truly and properly Apostleship is In some things every Presbyter in some things lonely Bishops in some things neither the one nor the other are the Apostles Successors The Apostles were sent as special chosen eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ from whom immediately they received their whole Embassage and their Commission to be the principal first founders of an House of God consisting as well of Gentiles as of Jews In this there are not after them any other like unto them And yet the Apostles have now their Successors upon earth their true Successors if not in the largeness surely in the kind of that Episcopal function whereby they had power to sit as spiritual ordinary Judges both over Laity and over Clergy where Churches Christian were established V. The Apostles of our Lord did according unto those directions which were given them from above erect Churches in all such Cities as received the Word of Truth the Gospel of God All Churches by them erected received from them the same Faith the same Sacraments the same form of publick regiment The form of Regiment by them established at first was That the Laity of people should be subject unto a Colledge of Ecclesiastical persons which were in every such City appointed for that purpose These in their writings they term sometime Presbyters sometime Bishops To take one Church out of a number for a patern what the rest were the Presbyters of Ephesus as it is in the History of their departure from the Apostle Paul at Miletum are said to have wept abundantly all which speech doth shew them to have been many And by the Apostles exhortation it may appear that they had not each his several flock to feed but were in common appointed to feed that one flock the Church of Ephesus for which cause the phrase of his speech is this Attendite gregi Look all to that one flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops These persons Ecclesiastical being termed as then
Presbyters and Bishops both were all subject unto Paul as to an higher Governor appointed of God to be over them But for as much as the Apostles could not themselves be present in all Churches and as the Apostles St. Paul foretold the Presbyters of the Ephesians that there would rise up from amongst their own selves men speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them there did grow in short time amongst the Governors of each Church those emulations strifes and contentions whereof there could be no sufficient remedy provided except according unto the order of Ierusalem already begun some one were indued with Episcopal Authority over the rest which one being resident might keep them in order and have preheminence or principality in those things wherein the equality of many agents was the cause of disorder and trouble This one President or Governour amongst the rest had his known Authority established along time before that settled difference of name and title took place whereby such alone were named Bishops And therefore in the book of S. Iohns Revelation we find that they are entituled Angels It will perhaps be answered That the Angels of those Churches were onely in every Church a Minister Sacraments But then we ask Is it probable that in every of these Churches even in Ephesus it self where wany such Ministers were long before as hath been proved there was but one such when Iohn directed his speech to the Angel of that Church If there were many surely St. Iohn in naming but only one of them an Angel did behold in that one somewhat above the rest Nor was this order peculiar unto some few Churches but the whole world universally became subject thereunto insomuch as they did not account it to be a Church which was not subject unto a Bishop It was the general received perswasion of the ancient Christian world that Ecclesia est in Episcopo the outward being of a Church consisteth in the having of a Bishop That where Colledges of Presbyters were there was at the first equality amongst them S. Ierome thinketh it a matter clear but when the rest were thus equal so that no one of them could command any other as inferior unto him they all were controlable by the Apostles who had that Episcopal authority abiding at the first in themselves which they afterwards derived unto others The cause wherefore they under themselves appointed such Bishops as were not every whereat the first is said to have been those strifes and contentions for remedy whereof whether the Apostles alone did conclude of such a regiment or else they together with the whole Church judging it a fit and a needfull policy did agree to receive it for a custom no doubt but being established by them on whom the Holy Ghost was powred in so abundant measure for the ordering of Christs Church it had either Divine appointment beforehand or Divine approbation afterwards and is in that respect to be acknowledged the Ordinance of God no less then that ancient Jewish regiment whereof though Iethro were the Deviser yet after that God had allowed it all men were subject unto it as to the Polity of God and not of Iethro That so the ancient Fathers did think of Episcopal regiment that they held this order as a thing received from the blessed Apostles themselves and authorized even from heaven we may perhaps more easily prove then obtain that they all shall grant it wâ—o see it proved St. Augustine setteth it down for a principle that whatsoever positive order the whole Church every where doth observe the same it must needs have received from the very Apostles themselves unless perhaps some general Councel were the Authors of it And he saw that the ruling superiority of Bishops was a thing universally established not by the force of any Councel for Councels do all presuppose Bishops nor can there any Councel be named so ancient either General or as much as Provincial sithence the Apostles own times but we can shew that Bishops had their Authority before it and not from it Wherefore St. Augustine knowing this could not chuse but reverence the Authority of Bishops as a thing to him apparently and most clearly apostolical But it will be perhaps objected that Regiment by Bishops was not so universal nor ancient as we pretend and that an Argument hereof may be Ieroms own Testimony who living at the very same time with St. Augustine noteth this kind of Regiment as being no where antient saving onely in Alexandria his words are these It was for a remedy of Schism that one was afterwards chosen to be placed above the rest lest every mans pulling unto himself should rend asunder the Church of Christ. For that which also may serve for an Argument or taken hereof at Alexandria from Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclas and Dionysius the Presbyters always chose one OF THEMSELVES whom they placed in higher degree and gave unto him the Title of Bishop Now St. Ierom they say would never have picked out that one Church from amongst so many and have noted that in it there had been Bishops from the time that St. Mark lived if so be the self same order were of like antiquity every where his words therefore must be thus scholied In the Church of Alexandria Presbyters indeed had even from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist always a Bishop to rule over them for a remedy against Divisions Factions and Schisms Not so in other Churches neither in that very Church any longer then usque ad Heraclam Dionysium till Heraclas and his Successor Dionysius were Bishops But this construction doth bereave the words construed partly of wit and partly of truth it maketh them both absurd and false For if the meaning be that Episcopal Government in that Church was then expired it must have expired with the end of some one and not of two several Bishops days unless perhaps it fell sick under Heraclas and with Dionysius gave up the Ghost Besides it is clearly untrue that the Presbyters of that Church did then cease to be under a Bishop Who doth not know that after Dionysius Maximus was Bishop of Alexandria after him Theonas after him Peter after him Achillas after him Alexander of whom Socrates in this sort writeth It fortuned on a certain time that this Alexander in the presence of the Presbyters which were under him and of the rest of the Clergy there discoursed somewhat curiously and subtilly of the holy Trinity bringing high Philosophical proofs that there is in the Trinity an Unity Whereupon Arius one of the Presbyters which were placed in that degree under Alexander opposed eagerly himself against those things which were uttered by the Bishop So that thus long Bishops continued even in the Church of Alexandria Nor did their Regiment here cease but these also had others their Successors till St. Ieroms own time who living long after Heraclas and Dionysius had
greater then the rest and that with common advice they ought to govern the Church To clear the sense of these words therefore as we have done already the former Laws which the Church from the beginning universally hath observed were some delivered by Christ himself with a charge to keep them till the worlds end as the Law of Baptizing and administring the holy Eucharist some brought in afterwards by the Apostles yet not without the special direction of the Holy Ghost as occasions did arise Of this sort are those Apostolical orders and laws whereby Deacons Widows Virgins were first appointed in the Church This answer to Saint Ierom seemeth dangerous I have qualified it as I may by addition of some words of restraint yet I satisfie not may self in my judgment it would be altered Now whereas Jerom doth term the Government of Bishops by restraint an Apostolical tradition acknowledging thereby the same to have been of the Apostles own institution it may be demanded how these two will stand together namely that the Apostles by divine instinct should be as Jerom confesseth the Authors of that regiment and yet the custome of the Church he accompted for so by Jerom it may seem to be in this place accompted the chiefest prop that upholdeth the same To this we answer That for as much as the whole body of the Church hath power to alter with general consent and upon necessary occasions even the positive law of the Apostles if there be no commandment to the contrary and it manifestly appears to her that change of times have clearly taken away the very reason of Gods first institution as by sundry examples may be most clearly proved what laws the universal Church might change and doth not if they have long continued without any alteration it seemeth that St. Jerom ascribeth the continuance of such positive laws though instituted by God himself to the judgemement of the Church For they which might abrogate a Law and do not are properly said to uphold to establish it and to give it being The Regiment therefore whereof Jerom speaketh being positive and consequently not absolutely necessary but of a changeable nature because there is no Divine voice which in express words forbiddeth it to be changed he might imagine both that it came by the Apostles by very divine appointment at the first and notwithstanding be after a sort said to stand in force rather by the custome of the Church choosing to continue in it than by the necessary constraint of any Commandment from the Word requiring perpetual continuance thereof So that St. Ieroms admonition is reasonable sensible and plain being contrived to this effect The ruling superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters in each Church is an Order descended from Christ to the Apostles who were themselves Bishops at large and from the Apostles to those whom they in their steads appointed Bishops over particular Countries and Cities and even from those antient times universally established thus many years it hath continued throughout the World for which cause Presbyters must not grudg to continue subject unto their Bishops unless they will proudly oppose themselves against that which God himself ordained by his Apostles and the whole Church of Christ approveth and judgeth most convenient On the other side Bishops albeit they may avouch with conformity of truth that their Authority had thus descended even from the very Apostles themselves yet the absolute and everlasting continuance of it they cannot say that any Commandment of the Lord doth injoyn And therefore must acknowledge that the Church hath power by universal consent upon urgent cause to take it away if thereunto she be constrained through the proud tyrannical and unreformable dealings of her Bishops whose Regiment she hath thus long delighted in because she hath found it good and requisite to be so governed Wherefore lest Bishops forget themselves as if none on earth had Authority to touch their states let them continually bear in mind that it is rather the force of custom whereby the Church having so long found it good to continue under the Regiment of her vertuous Bishops doth still uphold maintain and honour them in that respect than that any such true and heavenly Law can be showed by the evidence whereof it may of a truth appear that the Lord himself hath appointed Presbyters for ever to be under the Regiment of Bishops in what sort soever they behave themselves let this consideration be a bridle unto them let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their Presbyters but to use their authority with so much the greater humility and moderation as a Sword which the Church hath power to take from them In all this there is no leâ—â— why S. Ierom might not think the Authors of Episcopal Regiment to have been the very blessed Apostles themselves directed therein by the special mution of the Holy Ghost which the Ancients all before and besides him and himself also elsewhere being known to hold we are not without better evidence then this to think him in judgement divided both from himself and from them Another Argument that the Regiment of Churches by one Bishop over many Presbyters hath been always held Apostolical may be this We find that throughout all those Cities where the Apostles did plant Christianity the History of times hath noted succession of pastors in the seat of one not of many there being in every such Church evermore many Pastors and the first one in every rank of succession we find to have been if not some Apostle yet some Apostles Disciple By Epiphanius the Bishops of Ierusalem are reckoned down from Iames to Hilarion then Bishop Of them which boasted that they held the same things which they received of such as lived with the Apostles themselves Tertullian speaketh after this sort Let them therefore shew the beginnings of their Churches let them recite their Bishops one by one each in such sort succeeding other that the first Bishop of them have had for his Author and Predecessour some Apostle or at least some Apostolical Person who persevered with the Apostles For so Apostolical Churches are wont to bring forth the evidence of their estates So doth the Church of Smyrna having Polycarp whom Iohn did consecrate Catalogues of Bishops in a number of other Churches Bishops and succeeding one another from the very Apostles times are by Eusebius and Socrates collected whereby it appeareth so clear as nothing in the World more that under them and by their appointment this Order began which maketh many Presbyters subject unto the Regiment of some one Bishop For as in Rome while the civil ordering of the Common-wealth was joyntly and equally in the hands of two Consuls Historical Records concerning them did evermore mention them both and note which two as Collegues succeeded from time to time So there is no doubt but Ecclesiastical antiquity had done the very like had not one Pastors place and
though an enemy unto Regiment by Bishops doth notwithstanding confess that in old time the Ministers which had charge to teach chose of their Company one in every City to whom they appropriated the Title of Bishop lest equality should bread dissention He addeth farther that look what duty the Roman Consuls did execute in proposing matters unto the Senate in asking their opinions in directing them by advice admonition exhortation in guiding actions by their Authority and in seeing that performed which was with common consent agreed on the like charge had the Bishop in the assembly of other Ministers Thus much Calvin being forced by the evidence of truth to grant doth yet deny the Bishops to have been so in Authority at the first as to bear rule over other Ministers Wherein what rule he doth mean I know not But if the Bishops were so farr in dignity above other Ministers as the Consuls of Rome for their year above other Senators it is as much as we require And undoubtedly if as the Consuls of Rome so the Bishops in the Church of Christ had such authority as both to direct other Ministers and to see that every of them should observe tâ—at which their common consent had agreed on how this could be done by the Bishop not bearing rule over them for mine own part I must acknowledge that my poor concept is not able to comprehend One objection there is of some force to make against that which we have hither to endeavoured to prove if they mistake it not who alledge it St. Ierom comparing other Presbyters with him unto whom the name of Bishop was tâ—en appropriate asketh What a Bishop by vertue of his place and calling may do more then a Presbyter except it be only to Ordain In like sort Chrysostome having moved a question wherefore St. Paul should give Timothy precept concerning the quality of Bishops and descend from them to Deacons omiting the Order of Presbyters between he maketh thereunto this answer What things he spake concerning Bishops the same are also meet for Presbyters whom Bishops seem not to excell in any thing but only in the power of Ordination Wherefore seeing this doth import no ruling superiority it follows that Bishops were as then no rulers over that part of the Clergy of God Whereunto we answer that both S. Ierom and S. Chrysostom had in those their speeches an eye no farther then only to that function for which Presbyters and Bishops were consecrated unto God Now we know that their Consecration had reference to nothing but only that which they did by force and vertue of the power of Order wherein fithe Bishops received their charge only by that one degree to speak of more ample then Presbyters did theirs it might be well enough said that Presbyters were that way authorized to do in a manner even as much as Bishops could do if we consider what each of them did by vertue of solemn consecration for as concerning power of regiment and jurisdiction it was a thing withal added unto Bishops for the necessary use of such certain persons and people as should be thereunto subject in those particular Churches whereof they were Bishops and belonged to them only as Bishops of such or such a Church whereas the other kind of power had relation indefinitely unto any of the whole society of Christian men on whom they should chance to exercise the same and belonged to them absolutely as they were Bishops wheresoever they live St. Ieroms conclusion thereof is that seeing in the one kind of power there is no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop Bishops should not because of their preeminence in the other too much lift up themselves above the Presbyters under them St. Chrysostom's collection that whereas the Apostle doth set down the qualities whereof regard should be had in the Consecration of Bishops there was no need to make a several discourse how Presbyters ought to be qualified when they are Ordained because there being so little difference in the functions whereunto the one and the other receive Ordination the same precepts might well serve for both at least-wise by the vertues required in the greater what should need in the less might be easily understood As for the difference of jurisdiction the truth is the Apostles yet living and themselves where they were resident exercising the jurisdiction in their own persons it was not every where established in Bishops When the Apostles prescribed those laws and when Chysostom thus spake concerning them it was not by him at all respected but his eye was the same way with Ieroms his cogitation was wâ—olly fixed on that power which by Consecration is given to Bishops more then to Presbyters and not on that which they have over Presbyters by force of their particular accessory jurisdiction Wherein if any man suppose that Ierom and Chrysostom knew no difference at all between a Presbyter and a Bishop let him weigh but one or two of their sentences The pride of insolent Bishops hath not a sharper enemy then Ierom for which cause he taketh often occasions most severely to inveigh against them sometimes for shewing disdain and contempt of the Clergy under them sometimes for not suffering themselves to be told of their faults and admonished of their duty by inferiours sometime for not admitting their Presbyters to teach if so be themselves were in presence sometimes for not voucâ—â—sasing to use any conference with them or to take any counsel of them Howbeit never doth he in such wise bend himself against their disorders as to deny their Rule and Authority over Presbyters Of Vigilantius being a Presbyter he thus writeth Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus Parochia Presbyter esse dicitur acquiescere surori ejus non virga Apostolica virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile I marvel that the holy Bishop under whom Vigilantius is said to be a Presbyter doth yield to his fury and not break that unprofitable Vessel with his Apostolick and iron rod. With this agreeth most fitly the grave advice he giveth to Nepotian Be thou subject unto thy Bishop and receive him as the Father of thy Soul This also I say that Bishops should know themselves to be Priests and not Lords that they ought to honour the Clergy as becometh the Clergy to be honoured to the end their Clergy may yield them the honour which as Bishops they ought to have That of the Orator Domitius is famous Wherefore should I esteem of thee as of a Prince when thou makest not of me that reckoning which should in reason be made of a Senator Let us know the Bishop and his Presbyters to be the same which Aaron sometimes and his Sons were Finally writing against the Hereticks which were name Luciferians The very safety of the Church saith he dependeth on the dignity of the Chief Priest to whom unless men grant an exceeding and an eminent power there
will grow in Churches even as many Schisms as there are Persons which have authority Touching Chrysostom to shew that by him there was also acknowledged a ruling superiority of Bishops over Presbyters both then usual and in no respect unlawful what need we alledge his Words and Sentences when the History of his own Episcopal actions in that very kinde is till this day extant for all men to read that will For St. Chrysostom of a Presbyter in Antioch grew to be afterwards Bishop of Constantinople and in process of time when the Emperors heavy displeasure had through the practise of a powerful faction against him effected his banishment Innocent the Bishop of Rome understanding thereof wrote his Letters unto the Clergy of that Church That no Successour ought to be chosen in Chrysostom's room Nec ejus clerum alii parere Pontisici Nor his Clergy OBEY any other Bishop than him A fond kinde of speech if so be there had been as then in Bishops no ruling superiority over Presbyters When two of Chrysostom's Presbyters had joyned themselves to the faction of his mortal enemy Theophilus Patriarch in the Church of Alexandria the same Theophilus and other Bishops which were of his Conventicle having sent those two amongst others to cite Chrysostom their lawful Bishop and to bring him into Publick judgement he taketh against this one thing special exception as being contrary to all order That those Presbyters should come as Messengers and call him to Judgment who were a part of that Clergy whereof himself was Ruler and Judge So that Bishops to have had in those times a ruling superiority over Presbyters neither could Ierom nor Chrysostom be ignorant and therefore hereupon it were superfluous that we should any longer stand VII Touching the next point How Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them It is by Zonaras somewhat plainly and at large declared that the Bishop had his Seat on high in the Church above the residue which were present that a number of Presbyters did alwayes there assist him and that in the oversight of the Poeple those Presbyters were after a sort the Bishops Coadjutors The Bishops and Presbyters who together with him governed the Church are for the most part by Ignatius joyntly mentioned In the Epistle to them of Trallis he saith of Presbyters that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Counsellors and Assistants of the Bishop and concludeth in the end He that should disobey these were a plain Atheâ—t and an irreligious Person and one that did set Christ himself and his own Ordinances at nought Which Orders making Presbyters or Priests the Bishop's Assistants doth not import that they were of equal authority with him but rather so adjoyned that they also were subject as hath been proved In the Writings of Saint Cyprian nothing is more usual than to make mention of the Colledge of Presbyters subject unto the Bishop although in handling the common affairs of the Church they assisted him But of all other places which open the antient order of Episcopal Presbyters the most clear is that Epistle of Cyprian unto Cernelius concerning certain Novatian Heretiques received again upon their conversion into the unity of the Church After that Urbanus and Sidonius Confessors had come and signified unto our Presbyters that Maximus a Consessor and Presbyter did together with them desire to return into the Church it seemed meet to hear from their own mouths and confessions that which by message they had delivered When they were come and had been called to account by the Presbyters touching those things they had committed Their answer was That they had been deceived and did request that such things as there they were charged with might be forgotten It being brought unto me what was done I took order that the Presbytery might be assembled There were also present five Bishops that upon setled advice it might be with consent of all determined what should be done about their Persons Thus farr St. Cyprian Wherein it may be peradventure demanded Whether he and other Bishops did thus proceed with advice of their Presbyters in all such Publick affairs or the Church as being thereunto bound by Ecclesiastical Canons or else that they voluntarily so did becuase they judged it in discretion as then most convenient Surely the words of Cyprian are plain that of his own accord he chose this way of proceeding Unto that saith he which Donatus and Fortunatus and Novatus and Gordius our Compresbyters have written I could by my self alone make no answer forasmuch as at the very first entrance into my Bishoprick I resolutely determined not to do any thing of mine own private judgment without your counsel and the peoples consent The reason whereof he rendreth in the same Epistle saying When by the grace of God my self shall come unto you for St. Cyprian was now in exile of things which either have been or must to done we will consider sicut honor mutous poseit as the Law of courtesie which one doth owe to another of us requireth And at this very mark doth St. Ierom evermore aim in telling Bishops that Presbyters were at the first their Equals that in some Churches for a long time no Bishop was made but only such as the Presbyters did chuse out amongst themselves and therefore no cause why the Bishop should disdain to consult with them and in weighty affairs of the Church to use their advice sometime to countenance their own Actions or to repress the boldness of proud and insolent Spirits that which Bishops had in themselves sufficient authority and power to have done notwithstanding they would not do alone but craved therein the aid and assistance of other Bishops as in the case of those Novatian Hereticks before alledged Cyprian himself did And in Cyprian we finde of others the like practise Ragatian a Bishop having been used contumelously by a Deacon of his own Church wrote thereof his complaint unto Cyprian and other Bishops In which case their answer was That although in his own cause he did of humility rather shew his grievance than himself take revenge which by the rigor of his Apostolical Office and the authority of his Chair he might have presently done without any further delay Yet if the Party should do again as before their Judgements were Fungaris circa â—um potestate honoris tui cum vel deponas vel abstineas Use on him that power which the honour of thy Place giveth thee either to depose him or exclude him from access unto holy things The Bishop for his assistance and ease had under him to guide and direct Deacons in their charge his Archdeacon so termed in respect of care over Deacons albeit himself were not Deacon but Presbyter For the guidance of Presbyters in their Function the Bishop had likewise under him one of the self-same Order with them but above them an authority one whom
a Presbyter or of a Deacon without the Bishop of that City whereunto the Chorepiscopus and his Territory also is subject The same Synod appointeth likewise that those Chorepiscopi shall be made by none but the Bishop of that City under which they are Much might hereunto be added if it were further needful to prove that the local compass of a Bishop's authority and power was never so straightly lifted as some men would have the World to imagine But to go forward degrees of these are and have been of old even amongst Bishops also themselves One sort of Bishops being Superiours unto Presbyters only another sort having preheminence also above Bishops It cometh here to be considered in what respect inequality of Bishops was thought at the first a thing expedient for the Church and what odds there hath been between them by how much the power of one hath been larger higher and greater then of another Touching the causes for which it hath been esteâ—med meet that Bishops themselves should not every way be Equals they are the same for which the wisdom both of God and Man hath evermore approved it as most requisite that where many Governours must of necessity concurr for the ordering of the same affairs of what nature soever they be one should have some kinde of sway or stroke more than all the residue For where number is there must be order or else of force there will be confusion Let there be divers Agents of whom each hath his private inducements with resolute puâ—pose to follow them as each may have unless in this case some had preheminence above the rest a Chance it were if ever any thing should be either began proceeded in or brought unto any Conclusion by them Deliberations and Counsels would seldom go forward their Meetings would alwayes be in danger to break up with jarrs and contradictions In an Army a number of Captains all of equal power without some higher to over-sway them what good would they do In all Nations where a number are to draw any one way there must be some one principal Mover Let the practise of our very Adversaries themselves herein be considereâ— Are the Presbyters able to determine of Church-affairs unless their Pastors do strike the chiefest stroke and have power above the rest Can their Pastoral Synod do any thing unless they have some President amongst them In Synods they are forced to give one Pastor preheminence and superiority above the rest But they answer That he who being a Pastor according to the Order of their Discipline is for the time some little deal mightier than his Brethren doth not continue so longer than only during the Synod Which Answer serveth not to help them out of the bryars for by their practise they confirm our Principle touching the necessity of one man's preheminence wheresoever a concurrency of many is required unto any one solemn action this Nature teacheth and this they cannot chuse but acknowledge As for the change of his Person to whom they give this preheminence if they think it expedient to make for every Synod a new Superiour there is no Law of God which bindeth them so to do neither any that telleth them that they might suffer one and the same man being made President even to continue so during life and to leave his preheminence unto his Successours after him as by the antient Order of the Church Archbishops Presidents amongst Bishops have used to do The ground therefore of their preheminence above Bishops is the necessity of often concurrency of many Bishops about the Publick affairs of the Church as consecrations of Bishops consultations of remedy of general disorders audience judicial when the actions of any Bishop should be called in question or Appeals are made from his Sentence by such as think themselves wronged These and the like affairs usually requiring that many Bishops should orderly assemble begin and conclude somewhat it hath seemed in the eyes of Reverend Antiquity a thing most requisite that the Church should not only have Bishops but even amongst Bishops some to be in Authority chiefest Unto which purpose the very state of the whole World immediately before Christianity took place doth seem by the special providence of God to have been prepared For we must know that the Countrys where the Gospel was first planted were for the most part subject to the Roman Empire The Romans use was commonly when by warr they had subdued Foreign Nations to make them Provinces that is to place over them Roman Governors such as might order them according to the Laws and Customs of Rome And to the end that all things might be the more easily and orderly done a whole Country being divided into sundry parts there was in each part some one City whereinto they about did resort for Justice Every such part was termed a Diocess Howbeit the name Diocess is sometime so generally taken that it containeth not only mo such parts of a Province but even moe Provinces also than one as the Diocess of Asia contained eight the Diocess of Africa seven Touching Diocesses according unto a stricter sense whereby they are taken for a part of a Province the words of Livy do plainly shew what Orders the Romans did observe in them For at what time they had brought the Macedonians into subjection the Roman Governor by order from the Senat of Rome gave charge that Macedonia should be divided into four Regions or Diocesses Capita Regionum ubi concilia fierent primae Sedis Amphipolim secundae Thessalonicen tertiae Pellam quartae Pelagoniam fecit Eo Concilia sua cujusque Regionis indici pecuniam conferri ibi Magistratus creari jussit This being before the dayes of the Emperors by their appointment Thessalonica was afterwards the chiefest and in it the highest Governor of Macedonia had his Seat Whereupon the other three Dioceses were in that respect inferiour unto it as Daughters unto a Mother City for not unto every Town of Justice was that Title given but was peculiar unto those Cities wherein principal Courts were kept Thus in Macedonia the Mother City was Thessalonica In Asia Ephesus in Africa Carthage For so Iustinian in his time made it The Governors Officers and Inhabitants of those Mother-Cities were termed for difference-sake Metropolites that is to say Mother-city-men than which nothing could possibly have been devised more fit to suit with the nature of that form of Spiritual Regiment under which afterwards the Church should live Wherefore if the Prophet saw cause to acknowledge unto the Lord that the light of his gracious providence did shine no where more apparently to the eye than in preparing the Land of Canaan to be a Receptacle for that Church which was of old Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it thou madest room for it and when it had taken root it filled the Land How much more ought we to
wonder at the handy-work of Almighty God who to settle the Kingdom of his dear Son did not cast out any one People but directed in such sort the Politick Councils of them who ruled farr and wide overall that they throughout all Nations People and Countries upon Earth should unwittingly prepare the Field wherein the Vine which God did intend that is to say the Church of his dearly beloved Son was to take root For unto nothing else can we attribute it saving only unto the very incomprehensible force of Divine providence that the World was in so marvellous sit sort divided levelled and laid out before hand whose work could it be but his alone to make such provision for the direct implantation of his Church Wherefore inequality of Bishops being found a thing convenient for the Church of God in such consideration as hath been shewed when it came secondly in question which Bishops should be higher and which lower it seemed herein not to the civil Monarch only but to the most expedient that the dignity and celebrity of Mother-Cities should be respected They which dream that if Civil Authority had not given such preheminence unto one City more than another there had never grown an inequality among Bishops are deceived Superiority of one Bishop over another would be requisite in the Church although that Civil distinction were abolished other causes having made it necessary even amongst Bishops to have some in degree higher than the rest the civil dignity of place was considered only as a reason wherefore this Bishop should be preferred before that Which deliberation had been likely enough to have raised no small trouble but that such was the circumstance of place as being followed in that choyce besides the manifest conveniency thereof took away all show of Partiality prevented secret emulations and gave no man occasion to think his Person disgraced in that another was preferred before him Thus we see upon what occasion Metropolitan Bishops became Archbishops Now while the whole Christian World in a manner still continued under one Civil Government there being oftentimes within some one more large Territory divers and sundry Mother-Churches the Metropolitans whereof were Archbishops as for Order's sake it grew hereupon expedient there should be a difference also amongst them so no way seemed in those times more fit than to give preheminence unto them whose Metropolitan Sees were of special desert or dignity for which cause these as being Bishops in the chiefest Mother-Churches were termed Primates and at the length by way of excellency Patriarks For ignorant we are not how sometimes the Title of Patriark is generally given to all Metropolitan Bishops They are mightily therefore to blame which are so bold and confident as to affirm that for the space of above four hundred and thirty years after Christ all Metropolitan Bishops were in every respect equals till the second Council of Constantinople exalted certain Metropolitans above the rest True it is they were equals as touching the exercise of Spiritual power within their Dioceses when they dealt with their own flock For what is it that one of them might do within the compass of his own precinct but another within his might do the same But that there was no subordination at all of one of them unto another that when they all or sundry of them were to deal in the same Causes there was no difference of first and second in degree no distinction of higher and lower in authority acknowledged amongst them is most untrue The Great Council of Nice was after our Saviour Christ but three hundred twenty four years and in that Council certain Metropolitans are said even then to have had antient preheminence and dignity above the rest namely the Primate of Alexandria of Rome and of Antioch Threescore years after this there were Synods under the Emperour Theodosius which Synod was the first at Constantinople whereat one hundred and fifty Bishops were assembled at which Council it was decreed that the Bishop of Constantinople should not only be added unto the forme Primates but also that his Place should be second amongst them the next to the Bishop of Rome in dignity The same Decree again renewed concerning Constantinople and the reason thereof laid open in the Council of Chalcedon At the length came that second of Constantinople whereat were six hundred and thirty Bishops for a third confirmation thereof Laws Imperial there are likewise extant to the same effect Herewith the Bishop of Constantinople being over-much puffed up not only could not endure that See to be in estimation higher whereunto his own had preferment to be the next but he challenged more than ever any Christian Bishop in the World before either had or with reason could have What he challenged and was therein as then refused by the Bishop of Rome the same the Bishop of Rome in process of time obtained for himself and having gotten it by bad means hath both up-held and augmented it and upholdeth it by acts and practises much worse But Primates according to their first Institution were all in relation unto Archbishops the same by Prerogative which Archbishops were being compared unto Bishops Before the Council of Nice albeit there were both Metropolitans and Primates yet could not this be a means forcible enough to procure the peace of the Church but all things were wonderful tumultuous and troublesome by reason of one special practise common unto the Heretiques of those times which was That when they had been condemned and cast out of the Church by the Sentence of their own Bishops they contrary to the antient received Orders of the Church had a custom to wander up and down and to insinuate themselves into favour where they were not known imagining themselves to be safe enough and not to be clean cut off from the body of the Church if they could any where finde a Bishop which was content to communicate with them whereupon ensued as in that case there needs must every day quarrels and jarrs unappeasable amongst Bishops The Nicene Council for redress hereof considered the bounds of every Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions what they had been in former times and accordingly appointed unto each grand part of the Christian World some one Primate from whose Judgement no man living within his Territory might appeal unless it were to a Council General of all Bishops The drift and purport of which order was That neither any man opprest by his own particular Bishop might be destitute of a remedy through appeal unto the more indifferent Sentence of some other ordinary Judge not yet every man be lest at such liberty as before to shift himself out of their hands for whom it was most meet to have the hearing and determining of his cause The evil for remedy whereof this order was taken annoyed at that present especially the Church of Alexandria in Egypt where Arianism begun For which cause the state
of that Church is in the Nicene Canons concerning this matter mentioned before the rest The words of their sacred Edict are these Let those customs remain in force which have been of old the customs of Egypt and Libya and Pentapolis by which customs the Bishop of Alexandria hath authority over all these the rather for that this hath also been the use of the Bishop of Rome yea the same hath been kept in Antioch and in other Provinces Now because the custom likewise had been that great honour should be done to the Bishop of Alia or Ierusalem therefore lest their Decree concerning the Primate of Antioch should any whit prejudice the dignity and honour of that See special provision is made that although it were inferior in degree not only unto Antioch the chief of the East but even unto Cesaria too yet such preheminence it should retain as belonged to a Mother-City and enjoy whatsoever special Prerogative or Priviledge it had besides Let men therefore hereby judge of what continuance this Order which upholdeth degrees of Bishops must needs have been when a General Council of three hundred and eighteen Bishops living themselves within three hundred years after Christ doth reverence the same for Antiquity's sake as a thing which had been even then of old observed in the most renowned parts of the Christian World Wherefore needless altogether are those vain and wanton demands No mention of an Archbishop in Theophilus Bishop of Antioch none in Ignatius none in Clemens of Alexandria none in Iustin Martyr Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian none in all those old Historiographers out of which Eusebius gathereth his Story none till the time of the Council of Nice three hundred and twenty years after Christ As if the mention which is thereof made in that very Council where so many Bishops acknowledge Archiepiscopal dignity even then antient were not of farr more weight and value than if every of those Fathers had written large Discourses thereof But what is it which they will blush at who dare so confidently set it down that in the Councel of Nice some Bishops being termed Metropolitans no more difference is thereby meant to have been between one Bishop and another than is shewed between one Minister and another when we say such a one is a Minister in the City of London and such a one a Minister in the Town of Newington So that to be termed a Metropolitan Bishop did in their conceit import no more preheminence above other Bishops than we mean that a Girdler hath over others of the same trade if we term him which doth inhabit some Mother-City for difference-sake a Metropolitan Girdler But the Truth is too manifest to be eluded a Bishop at that time had power in his own Diocess over all other Ministers there and a Metropolitan Bishop sundry preheminences above other Bishops one of which preheminences was in the ordination of Bishops to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief power of ordering all things done Which preheminence that Council it self doth mention as also a greater belonging unto the Patriark or Primate of Alexandria concerning whom it is there likewise said that to him did belong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority and power over all Egypt Pentapolis and Libya within which compass sundry Metropolitan Sees to have been there is no man ignorant which in those Antiquities have any knowledge Certain Prerogatives there are wherein Metropolitans excelled other Bishops certain also wherein Primates excelled other Metropolitans Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan Prerogatives are those mentioned in the old Imperial constitutions to convocate the holy Bishops under them within the compass of their own Provinces when need required their meeting together for inquisition and redress of publick disorders to grant unto Bishops under them leave and faculty of absence from their own Dioceses when it seemed necessary that they should otherwhere converse for some reasonable while to give notice unto Bishops under them of things commanded by Supream Authority to have the hearing and first determining of such Causes as any man had against a Bishop to receive the appeals of the inferiour Clergy in case they found themselves over-born by the Bishop their immediate Judge And lest haply it should be imagined that Canons Ecclesiastical we want to make the self-same thing manifest In the Council of Antioch it was thus decreed The Bishop in every Province must know that he which is Bishop in the Mother-City hath not only charge of his own Parish or Diocess but even of the whole Province also Again it hath seemed good that other Bishops without him should do nothing more than only that which concerneth each one's Parish and the places underneath it Further by the self-same Council all Councils provincial are reckoned void and frustrate unless the Bishop of the Mother-City within that Province where such Councils should be were present at them So that the want of his presence and in Canons for Church-Government want of his approbation also did disannul them Not so the want of any others Finally concerning election of Bishops the Council of Nice hath this general rule that the chief ordering of all things here is in every Province committed to the Metropolitan Touching them who amongst Metropolitan were also Primates and had of sundry united Provinces the chiefest Metropolitan See of such that Canon in the Council of Carthage was eminent whereby a Bishop is forbidden to go beyond Seas without the license of the highest Chair within the same Bishop's own Country and of such which beareth the name of Apostolical is that antient Canon likewise which chargeth the Bishops of each NATION to know him which is FIRST amongst them and to esteem of him as an HEAD and to do no extraordinary thing but with his leave The chief Primates of the Christian World were the Bishop of Rome Alexandria and Antioch To whom the Bishop of Constantinople being afterwards added Saint Chrysostom the Bishop of that See is in that respect said to have had the care and charge◠not only of the City of Constantinople sed etiam totius Thracia que sex praefecturis est divisa Asiaetolius quae ab undecim praesidebus regitur The rest of the East was under Antioch the South under Alexandria and the West under Rome Whereas therefore Iohn the Bishop of Ierusalem being noted of Heresie had written an Apology for himself unto the Bishop of Alexandria named Theophilus Saint Ierom reproveth his breach of the Order of the Church herein saying Tu qui regular quaris Ecclesiasticas Nicend Concilii canonibus uteris responde mihi Ad Alexandrinum Episcopum Palastina quid pertinet Nifallor hoc ibi deçernitur at Palaeslinae Metropolie Casarea sit totius Orientis Antiochia Aut igitur ad Caesariensem Episcopuna referre debueras aut siprocul expetendum judiciam erat Antiochiam potius litera dirigenda Thus
much concerning that Local Compass which was antiently set out to Bishops within the bounds and limits whereof we finde that they did accordingly exercise that Episcopal Authority and power which they had over the Church of Christ. IX The first whom we read to have bent themselves against the Superiority of Bishops were Aerius and his Followers Aerius seeking to be made a Bishop could not brook that Eustathius was thereunto preferred before him Whereas therefore he saw himself unable to rise to that greatness which his ambitious pride did affect his way of revenge was to try what Wit being sharpned with envy and malice could do in raising a new seditious opinion that the Superiority which Bishops had was a thing which they should not have that a Bishop might not ordain and that a Bishop ought not any way to be distinguished from a Presbyter For so doth St. Augustin deliver the opinion of Aerius Epiphanius not so plainly nor so directly but after a more Rhetorical sort His Speech was rather furious than convenient for man to use What is saith he a Bishop more than a Presbyter The one doth differ from the other nothing For their Order as one their Honour one one their Dignity A Bishop imposeth his hands so doth a Presbyter A Bishop baptizeth the like doth a Presbyter The Bishop is a Minister of Divine Service a Presbyter is the same The Bishop sitteth as a Iudge in a Throne even the Presbyter fitteth also A Presbyter therefore doing thus far the self-same thing which a Bishop did it was by Aerius inforced that they ought not in any thing to differ Are we to think Aerius had wrong in being judged an Heretick for holding this opinion Surely if Heresie be an error falsely fathered upon Scriptures but indeed repugnant to the truth of the Word of God and by the consent of the universal Church in the Councils or in her contrary uniform practice throughout the whole world declared to be such and the opinion of Aerius in this point be a plain error of that nature there is no remedy but Aerius so schismatically and stifly maintaining it must even stand where Epiphanius and Augustin have placed him An error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God is held by them whosoever they be that stand in defence of any Conclusion drawn erroneously out of Scripture and untruely thereon fathered The opinion of Aerius therefore being falsely collected out of Scripture must needs be acknowledged an error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God His opinion was that there ought not to be any difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter His grounds and reasons for this Opinion were Sentences of Scripture Under pretence of which Sentences whereby it seemed that Bishops and Presbyters at the first did not differ it was concluded by Aerius that the Church did ill in permitting any difference to be made The Answer which Epiphanius maketh unto some part of the proofs by Aerius alleged was not greatly studied or labored for through a contempt of so base an error for this himself did perceive and profess yieldeth he thereof expresly this reason Men that have wit do evidently see that all this is meer foolishness But how vain and ridiculous soever his opinion seemed unto wise men with it Aerius deceived many for which cause somewhat was convenient to be said against it And in that very extemporal slightness which Epiphanius there useth albeit the answer made to Aerius be in part but raw yet ought not hereby the Truth to finde any less favour than in other Causes it doth where we do not therefore judge Heresie to have the better because now and then it alledgeth that for it self which Defenders of Truth do not always so fully answer Let it therefore suffice that Aerius did bring nothing unanswerable The weak Solutions which the one doth give are to us no prejudice against the Cause as long as the others oppositions are of no greater strength and validity Did not Aerius trow you deserve to be esteemed as a new Apollos mighty and powerful in the Word which could for maintenance of his Cause bring forth so plain Divine Authorities to prove by the Apostles own Writings that Bishops ought not in any thing to differ from other Presbyters For example where it is said that Presbyters made Timothy Bishop is it not clear that a Bishop should not differ from a Presbyter by having power of Ordination Again if a Bishop might by Order be distinguished from a Presbyter would the Apostle have given as he doth unto Presbyters the Title of Bishops These were the invincible demonstrations wherewith Aerius did so fiercely assault Bishops But the Sentence of Aerius perhaps was only that the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter hath grown by the order and custom of the Church the Word of God not appointing that any such difference should be Well let Aerius then finde the favour to have his Sentence so construed yet his fault in condemning the order of the Church his not submitting himself unto that Order the Schism which he caused in the Church about it who can excuse No the truth is that these things did even necessarily ensue by force of the very opinion which he and his followers did hold His conclusion was That there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop His proofs those Scripture-sentences which make mention of Bishops and Presbyters without any such distinction or difference So that if between his Conclusion and the Proofs whereby he laboured to strengthen the same there be any shew of coherence at all we must of necessity confess that when Aerius did plead There is by the Word of God no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop his meaning was not only that the Word of God it self appointeth nor but that it enforceth on us the duty of not appointing nor allowing that any such difference should be made X. And of the self-same minde are the Enemies of Government by Bishops even at this present day They hold as Aerius did that if Christ and his Apostles were obeyed a Bishop should not be permitted to ordain that between a Presbyter and a Bishop the Word of God alloweth not any inequality or difference to be made that their Order their Authority their Power ought to be one that it is but by usurpation and corruption that the one sort are suffered to have rule of the other or to be any way superiour unto them Which opinion having now so many Defenders shall never be able while the World doth stand to finde in some believing Antiquity as much as one which hath given it countenance or born any friendly affection towards it Touching these men therefore whose desire is to have all equal three ways there are whereby they usually oppugn the received Order of the Church of Christ. First by disgracing the inequality of Pastors as a new
it is God himself did from Heaven authorize Iohn to bear Witness of the light to prepare a way for the promised Messiah to publish the nearness of the Kingdom of God to Preach Repentance and to Baptise for by this part which was in the Function of Iohn most noted all the rest are together signified Therefore the Church of God hath no power upon new occurences to appoint to ordain an Ecclesiastical Function as Moses did upon Iethroe's advice devise a civil All things we grant which are in the Church ought to be of God But for as much as they may be two wayes accounted such one if they be of his own institution and not of ours another if they be of ours and yet with his approbation this latter way there is no impediment but that the same thing which is of men may be also justly and truly said to be of God the same thing from Heaven which is from Earth Of all good things God himself is Author and consequently an Approver of them The rule to discern when the actions of men are good when they are such as they ought to be is more ample and large than the Law which God hath set particular down in his holy Word the Scripture is but a part of that rule as hath been heretofore at large declared If therefore all things be of God which are well done and if all things be well done which are according unto the rule of well doing and if the rule of well-doing be more ample than the Scripture what necessity is there that every thing which is of God should be set down in holy Scripture true it is in things of some one kinde true it is that what we are now of necessity for ever bound to believe or observe in the special mysteries of Salvation Scripture must needs give notice of it unto the World yet true it cannot be touching all things that are of God Sufficient it is for the proof of lawfulness in any thing done if we canshew that God approved it And of his approbation the evidence is sufficient if either himself have by revelation in his word warranted it or we by some discourse of reason finde it good of it self and unrepugnant unto any of his revealed Laws and Ordinances Wherefore injurious we are unto God the Author and Giver of Human capacity Judgement and Wit when because of some things wherein he precisely forbiddeth men to use their own inventions we take occasion to dis-authorize and disgrace the works which he doth produce by the hand either of nature or of grace in them We offer contumely even unto him when we scornfully reject what we lift without any other exception than this The brain of man hath devised it Whether we look into the Church or Common-weal as well in the one as in the other both the Ordination of Officers and the very institution of their Offices may be truly derived from God and approved of him although they be not always of him in such sort as those things are which are in Scripture Doth not the Apostle term the Law of Nature even as the Evangelist doth the Law of Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God's own righteous Ordinance the Law of Nature then being his Law that must needs be of him which it hath directed men unto Great odds I grant there is between things devised by men although agreeable with the Law of Nature and things is Scripture set down by the finger of the Holy Ghost Howbeit the dignity of these is no hinderance but that those be also reverently accounted of in their Place Thus much they very well saw who although not living themselves under this kinde of Church Polity yet being through some experience more moderate grave and circumspect in their Judgment have given hereof their sounder and better advised Sentence That which the holy Fathers saith Zanchius have by common consent without contradiction of Scripture received for my part I neither will nor dare with good Conscience disallow And what more certain than that the ordering of Ecclesiastical Persons one in authority above another was received into the Church by the common consent of the Christian World What am I that I should take upon me to control the whole Church of Christ in that which is so well known to have been lawfully religiously and to notable purpose instituted Calvin maketh mention even of Primates that have authority above Bishops It was saith he the institution of the antient Church to the end that the Bishops might by this bond of Concord continue the faster linked amongst themselves And lest any man should think that as well he might allow the Papacy it self to prevent this he addeth Aliud est moderatum gerere honorem quà mtotum terraram orbem immenso imperio complecti These things standing as they do we may conclude that albeit the Offices which Bishops execute had been committed unto them only by the Church and that the superiority which they have over other Pastors were not first by Christ himself given to the Apostles and from them descended to others but afterwards in such consideration brought in and agreed upon as is pretended yet could not this be a just or lawful exception against it XII But they will say There was no necessity of instituting Bishops the Church might have stood well enough without them they are as those supersluous things which neither while they continue do good nor do harm when they are removed because there is not any profitable use whereunto they should serve For first in the Primitive Church their Pastors were all equal the Bishops of those dayes were the very same which Pastors of Parish Churches at this day are with us no one at commandment or controulment by any others Authority amongst them The Church therefore may stand and flourish without Bishops If they be necessary wherefore were they not sooner instituted 2. Again if any such thing were needful for the Church Christ would have set it down in Scripture as he did all kinde of Officers needful for Iewish Regiment He which prescribed unto the Iews so particularly the least thing pertinent unto their Temple would not have left so weighty Offices undetermined of in Scripture but that he knew the Church could never have any profitable use of them 3. Furthermore it is the judgement of Cyprian that equity requireth every man's cause to be heard where the fault he is charged with was committed And the reason he alledgeth is for asmuch as there they may have both Accusers and Witnesses in their cause Sith therefore every man's cause is neceiest to be handled at home by the Iudges of his own Parish to what purpose serveth their device which have appointed Bishops unto whom such causes may be brought and Archbishops to whom they may be also from thence removed XIII What things have necessary use in the Church they of all others are
the most unfit to judge who bend themselves purposely against whatsoever the Church useth except it pleasie themselves to give it the grace and countenance of their favourable approbation which they willingly do not yield unto any part of Church-Policy in the forehead whereof there is not the mark of that new devised stamp But howsoever men like or dislike whether they judge things necessary or needless in the House of God a Conscience they should have touching that which they boldly affirm or deny 1. In the Primitive Church no Bishops no Pastor having power over other Pastors but all Equals every man Supreme Commander and Ruler within the Kingdom of his own Congregation or Parish The Bishops that are spoken of in the time of the Primitive Church all such as Persons or Rectors of Parishes are with in It thus it have been in the prime of the Church the question is how farr they will have that prime to extend and where the latter spring of that neâ—-supposed disorder to begin That Primitive Church wherein they hold that amongst the Fathers all which had Pastoral charge were Equal they must of necessity so farr enlarge as to contain some hundred of years because for proof hereof they alledge boldly and confidently Saint Cyprian who suffered Martyrdom about two hundred and threescore years after our blessed Lord's Incarnation A Bishop they say such as Cyprian doth speak of had only a Church or Congregation such as they Ministers and Pastors with us which are appointed unto several Towns Every Bishop in Cyprian's time was Pastor of one only Congregation assembled in one place to be taught of one man A thing impertiment although it were true For the Question is about Personal inequality amongst Governors of the Church Now to shew there was no such thing in the Church at such time as Cyprian lived what bring they forth Forsooth that Bishops had then but a small circuit of place for the exercise of their Authority Be it supposed that no one Bishop had more than one only Town to govern one only Congregation to rule Doth it by Cyprian appear that in any such Town of Congregation being under the cure and charge of someone Bishops there were not besides that one Bishop others also Ministers of the Word and Sacraments yet subject to the power of the same Bishop If this appear not how can Cyprian be alledged for a Witness that in those times there were no Bishops which did differ from other Ministers as being above them in degree of Ecclesiastical power But a gross and a palpable untruth it is That Bishops with Cyprian were as Ministers are with us in parish-Parish-Churches and that each of them did guide some Parish without any other Pastors under him St. Cyprian's own Person may serve for a manifest disproof hereof Pomius being Deacon under Cyprian noteth that his admirable vertues caused him to be Bishop with the soonest which advancement therefore himself endeavoured for a while to avoid It seemed in his own eyes too soon for him to take the title of so great Honor in regard whereof a Bishop is tenned Pourisex Sacerdos Antistes Dei Yet such was his quality that whereas others did hardly perform that duty whereunto the Discipline of their Order togetherwith the Religion of the Oath they took at their entrance into the Office even constrained them him the Chair did not make but receive such a one as behoved that a Bishop should be But soon after followed that Prescription whereby being driven into exile and continuing in that estate for the space of some two years he ceased not by Letters to deal with his Clergy and to direct them about the Publick affairs of the Church They unto whom those Epistles were written he commonly entituleth the Presbyters and Deacons of that Church If any man doubt whether those Presbyters of Carthage were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments or no let him consider but that one only place of Cyprian where he giveth them this careful advice how to deal with circumspection in the perilous times of the Church that neither they which were for the truths sake imprisoned might want those Ghostly comforts which they ought to have nor the Church by ministring the same unto them incurr unnecessary danger and peril In which Epistle it doth expresly appear that the Presbyters of whom he speaketh did offer that is to say administer the Eucharist and that many there were of them in the Church of Carthage so as they might have every day change for performance of that duty Nor will any man of sound Judgement I think deny that Cyprian was in Authority and Power above the Clergy of that Church above those Presbyters unto whom he gave direction It is apparently therefore untrue that in Cyprian's time Ministers of the Word and Sacraments were all equal and that no one of them had either Title more excellent than the rest or Authority and Government over the rest Cyprian Bishop of Carthage was clearly Superiour unto all other Ministers there Yea Cyprian was by reason of the Dignity of his See an Archbishop and so consequently Superiour unto Bishops Bishops we say there have been alwayes even as long as the Church of Christ it self hath been The Apostles who planted it did themselves rule as Bishops over it neither could they so well have kept things in order during their own times but that Episcopal Authority was given them from above to exercise far and wice over all other Guides and Pastors of God's Church The Church indeed for a time continued without Bishops by restraint every where established in Christian Cities But shall we thereby conclude that the Church hath no use of them that without them it may stand and flourish No the cause wherefore they were so soon universally appointed was for that it plainly appeared that without them the Church could not have continued long It was by the special Providence of God no doubt so disposed that the evil whereof this did serve for remedy might first be felt and so the reverend Authority of Bishops be made by so much the more effectual when our general experience had taught men what it was for Churches to want them Good Laws are never esteemed so good not acknowledged so necessary as when precedent crimes are as seeds out of which they grow Episcopal Authority was even in a manner sanctified unto the Church of Christ by that little bitter experience which it first had of the pestilent evil of Schismes Again when this very thing was proposed as a remedy yet a more suspicions and fearful acceptance it must needs have found if the self-same provident Wisdom of Almighty God had not also given before-hand sufficient tryal thereof in the Regiment of Ierusalem a Mother-Church which having received the same order even at the first was by it most peaceably governed when other Churches without it had trouble So that by all means the necessary use of Episcopal
Government is confirmed yea strengthened it is and ratified even by the not establishment thereof in all Churches every where at the first 2. When they further dispute That if any such thing were usedful Christ would in Scripture have set down particular Statutes and Laws appointing that Bishops should be made and prescribing in what order even as the Law doth for all kinde of Officers which were needful in the Iewish Regiment might not a man that would bend his wit to maintain the fury of the Petrobrusian Hereticks in pulling down Oratories use the self-same argument with as much countenance of reason If it were needful that we should assemble our selves in Churches would that God which taught the Iews so exactly the frame of their sumptuous Temple leave us no particular instructions in writing no not so much at which way to lay any one stone Surely such kinde of Argumentation doth not so strengthen the sinews of their cause as weaken the credit of their Judgement which are led therewith 3. And whereas Thirdly in disproof of that use which Episcopal Authority hath in Judgement of Spiritual Causes they bring forth the verdict of Cyprian who saith That equity requireth every man's Cause to be heard where the fault he was charged with was committed forasmuch as there they may have both Accusers and Witnesses in the Cause This Argument grounding it self on Principles no lesse true in Civil than in Ecclesiastical Causes unless it be qualified with some exceptions or limitations over-turneth the highest Tribunal Seats both in Church and Common-wealth it taketh utterly away all appeals it secretly condemneth even the blessed Apostle himself as having transgressed the law of Equity by his appeal from the Court of Iudea unto those higher which were in Rome The generality of such kinde of axioms deceiveth unless it be construed with such cautions as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth require An usual and ordinary transportation of causes out of Africa into Italy out of one Kingdom into another as discontented Persons list which was the thing which Cyprian disalloweth may be unequal and unmeet and yet not therefore a thing unnecessary to have the Courts erectted in higher places and judgement committed unto greater Persons to whom the meaner may bring their causes either by way of appeal ot otherwise to be determined according to the order of Justice which hath been always observed every where in Civil States and is no less requisite also for the State of the Church of God The Reasons which teach it to be expedient for the one will shew it to be for the other at leastwise not unnecessary Inequality of Pastors is an Ordinance both Divine and profitable Their exceptions against it in these two respects we have shewed to be altogether causless unreasonable and unjust XIV The next thing which they upbraid us with is the difference between that inequality of Pastors which hath been of old and which now is For at length they grant That the superiority of Bishops and of Arch-bishops is somewhat antient but no such kinde of Superiority as ours have By the Laws of our Discipline a Bishop may ordain without asking the Peoples consent a Bishop may excommunicate and release alone a Bishop may imprison a Bishop may bear Civil Office in the Realm a Bishop may be a Counsellor of State these thing antient Bishops neither did nor might do Be it granted that ordinarily neither in elections nor deprivations neither in excommunicating nor in releasing the excommunicate in none of the weighty affairs of Government Bishops of old were wont to do any thing without consultation with their Clergy and consent of the People under them Be it granted that the same Bishops did neither touch any man with corporal punishment nor meddle with secular affairs and Offices the whole Clergy of God being then tyed by the strict and severe Canons of the Church to use no other than ghostly power to attend no other business than heavenly Tarquinius was in the Roman Common-wealth deservedly hated of whose unorderly proceedings the History speaketh thus Hic Regum primus traditum à Prioribus morem de omnibus Senatum consulendi solvit domesticis Consillis Rempub. administravit bellum pacem foedera societates perse ipsum cum quibus voluit injussu Populi ac Senatus fecit diremitque Against Bishops the like is objected That they are Invaders of other mens right and by intolerable usurpation take upon them to do that alone wherein antient Laws have appointed that others not they onely should bear sway Let the Case of Bishops he put not in such sort as it is but even as their very heavyest Adversaries would devise it Suppose that Bishops at the first had encroached upon the Church that by sleights and cunning practises they had appropriated Ecclesiastical as Augustus did Imperial power that they had taken the advantage of mens inclinable affections which did not suffer them for Revenue-sake to be suspected of Ambition that in the mean while their usurpation had gone forward by certain easie and unsensible degrees that being not discerned in the growth when it was thus farr grown as we now see it hath proceeded the world at length perceiving there was just cause of complaint but no place of remedy left had assented unto it by a general secret agreement to bear it now as an helpless evil all this supposed for certain and true yet surely a thing of this nature as for the Superiour to do that alone unto which of right the consent of some other Inferiours should have been required by them though it had an indirect entrance at the first must needs through continuance of so many ages as this hath stood be made now a thing more natural to the Church than that it should be opprest with the mention of contrary Orders worn so many ages since quite and clean out of ure But with Bishops the case is otherwise For in doing that by themselves which others together with them have been accustomed to do they do not any thing but that whereunto they have been upon just occasion authorized by orderly means All things natural have in them naturally more or less the power of providing for their own safety And as each particular man hath this power so every Politick Society of men must needs have the same that thereby the whole may provide for the good of all parts therein For other benefit we have not any by sorting our selves into Politick Societies saving only that by this mean each part hath that relief which the vertue of the whole is able to yield it The Church therefore being a Politick Society or Body cannot possibly want the power of providing for it self And the chiefest part of that power consisteth in the Authority of making Laws Now forasmuch as Corporations are perpetual the Laws of the antienter Church cannot chuse but binde the latter while they are in force But we
must note withal that because the body of the Church continueth the same it hath the same Authority still and may abrogate old Laws or make new as need shall require Wherefore vainly are the antient Canons and Constitutions objected as Laws when once they are either let secretly to dye by dis-usage or are openly abrogated by contrary Laws The Antient had cause to do no otherwise than they did and yet so strictly they judged not themselves in Conscience bound to observe those Orders but that in sundry cases they easily dispensed therewith which I suppose they would never have done had they esteemed them as things whereunto everlasting immutable and undispensible observation did belong The Bishop usually promoted none which were not first allowed as fit by conference had with the rest of his Clergy and with the People Notwithstanding in the case of Aurelius Saint Cyprian did otherwise In matters of Deliberation and Counsel for disposing of that which belongeth generally to the whole body of the Church or which being more particular is nevertheless of so great consequence that it needeth the force of many Judgements conferred in such things the common saying must necessarily take place An Eye cannot see that which Eyes can As for Clerical Ordinations there are no such reasons alledged against the Order which is but that it may be esteemed as good in every respect as that which hath been and in some considerations better at leastwise which is sufficient to our purpose it may be held in the Church of Christ without transgressing any Law either Antient or Late Divine or Human. which we ought to observe and keep The form of making Ecclesiastical Officers hath sundry parts neither are they all of equal moment When Deacons having not been before in the Church of Christ the Apostles saw it needful to have such ordained They first assemble the multitude and shew them how needful it is that Deacons be made Secondly they name unto them what number they judge convenient what quality the men must be of and to the People they commit the care of finding such out Thirdly the People hereunto assenting make their choyce of Stephen and the rest those chosen men they bring and present before the Apostles Howbeit all this doth not endue them with any Ecclesiastical Power But when so much was done the Apostles finding no cause to take exception did with Prayer and imposition of hands make them Deacons This was it which gave them their very being all other things besides were only preparations unto this Touching the form of making Presbyters although it be not wholly of purpose anywhere set down in the Apostles Writings yet sundry speeches there are which insinuate the chiefest things that belong unto that Action As when Paul and Barnabas are said to have fasted prayed and made Presbyters When Timothy is willed to lay hands suddenly on no man for fear of participating with other mens sins For this cause the Order of the Primitive Church was between Choyce and Ordination to have some space for such Probation and Tryal as the Apostle doth mention in Deacons saying Let them first be proved and then minister if so be they be found blameless Alexander Severus beholding in his time how careful the Church of Christ was especially for this point how after the choyce of their Pastors they used to publish the names of the Parties chosen and not to give them the final act of Approbation till they saw whether any lett or impediment would be alledged he gave Commandment That the like should also be done in his own Imperial Elections adding this as a Reason wherefore he so required namely For that both Christians and Iews being so wary about the Ordination of their Priests it seemed very unequal for him not to be in like sort circumspect to whom he committed the Government of Provinces containing power over mens both Estates and Lives This the Canon Law it self doth provide for requiring before Ordination scrutiny Let them diligently be examined three dayes together before the Sabbath and on the Sabbath let them be presented unto the Bishop And even this in effect also is the very use of the Church of England at all Solemne Ordaining of Ministers and if all Ordaining were Solemne I must confesse it were much the better The pretended disorder of the Church of England is that Bishops Ordain them to whose Election the People give no voyces and so the Bishops make them alone that is to say they give Ordination without Popular Election going before which antient Bishops neither did nor might do Now in very truth if the multitude have hereunto a right which right can never be translated from them for any cause then is there no remedy but we must yield that unto the lawful making of Ministers the voyce of the People is required and that according to the Adverse Parties Assertion such as make Ministers without asking the Peoples consent do but exercise a certain Tyranny At the first Erection of the Common-weals of Rome the People for so it was then fittest determined of all affairs Afterwards this growing troublesome their Senators did that for them which themselves before had done In the end all came to one man's hands and the Emperour alone was instead of many Senators In these things the experience of time may breed both Civil and Ecclesiastical change from that which hath been before received neither do latter things always violently exclude former but the one grawing less convenient then it hath been giveth place to that which is now become more That which was fit for the People themselves to do at the first might afterwards be more convenient for them to do by some other Which other is not thereby proved a Tyrant because he alone doth that which a multitude were wont to do unless by violence he take that Authority upon him against the Order of Law and without any publick appointment as with us if any did it should I suppose not long be safe for him so to do This Answer I hope will seem to be so much the more reasonable in that themselves who stand against us have furnish'd us therewith For whereas against the making of Ministers by Bishops alone their use hath been to object What sway the People did bear when Stephen and rest were ordained Deacons They begin to espy how their own Plat-form swerveth not a little from that example wherewith they controul the practices of others For touching the form of the Peoples concurrence in that Action they observe it not no they plainly profess that they are not in this point bound to be followers of the Apostles The Apostles Ordained whom the People had first chosen They hold that their Ecclesiastical Senate ought both to choose and also to Ordain Do not themselves then take away that which the Apostles gave the People namely the priviledge of chusing Ecclesiastical Officers They do But behold in what sort
the Council of Carthage where it was decreed That the Bishop of the Chief See should not be entituled the Exarch of Priests or the highest Priest or any other thing of like sense but onely the Bishop of the chiefest See whereby are shut out the name of Archbishop and all other such haughty titles In these Allegations it fareth as in broken reports snatched out of the Author's mouth and broached before they be half either told on the one part or on the other understood The matter which Cyprian complaineth of in Florentinus was thus Novatus misliking the easiness of Cyprian to admit men into the fellowship of Believers after they had fallen away from the bold and constant Confession of Christian Faith took thereby occasion to separate himself from the Church and being united with certain excommunicate Persons they joyned their wits together and drew out against Cyprian their lawful Bishop sundry grievous accusations the crimes such as being true had made him uncapable of that Office whereof he was six years as then possessed they went to Rome and to other places accusing him every where as guilty of those faults of which themselves had lewdly condemned him pretending that twenty five African Bishops a thing most false had heard and examined his Cause in a Solemn Assembly and that they all had given their Sentence against him holding his Election by the Canons of the Church void The same factious and seditious Persons coming also unto Florentinus who was at that time a man imprisoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ but yet a favourer of the error of Novatus their malicious accusations he over-willingly hearkned unto gave them credit concurred with them and unto Cyprian in fine wrote his Letters against Cyprian Which Letters he justly taketh in marvellous evil part and therefore severely controuleth his so great presumption in making himself a Judge of a Judge and as it were a Bishop's Bishop to receive accusations against him as one that had been his Ordinary What heigth of pride is this saith Cyprian what arrogancy of spirit what a puffing up of minde to call Guides and Priests to be examined and sifted before him So that unless we shall be cleared in your Courts and absolved by your sentence behold for these six years space neither shall the Brotherhood have had a Bishop nor the People a Guide nor the Flock a Shepherd nor the Church a Governor nor Christ a Prelate nor God a Priest This is the pride which Cyprian condemneth in Florentinus and not the title or name of Archbishop about which matter there was not at that time so much as the dream of any controversie at all between them A silly collection it is that because Cyprian reproveth Florentinus for lightness of belief and presumptuous rashness of judgement therefore he held the title of Archbishop to be a vain and a proud name Archbishops were chief amongst Bishops yet Archbishops had not over Bishops that full Authority which every Bishop had over his own particular Clergy Bishops were not subject unto their Archbishop as an Ordinary by whom at all times they were to be judged according to the manner of inferiour Pastors within the compass of each Diocess A Bishop might suspend excommunicate depose such as were of his own Clergy without any other Bishops Assistants not so an Archbishop the Bishops that were in his own Province above whom divers Prerogatives were given him howbeit no such Authority and Power as alone to be Judge over them For as a Bishop could not be ordained so neither might he be judged by any one only Bishop albeit that Bishop were his Metropolitan Wherefore Cyprian concerning the liberty and freedom which every Bishop had spake in the Council of Carthage whereat fourscore and seven Bishops were present saying It resteth that every of us declare what we think of this matter neither judging nor severing from the right of Communion any that shall think otherwise For of us there is not any which maketh himself a Bishop of Bishops or with Tyrannical fear constraineth his Collegues unto the necessity of obedience inasmuch as every Bishop according to the reach of his liberty and power hath his own free judgement and can have no more another his Iudge than himself be Iudge to another Whereby it appeareth that amongst the African Bishops none did use such Authority over any as the Bishop of Rome did afterwards claim over all forcing upon them opinions by main and absolute power Wherefore unto the Bishop of Rome the same Cyprian also writeth concerning his Opinion about Baptism These things we present unto your Conscience most dear Brother as well for common honours sake as of single and sincere love trusting that as you are truly your self Religious and Faithful so those things which agree with Religions and Faith will be acceptable unto you Howbeit we know that what some have over-drunk in they will not let go neither easily change their minde but with care of preserving whole amongst their Brethren the bond of Peace and concord retaining still to themselves certain their own Opinions wherewith they have been inuired Wherein we neither use force nor prescribe a Law unto any knowing that in the Government of the Church every Ruler hath his own voluntary free judgment and of that which he doth shall render unto the Lord himself an account As for the Council of Carthage Doth not the very first Canon thereof establish with most effectual terms all things which were before agreed on in the Council of Nice And that the Council of Nice did ratifie the preheminence of Metropolitan Bishops who is ignorant The name of an Archbishop importeth only a Bishop having chiefty of certain Prerogatives above his Brethren of the same Order Which thing since the Council of Nice doth allow it cannot be that the other of Carthage should condemn it inasmuch as this doth yield unto that a Christian unrestrained approbation The thing provided for by the Synod of Carthage can be no other therefore than only that the chiefest Metropolitan where many Archbishops were within any greater Province should not be termed by those names as to import the power of an ordinary Jurisdiction belonging in such degree and manner unto him over the rest of the Bishops and Archbishops as did belong unto every Bishop over other Pastors under him But much more absurd it is to affirm that both Cyprian and the Council of Carthage condemn even such Superiority also of Bishops themselves over Pastors their Inferiours as the words of Ignatius imply in terming the Bishop A Prince of Priests Bishops to be termed Arch-Priests in regard of their Superiority over Priests is in the Writings of the Antient Fathers a thing so usual and familiar as almost no one thing more At the Council of Nice saith Theodores three hundred and eighteen Arch-Priests were present Were it the meaning of the Council of Carthage that the Title of
Chief-Priest and such like ought not in any sort at all to be given unto any Christian Bishop what excuse should we make for so many Antient both Fathers and Synods of Fathers as have generally applyed the Title of Arch-Priest unto every Bishop's Office High time I think it is to give over the obstinate defence of this most miserable forsaken Cause in the favour whereof neither God nor amongst so many wise and vertuous men as Antiquity hath brought forth any one can be found to have hitherto directly spoken Irksome confusion must of necessity be the end whereunto all such vain an ungrounded confidence doth bring as hath nothing to bear it out but only an excessive measure of bold and peremptory words holpen by the start of a little time before they came to be examined In the Writings of the antient Fathers there is not any thing with more serious asseveration inculcated than that it is God which maketh Bishops that their Authority hath Divine allowance that the Bishop is the Priest of God that he is Judge in Christ's stead that according to God's own Law the whole Christian Fraternity standeth bound to obey him Of this there was not in the Christian World of old any doubt or controversie made it was a thing universally every where agreed upon What should move men to judge that now so unlawful and naught which then was so reverently esteemed Surely no other cause but this men were in those times times meek lowly tractable willing to live in dutiful aw and subjection unto the Pastors of their Souls Now we imagin our selves so able every man to teach and direct all others that none of us can brook it to have Superiours and for a mask to hide our Pride we pretend falsely the Law of Christ as if we did seek the execution of his will when in truth we labour for the meer satisfaction of our own against his XVII The chiefest cause of disdain and murmure against Bishops in the Church of England is that evil-affected eye wherewith the World looked upon them since the time that irreligious Prophaneness beholding the due and just advancements of Gods Clergy hath under pretence of enmity unto Ambition and Pride proceeded so farr that the contumely of old offered unto Aaron in the like quarrel may seem very moderate and quiet dealing if we compare it with the fury of our own times The ground and original of both their proceedings one and the same in Declaration of their Grievances they differ not the Complaints as well of the one as the other are Wherefore lift ye up your selves thus farr above the Congregation of the Lord It is too much which you take upon you too much Power and too much Honour Wherefore as we have shewed that there is not in their Power any thing unjust or unlawful so it resteth that in their Honour also the like be done The labour we take unto this purpose is by so much the harder in that we are forced to wraftle with the stream of obstinate Affection mightily carried by a wilful prejudice the Dominion whereof is so powerful over them in whom it reigneth that it giveth them no leave no not so much as patiently to hearken unto any speech which doth not profess to feed them in this their bitter humour Notwithstanding for as much as I am perswaded that against God they will not strive if they perceive once that in truth it is he against whom they open their mouths my hope is their own Confession will be at the length Behold we have done exceeding foolishly It was the Lord and we know it not Him in his Ministers we have despised we have in their honour impugned his But the alteration of men's hearts must be His good and gracious work whose most omnipotent power framed them Wherefore to come to our present purpose Honour is no where due saving only unto such as have in them that whereby they are sound or at the least presumed voluntarily beneficial unto them of whom they are honoured Wheresoever nature seeth the countenance of a Man it still presumeth that there is in him a minde willing to do good if need require inasmuch as by nature so it should be for which cause Men unto Men do honor even for very Humanity sake And unto whom we deny all honor we seem plainly to take from them all opinion of Human Dignity to make no account or reckoning of them to think them so utterly without vertue as if no good thing in the World could be looked for at their hands Seeing therefore it seemeth hard that we should so hardly think of any man the Precept of St. Peter is Honor all men Which duty of every men towards all doth vary according to the several degrees whereby they are more and less beneficial whom we do honor Honor the Physician saith the Wiseman The reason why because for necessities sake God created him Again Thou shalt rise up before the beary head and honor the person of the Aged The reason why because the younger sort have great benefit by their gravity experience and wisdom for which cause these things the Wiseman termeth the Crown or Diadem of the Aged Honor is due to Parents The reason why because we have our beginning from them Obey the Father that hath begotten thee the Mother that bare thee despise thou nor Honor due unto Kings and Governors The reason why because God hath set them for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Thus we see by every of these particulars that there is always some kinde of vertue beneficial wherein they excel who receive honor and that degrees of Honor are distinguished according to the value of those effects which the same beneficial Vertue doth produce Nor is Honor only an inward estimation whereby they are reverenced and well thought of in the mindes of men but Honor whereof we now speak is defined to be an External sign by which we give a sensible testification that we acknowledge the beneficial Vertue of others Sarah honored her Husband Abraham this appeareth by the Title she gave him The Brethren of Ioseph did him honor in the Land of Egypt their lowly and humble gesture sheweth it Parents will hardly perswade themselves that this intentional Honor which reacheth no farther than to the Inward conception only is the Honor which their Children owe them Touching that Honor which mystically agreeing unto Christ was yielded literally and really unto Solomon the words of the Psalmist concerning it are Unto him they shall give of the Gold of Sheba they shall pray for him continually and daily bless him Weigh these things in themselves Titles Gestures Presents other the like external signs wherein Honor doth consist and they are matters of no great moment Howbeit take them away let them cease to be required and they are not things of small importance
which that surcease were likely to draw after it Let the Lord Maior of London or any other unto whose Office Honor belongeth be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit force and countenance of his Office It hath not without the singular wisdom of God been provided that the ordinary outward tokens of Honor should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that beneficial vertue whereunto they are due it behoved them to be of such nature that to himself no man might over-eagerly challenge them without blushing not any man where they are due withhold them but with manifest appearance of too great malice or pride Now forasmuch as according to the Antient Orders and Customs of this Land as of the Kingdom of Israel and of all Christian Kingdoms through the World the next in degree of Honor unto the Chief Soveraign are the Chief Prelates of God's Church what the reason hereof may be it resteth next to be enquired XVIII Other reason there is not any wherefore such Honor hath been judged due saving only that publick good which the Prelates of God's Clergy are Authors of For I would know which of these things it is whereof we make any question either that the favour of God is the chiefest Pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States or that true Religion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God or that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue If these three be grented then cannot the publick benefit of Prelacy be dissembled And of the first or second of these I look not for any profest denyal The World at this will blush not to grant at the leastwise in word as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged concerning the force of Divine Grace in upholding Kingdoms Again though his mercy doth so farr strive with mens ingratitude that all kinde of Publick iniquities deserving his indignation their safety is through his gracious Providence many times neverthelesse continued to the end that amendment might if it were possible avert their Envy so that as well Common-weals as particular Persons both may and do endure much longer when they are careful as they should be to use the most effectual means of procuring His favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth Yet this point no man will stand to argue no man will openly arm himself to enter into set Disputation against the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface Decere arbitramur nostrum Imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere Ita enim plenicrem adquiri Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse existimamus si quando nos pro viribus ipsi placere studuerimus nostros subditos ad eam rem instituerimus Or against the Emperor Iustinian for that he also maketh the like Profession Per sanctissimas Ecclessias nostrum Imperium sustineri communes res elementissimi Dei gratia muniri credimus And in another place Certissimè credemus quia Sacerdotum puritas deâ—â—â—â— ad Dominum Deum Salvatorem nostrum Iesuis Christum fervor ab ipsis missa perpetua preces maltum favorem nostra Reipublica incrementum praebent Wherefore onely the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove for no man feareth now to make it a question Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion Amongst the principal Blessings wherewith God enriched Israel the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one Thou didst lead thy People like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron That which Sheep are if Pastors be wanting the same are the people of God if so be they want Governors And that which the principal Civil Governors are in comparison of Regents under them the same are the Prelates of the Church being compared with the rest of God's Clergy Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses he being their Principal Civil Governor even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally he being in the other kinde of their principal Rector although even herein subject to the Soveraign Dominion of Moses For which cause these two alone are named as the Heads and Well-springs of all As for the good which others did in service either of the Common-wealth or of the Sanctuary the chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their cue Order Bishops are now is High-Priests were then inregard of power over other Priests and in respect of subjection unto High-Priests What Priests were then the same now Presbyters are by way of their place under Bishops The ones Authority therefore being so profitable how should the others be thought unnecessary Is there any man professing Christian Religion which holdeth it not as a Maxim That the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apostolical Regiment not only for other respects but even in regard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church Preciates are herein the Apostles Successors as hath been proved Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church and yet for more perspicuities sake it shall not be pains superstuously taken if the manner how be also declared at large For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher Powers not only Ecclesiastical but Civil whom when proud men have disgraced and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of minde the usual Apologies which they make for themselves are these What more vertue in these Great ones than in others we see no such eminent good which they do above other mon. We grant indeed that the good which Higher Governors do is not so immediate and near unto every of us as many times the meane labours of others under them and this doth make it to be less esteemed But we must note that it is in this Case as in a Ship he that fitteth at the Stern is quiet he moveth not he seemeth in a manner to do little or Nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together The influence of the Heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of
But in case there were no such appointed to sit and to hear both what would then he end of their quarrels They will answer perhaps That for purposes their Synids shall serve Which is as if in the Common-wealth the higher Magistrates being removed every Township should be a State altogether free and independent and the Controversies which they cannot end speedily within themselves to the contentment of both parties should be all determined by Solemn Parliaments Mercipul God! where is the light of Wit and Judgement which this age doth so much vaunt of and glory in when unto these such odd imaginations so great not only assent but also applause is yielded 6. As for those in the Clergy whose Place and Calling is lower were iâ— not that their eyes are blinded lest they should see the thing that of all others is for their good most effectal somewhat they might consider the benefit which they enjoy by having such in Authority over them as are of the self-same Profession Society and Body with them such as have trodden the same steps before such as know by their own experience the manifold intolerable contempts and indignities which faithful Pastors intermingled with the multitude are constrained every day to suffer in the exercise of their Spiritual Charge and Function unless their Superiours taking their Causes even to heart be by a kinde of sympathy drawn to relieve and aid them in their vertuous proceedings no less effectually than loving Parents their dear Children Thus therefore Prelacy being unto all sorts so beneficial ought accordingly to receive honor at the hands of all But we have just cause exceedingly to fear that those miserable times of confusion are drawing on wherein the people shall be oppressed one of another inasmuch as already that which prepareth the way thereunto is come to pass Children presume against the Antient and the Vile against the Honorable Prelacy the temperature of excesses in all Estates the glew and soder of the Publick weal the ligament which tieth and connecteth the limbs of this Bodie Politick each to other hath instead of deserved Honor all extremity of Disgrace the Foolish every where plead that unto the wise in heart they owe neither service subjection not honor XIX Now that we have laid open the causes for which Honor is due unto Prelates the next thing we are to consider is What kindes of Honor be due The good Government either of the Church or the Common-wealth dependeth scarcely on any one external thing so much as on the Publick Marks and Tokens whereby the estimation on that Governours are in is made manifest to the eyes of men True it is that Governors are to be esteemed according to the excellency of their vertues the more vertous they are the more they ought to be honored if respect be had unto that which every man should voluntarily perform unto his Superiors But the question is now of that Honor which Publick Order doth appoint unto Church-Governors in that they are Governors the end whereof is to give open sensible testimony that the Place which they hold is judged publickly in such degree beneficial as the marks of their excellency the Honors appointed to be done unto them do import Wherefore this honor we are to do them without presuming our selves to examine how worthy they are and withdrawing it if by us they be thought unworthy It is a note of that publick judgement which is given of them and therefore not tolerable that men in private should by refusal to do them such honor reverse as much as in them lyeth the Publick judgement If it deserve so grievous punishment when any particular Person adventureth to deface those marks whereby is signified what value some small piece of Coyn is publickly esteemed at is it sufferable that Honors the Character of that estimation which publickly is had of Publick Estates and Callings in the Church or Common-wealth should at every man's pleasure be cancelled Let us not think that without most necessary cause the same have been thought expedient The first Authors thereof were wise and judicious men they knew it a thing altogether impossible for each particular in the multitude to judge what benefit doth grow unto them from their Prelates and thereunto uniformly to yield them convenient honor Wherefore that all sorts might be kept in obedience and awe doing that unto their Superiors of every degree not which every man 's special fancy should think meet but which being before-hand agreed upon as meet by publick Sentence and Decision might afterwards stand as a rule for each in particular to follow they found that nothing was more necessary than to allet unto all degrees their certain honor as marks of publick judgement concerning the dignity of their Places which mark when the multitude should behold they might be thereby given to know that of such or such restimation their Governors are and in token thereof do carry those notes of excellency Hence it groweth that the different notes and signs of Honor do leave a correspondent impression in the mindes of common Beholders Let the people be asked Who are the chiefest in any kinde of Calling who whost to be listned unto who of greatest account and reputation and see if the very discourse of their mindes lead them not unto those sensible marks according to the difference whereof they give their suitable judgement esteeming them the worthiest persons who carry the principal note and publick mark of Worthiness If therefore they see in other estates a number of tokens sensible whereby testimony is given what account there is publickly made of them but no such thing in the Clergy what will they hereby or what can they else conclude but that where they behold this surely in that Common-wealth Religion and they that are conversant about it are not esteemed greatly beneficial Whereupon in time the open contempt of God and Godliness must needs ensue Qui bona fide Dcos colit amat Sacerdotes saith Papenius In vain doth that Kingdom or Common-wealth pretend zeal to the honor of God which doth not provide that his Clergy also may have honor Now if all that are imployed in the service of God should have one kinde of honor what more confused absurd and unseemly Wherefore in the honor which hath been allotted unto God's Clergy we are to observe how not only the kindes thereof but also in every particular kinde the degrees do differ The honor which the Clergy of God hath hitherto enjoyed consisteth especially in prcheminence of Title Place Ornament Attendance Priviledge Endowment In every of which it hath been evermore judge meet that there should be no small odds between Prelates and the inferior Clergy XX. Concerning Title albeit even as under the Law all they whom God had sesevered to offer him Sacrifice were generally termed Priests so likewise the name of Pastor or Presbyter be now common unto all that serve him in the
the light of a true and sound understanding which sheweth what honor is fit for Prelats and what attendancy convenient to be a part of their honor Touching Priviledges granted for Honor's-sake partly in general unto the Clergy and partly unto Prelates the Chiefest Persons Ecclesiastical in particular of such quality and number they are that to make but rehearsal of them we scarce think it safe left the very entrails of some of our godly Brethren as they term themselves should thereat haply burst in sunder XXI And yet of all these things rehearsed it may be there never would have grown any question had Bishops been honored only thus farr forth But the honoring of the Clergy with wealth this is in the eyes of them which pretend to seek nothing but mere Reformation of Abuses a sin that can never be remitted How soon O how soon might the Church be perfect even without any spot or wrinckle if Publick Authority would at the length say Amen unto the holy and devout requests of those godly Brethren who as yet with out-stretched necks groan in the pangs of their zeal to see the Houses of Bishops risted and their so long desired Livings gloriously divided amongst the Righteous But there is an impediment a lett which somewhat hindreth those good mens Prayers from taking effect They in whose hands the Soveraignty of Power and Dominion over the Church doth rest are perswaded there is a God for undoubtedly either the name of Godhead is but a feigned thing or if in Heaven there be a God the Saerilegious intention of Church-Robbers which lurketh under this plausible name of Reformation is in his sight a thousand times more hateful than the plain professed malice of those very Miscreants who threw their Vomit in the open face of our blessed Saviour They are not words of perswasion by which true men can hold their own when they are over-beset with Thieves And therefore to speak in this Cause at all were but labor lost saving only in respect of them who being as yet un-joyned unto this Conspiracy may be haply somewhat stayed when they shall know betimes what it is to see Thieves and to run on with them as the Prophet in the Psalm speaketh When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been Partaker with Adulterers For the better information therefore of men which carry true honest and indifferent mindes these things we will endeavour to make most clearly manifest First That in Goods and Livings of the Church none hath propriety but God himself Secondly That the honor which the Clergy therein hath is to be as it were God's Receivers the honor of Prelates to be his chief and principal Receivers Thirdly That from him they have right not only to receive but also to use such Goods the lower sort in smaller and the higher in larger measure Fourthly That in case they be thought yea or found to abuse the same yet may not such honor be therefore lawfully taken from them and be given away unto Persons of other Calling XXII Possessions Lands and Livings Spiritual the wealth of the Clergy the Goods of the Church are in such sort the Lords own that man can challenge no propriety in them His they are and not ours all things are his in that from him they have their being My Corn and my Wine and mine Oyl saith the Lord. All things his in that he hath absolute power to dispose of them at his pleasure Mine saith he are the Sheep and Oxen of a thousand hills All things his in that when we have them we may say with Iob God hath given and when we are deprived of them The Lord whose they are hath likewise taken them away again But these sacred Possessions are his by another tenure His because those men who first received them from him have unto him returned them again by way of Religious gift or Oblation And in this respect it is that the Lord doth term those Houses wherein such Gifts and Oblations were laid His Treasuries The ground whereupon men have resigned their own interest in things Temporal and given over the same unto God is that Precept which Solomon borroweth from the Law of Nature Honor the Lord out of thy Substance and of the chiefest of all thy Revenue so shall thy Barns be filled with Plenty and with new Wine the fat of thy Press shall overflow For although it be by one most fitly spoken against those superstitious Persons who only are scrupulous in external Rites Wilt thou win the favour of God He vertuous They best worship him that are his Followers It is not the bowing of your Knees but of your Hearts it is not the number of your Oblations but the integrity of your Lives not your Incense but your Obedience which God is delighted to be honored by Nevertheless we must beware lest simply understanding this which comparatively is meant that is to say whereas the meaning is that God doth chiefly respect the inward disposition of the Heart we must take heed we do not hereupon so worship him in Spirit that outwardly we take all Worship Reverence and Honor from him Our God will be glorified both of us himself and for us by others To others because our Hearts are known and yet our example is required for their good therefore it is not sufficient to carry Religion in our Hearts as Fire is carried in Flint-stones but we are outwardly visibly apparently to serve and honor the living God yea to employ that way as not only for our Souls but our Bodies so not only our Bodies but our Goods yea the choice the flower the chiefest of all thy Revenue saith Solomon If thou hast any thing in all thy Possessions of more value and price than other to what use shouldest thou convert it rather than to this Samuel was dear unto Hannah his Mother The Childe that Hannah did so much esteem she could not but greatly wish to advance and her Religious conceit was that the honoring of God with it was the advancing of it unto honor The chiefest of the Off-spring of men are the Males which be first-born and for this cause in the antient World they all were by right of their birth Priests of the Most High By these and the like Precedents it plainly enough appeareth that in what Heart soever doth dwell unseigned Religion in the same there resteth also a willingness to bestow upon God that soonest which is most dear Amongst us the Law is that sith Gold is the chiefest of Mettals if it be any where found in the bowels of the Earth it belongeth in right of honor as all men know to the King Whence hath this Custom grown but onely from a natural perswasion whereby men judge it decent for the highest Persons alwayes to be honored with the choisest things If ye offer unto God the blinde saith the Prophet Malachi it is not
up a Pillar shall be the House of God and of all that thou shall give me will I give the Tenth unto thee May a Christian man desire as great things as Iacob did at the hands of God may he desire them in as earliest manner may he promise as great thankfulness in acknowledging the goodness of God may he vow any certain kinde of publick acknowledgment before hand or though he vow it not perform it after in such sort that men may see he is perswaded how the Lord hath been his God Are these particular kindes of testifying thankfulness to God the erecting of Oratories the dedicating of Lands and Goods to maintain them forbidden any where Let any mortal man living shew but one reason wherefore in this point to follow Iacob's example should not be a thing both acceptable unto God and in the eyes of the World for ever most highly commendable Concerning Goods of this nature Goods whereof when we speak we term them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Goods that are consecrated unto God and as Tertullian speaketh Deposit a pietatis things which Piety and Devotion hath laid up as it were in the bosom of God Touching such Goods the Law Civil following mere light of Nature defineth them to be no mans because no mortal man or community of men hath right of propriety in them XXIII Persons Ecclesiastical are God's Stewards not onely for that he hath set them over his Family as the Ministers of ghostly food but even for this very cause also that they are to receive and dispose his Temporal Revenues the gifts and oblations which men bring him Of the Jews it is plain that their Tyths they offered unto the Lord and those offerings the Lord bestowed upon the Levites When the Levites gave the Tenth of their Tythes this their Gift the Law doth term the Lord's Heave-offering and appoint that the High-Priest should receive the same Of spoils taken in War that part which they were accustomed to separate unto God they brought it before the Priest of the Lord by whom it was laid up in the Tabernacle of the Congregation for a memorial of their thankfulness towards God and his goodness towards them in fighting for them against their enemies As therefore the Apostle magnifieth the honor of Melchisedec in that he being an High-Priest did receive at the hands of Abraham the Tyths which Abraham did honor God with so it argueth in the Apostles themselves great honor that at their feet the price of those Possessions was laid which men thought good to bestow on Christ. St. Paul commending the Churches which were in Macedonia for their exceeding liberality this way saith of them That he himself would bear record they had declared their forward mindes according to their power yea beyond their power and had so much exceeded his expectation of them that they seemed as it were even to give away themselves first to the Lord saith the Apostle and then by the will of God unto us To him as the owner of such gifts to us as his appointed receivers and dispensers The gift of the Church of Antioch bestowed unto the use of distressed Brethren which were in Iudea Paul and Baruabar did deliver unto the Presbyters of Ierusalem and the head of those Presbyters was Iames he therefore the Chiefest disposer thereof Amongst those Canons which are entituled Apostolical one is this We appoint that the Bishop have care of these things which belong to the Church the meaning is of Church-Goods as the Reason following sheweth For if the precious Souls of men must be committed unto him of trust much more it beloveth the charge of money to be given him that by his Authority the Presbyters and Deacons may administer all things to them that stand in need So that he which hath done them the honor to be as it were his Treasurers hath left them also authority and power to use these his Treasures both otherwise and for the maintenance even of their own Estate the lower sort of the Clergy according unto a meaner the higher after a larger proportion The use of Spiritual goods and possessions hath been a matte◠much disputed of grievous complaints there are usually made against the evil and unlawful usage of them but with no certain determination hitherto on what things and Persons with what proportion and measure they being bestowed do retain their lawful use Some men condemn it as idle superfluous and altogether vain that any part of the Treasure of God should be spent upon costly Ornaments appertaining unto his Service who being best worshipped when he is served in Spirit and truth hath not for want of pomp and magnificence rejected at any time those who with faithful hearts have adored him Whereupon the Hereticks termed Henriciani and Petrobusiani threw down Temples and Houses of Prayer erected with marvellous great charge as being in that respect not fit for Christ by us to be honored in We deny not but that they who sometime wandred as Pilgrims on earth and had no Temples but made Caves and Dens to pray in did God such honor as was most acceptable in his sight God did not reject them for their poverty and nakedness sake Their Sacraments were not abhorred for want of Vessels of Gold Howbeit let them who thus delight to plead answer me When Moses first and afterwards David exhorted the people of Israel unto matter of charge about the service of God suppose we it had been allowable in them to have thus pleaded Our Fathers in Egypt served God devoutly God war with them in all their afflictions he heard their Prayers pitied their Case and delivered them from the tyranny of their oppressors what House Tabernacle or Temple had they Such Argumentations are childish and fond God doth not refuse to be honored at all where there lacketh wealth but where abundance and store is he there requireth the Flower thereof being bestowed on him to be employed even unto the Ornament of his Service In Egypt the state of his People was servitude and therefore his Service was accordingly In the Defart they had no sooner ought of their own but a Tabernacle is required and in the Land of Canaan a Temple In the eyes of David it seemed a thing not fit a thing not decent that himself should be more richly seated than God But concerning the use of Ecclesiastical Goods bestowed this way there is not so much contention amongst us as what measure of allowance is fit for Ecclesiastical Persons to be maintained with A better rule in this case to judge things by we cannot possibly have than the◠Wisdom of God himself by considering what he thought meet for each degree of the Clergy to enjoy in time of the Law what for Levites what for Priests and what for High-Priests somewhat we shall be the more able to discern rightly what may be fit convenient and right for
that degree they were placed in Neither are we so to judge of their worldly condition as if they were Servants of men and at mens hands did receive those earthly benefits by way of stipend in lieu of pains whereunto they are hired nay that which is paid unto them is homage and tribute due unto the Lord Christ. His Servants they are and from him they receive such goods by way of stipend Not so from men For at the hands of men he himself being honored with such things hath appointed his Servants therewith according to their several degrees and places to be maintained And for their greater encouragement who are his Labourers he hath to their comfort assured them for ever that they are in his estimation worthy the hire which he alloweth them and therefore if men should withdraw from him the store which those his Servants that labour in his Work are maintained with yet be in his Word shall be found everlastingly true their labour in the Lord shall not be forgotten the hire he accounteth them worthy of they shall surely have either one way or other answered In the prime of the Christian world that which was brought and laid down at the Apostles feet they disposed of by distribution according to the exigence of each man's need Neither can we think that they who out of Christ's treasury made provision for all others were careless to furnish the Clergy with all things fit and convenient for their Estate And as themselves were chiefest in place of Authority and Calling so no man doubteth but that proportionably they had power to use the same for their own decent maintenance The Apostles with the rest of the Clergy in Ierusalem lived at that time according to the manner of a Fellowship or Collegiate Society maintaining themselves and the poor of the Church with a common purse the rest of the Faithful keeping that Purse continually stored And in that sense it is that the Sacred History saith All which believed were in one place and had all things common In the Histories of the Church and in the Writings of the Antient Fathers for some hundreds of years after we finde no other way for the maintenance of the Clergy but onely this the Treasury of Jesus Christ furnished through mens Devotion bestowing sometimes Goods sometimes Lands that way and out of his Treasury the charge of the service of God was deâ—rayed the Bishop and the Clergy under him maintained the poor in their necessity ministred unto For which purpose every Bishop had some one of the Presbyters under him to be Treasurer of the Church to receive keep and deliver all which Office in Churches Cathedral remaineth even till this day albeit the use thereof be not altogether so large now as heretofore The disposition of these goods was by the appointment of the Bishop Wherefore Prosper speaking of the Bishops care herein saith It was necessary for one to be troubled therewith to the end that the rest under him might be freer to attend quietly their Spiritual businesses And left any man should imagine that Bishops by this means were hindred themselves from attending the service of God Even herein saith he they dâ— God service for if these things which are bestowed on the Church be God's he doth the work of God who not of a covetous minde but with purpose of most faithful administration taketh care of things consecrated unto God And forasmuch as the Presbyters of every Church could not all live with the Bishop partly for that their number was great and partly because the People being once divided into Parishes such Presbyters as had severally charge of them were by that mean more conveniently to live in the midst each of his own particular flock therefore a competent number being fed at the same Table with the Bishop the rest had their whole allowance apart which several allowances were called Sportulae and they who received them Sportulantes fratres Touching the Bishop as his Place and Estate was higher so likewise the proportion of his Charges about himself being for that cause in all equity and reason greater yet forasmuch as his stiat herein was no other than it pleased himself to set the rest as the manner of Inferiours is to think that they which are over them alwayes have too much grudged many times at the measure of the Bishops private expence perhaps not without cause Howsoever by this occasion there grew amongst them great heart-burning quarrel and strife where the Bishops were found culpable as eating too much beyond their tether aud drawing more to their own private maintenance than the proportion of Christ's Patrimony being not greatly abundant could bear sundry Constitutions hereupon were made to moderate the same according to the Churches condition in those times Some before they were made Bishops having been Owners of ample Possessions sold them and gave them away to the Poor Thus did Paulinus Hilary Cyprian and sundry others Hereupon they who entring into the same Spiritual and high Function held their Secular Possessions still were hardly thought of And even when the Case was fully resolved that so to do was not unlawful yet it grew a question Whether they lawfully might then take any thing out of the Publick Treasury of Christ a question Whether Bishops holding by Civil Title sufficient to live of their own were bound in Conscience to leave the Goods of the Church altogether to the use of others Of contentions about these matters there was no end neither appeared there any possible way for quietness otherwise than by making partition of Church-Revenues according to the several ends and users for which they did serve that so the Bishops part might be certain Such partition being made the Bishop enjoyed his portion several to himself the rest of the Clergy likewise theirs a third part was severed to the furnishing and upholding of the Church a fourth to the erection and maintenance of Houses wherein the Poor might have relief After which separation made Lands and Livings began every day to be dedicated unto each use severally by means whereof every of them became in short time much greater than they had been for worldly maintenance the fervent devotion of men being glad that this new opportunity was given of shewing zeal to the House of God in more certain order By these things it plainly appeareth what proportion of maintenance hath been ever thought reasonable for a Bishop sith in that very partition agreed on to bring him unto his certain stint as much as allowed unto him alone as unto all the Clergy under him namely a fourtli part of the whole yearly Rents and Revenues of the Church Nor is it likely that before those Temporalities which now are such eye-sores were added unto the honour of Bishops their state was so mean as some imagine For if we had no other evidence than the covetous and ambitious humour of Hereticks whose impotent
desires of aspiring thereunto and extreme discontentment as oft as they were defeated even this doth shew that the state of Bishops was not a few degrees advanced above the rest Wherefore of grand Apostates which were in the very prime of the Primitive Church thus Lactantius above thirteen hundred years sithence testified Men of a slippery saith they were who feigning that they knew and worshipped God but seeking onely that they might grow in WEALTH and Honour affected the Place of the HIGHEST PRIESTHOOD whereunto when their Betters were chosen before them they thought it better to leave the Church and to draw their Favourers with them than to endure those men their Governours whom themselves desired to govern Now whereas against the present estate of Bishops and the greatness of their port and the largeness of their expences at this day there is not any thing more commonly objected than those antient Canons whereby they are restrained unto a far more sparing life their Houses their Retinue their Diet limited within a farr more narrow compass than is now kept we must know that those Laws and Orders were made when Bishops lived of the same Purse which served a well for a number of others as them and yet all at their disposing So that convenient it was to provide that there might be a moderate stint appointed to measure their expences by lest others should be injured by their wastefulness Contrariwise there is now no cause wherefore any such Law should be urged when Bishops live onely of that which hath been peculiarly alloted unto them They having therefore Temporalities and other Revenues to bestow for their own private use according to that which their state requireth and no other having with them any such common interest therein their own discretion is to be their Law for this matter neither are they to be pressed with the rigour of such antient Canons as were framed for other times much less so odiously to be upbraided with uncomformity unto the Pattern of our Lord and Saviour's estate in such circumstances as himself did never minde to require that the rest of the World should of necessity be like him Thus against the wealth of the Clergy they alledge how meanly Christ himself was provided for against Bishops Palaces his want of a hole to hide his Head in against the service done unto them that he came to minister not to be ministred unto in the World Which things as they are not unfit to controul covetous proud or ambitious desires of the Ministers of Christ and even of all Christians whatsoever they be and to teach men contentment of minde how mean soever their estate is considering that they are but Servants to him whose condition was farrmore abused than theirs is or can be so to prove such difference in State between us and him unlawful they are of no force or strength at all If one convented before their Consistories when he standeth to make this Answer should break out into Invectives against their Authority and tell them that Christ when he was on Earth did not sit to judge but stand to be judged would they hereupon think it requisite to dissolve their Eldership and to permit no Tribunals no Judges at all for fear of swerving from our Saviour's example If those men who have nothing in their mouths more usual than the poverty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles alledge not this as Iulian sometime did Beati panperes unto Christians when his meaning was to spoyl them of that they had our hope is then that as they seriously and sincerely wish that our Saviour Christ in this point may be followed and to that end onely propose his blessed example so at our hands again they will be content to hear with like willingness the holy Apostle's Exhortation made unto them of the Laity also Be ye Followers of us even as we are of Christ let us be your example even as the Lord Iesus Christ is ours that we may all proceed by one and the same rule XXIV But beware we of following Christ as Thieves follow True-men to take their Goods by violence from them Be it that Bishops were all unworthy not onely of Livings but even of Life yet what hath our Lord Jesus Christ deserved for which men should judge him worthy to have the things that are his given away from him unto others that have no right unto them For at this mark it is that the head Lay-Reformers do all aim Must these unworthy Prelates give place What then Shall Better succeed in their rooms Is this desired to the end that others may enjoy their Honours which shall doe Christ more faithful service than they have done Bishops are the worst men living upon Earth therefore let their sanctified Possessions be divided Amongst whom O blessed Reformation O happy men that put to their helping-hands for the furtherance of so good and glorious a Work Wherefore albeit the whole World at this day do already perceive and Posterity be like hereafter a great deal more plainly to discern not that the Clergy of God is thus heaved at because they are wicked but that means are vsed to put it into the heads of the simple multitude that they are such indeed to the end that those who thirst for the spoyl or Spiritual Possessions may till such time as they have their purpose be thought to covet nothing but onely the just extinguishment of un-reformable Persons so that in regard of such mens intentions practices and machinations against them the part that suffereth these things may most fitly pray with David Iudge thou me O Lord according to my Righteousness and according unto mine innocency O let the malice of the wicked come to an end and be thou the guide of the just Notwithstanding forasmuch as it doth not stand with Christian humility otherwise to think then that this violent outrage of men is a rod in the ireful hands of the Lord our God the smart whereof we deserve to feel Let it not seem grievous in the eyes of my reverend L. L. the Bishops if to their good consideration I offer a view of those sores which are in the kind of their heavenly function most apt to breed and which being not in time cured may procure at the length that which God of his infinite mercy avert Of Bishops in his time St. Ierome complaineth that they took it in great disdain to have any fault great or small found with them Epiphanius likewise before Ierome noteth their impatiency this way to have been the very chuse of a Schism in the Church of Christ at what time one Audius a Man of great Integrity of life full of faith and zeal towards God beholding those things which were corruptly done in the Church told the B B. and Presbyters their faults in such sort as those men are wont who love the truth from their hearts and walk in the paths of a most exact
life Whether it were covetousness or sensuality in their lives absurdity or error in their teaching any breach of the laws and Canons of the Church wherein he espied them faulty certain and sure they were to be thereof most plainly told Which thing they whose dealings were justly culpable could not bear but instead of amending their faults bent their hatred against him who sought their amendment till at length they drove him by extremity of infestation through weariness of striving against their injuries to leave both them and with them the Church Amongst the manifold accusations either generally intended against the Bishops of this our Church or laid particularly to the charge of any of them I cannot find that hitherto their spitefullest adversaries have been able to say justly that any man for telling them their personal faults in good and Christian sort hath sustained in that respect much persecution Wherefore notwithstanding mine own inferior estate and calling in Gods Church the consideration whereof assureth me that in this kind the sweetest Sacrifice which I can offer unto Christ is meek Obedience reverence and aw unto the Prelates which he hath placed in seats of higher Authority over me emboldned I am so far as may conveniently stand with that duty of humble subjection meekly to crave my good L L. your favourable pardon if it shall seem a fault thus far to presume or if otherwise your wonted courteous acceptation AEneid l. 12. Sinite hat haud mollia fatu Sublatis aperite dolis In government be it of what kind soever but especially if it be such kind of Government as Prelates have over the Church there is not one thing publiquely more hurtful then that an hard opinion should be conceived of Governors at the first and a good opinion how should the World ever conceive of them for their after-proceedings in Regiment whose first access and entrance thereunto giveth just occasion to think them corrupt men which fear not that God in whose name they are to rule Wherefore a scandalous thing it is to the Church of God and to the Actors themselves dangerous to have aspired unto rooms of Prelacy by wicked means We are not at this day troubled much with that tumultuous kind of ambition wherewith the elections of Damasus in S. Ieromes age and of Maximus in Gregories time and of others were long sithence stained Our greatest fear is rather the evil which Leo and Anthemius did by Imperial constitution endeavour as much as in them by to prevent He which granteth or he which receiveth the office and dignity of a Bishop otherwise then beseemeth a thing Divine and most holy he which bestoweth and he which obteineth it after any other sort then were honest and lawful to use if our Lord Jesus Christ were present himself on earth to bestow it even with his own hands sinneth a sin by so much more grievous then the sin of Balshazar by how much Offices and Functions heavenly are more precious then the meanest ornaments or implements which thereunto appertain If it be as the Apostle saith that the Holy Ghost doth make Bishops and that the whole action of making them is Gods own deed men being therein but his Agents what spark of the fear of God can there possibly remain in their hearts who representing the person of God in naming worthy men to Ecclesiastial charge do sell that which in his name they are to bestow or who standing as it were at the Throne of the Living God do bargain for that which at his hands they are to receive Wo worth such impious and irreligious prophanations The Church of Christ hath been hereby made not a den of thieves but in a manner the very dwelling place of soul spirits for undoubtedly such a number of them have been in all ages who thus have climbed into the seat of Episcopal Regiment 2. Men may by orderly means be invested with spiritual Authority and yet do harm by reason of ignorance how to use it to the good of the Church It is saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing highly to be accompted of but a hard thing to be that which a Bishop should be Yea a hard and a toilsom thing it is for a Bishop to know the things that belong unto a Bishop A right good man may be a very unfit Magistrate And for discharge of a Bishops Office to be well minded is not enough no not to be well learned also Skill to instruct is a thing necessary skill to govern much more necessary in a Bishop It is not safe for the Church of Christ when Pishops learn what belongeth unto Government as Empericks learn physick by killing of the sick Bishops were wont to be men of great learning in the Laws both Civil and of the Church and while they were so the wisest men in the land for Counsel and Government were Bishops 3. Know we never so well what belongeth unto a charge of so great moment yet can we not therein proceed but with hazard of publique detriment if we relye on our selves alone and use not the benefit of conference with others A singular mean to unity and concord amongst themselves a marvellous help unto uniformity in their dealings no small addition of weight and credit unto that which they do a strong bridle unto such as watch for occasions to stir against them finally a very great stay unto all that are under their Government it could not chuse but be soon found if Bishops did often and seriously use the help of mutual consultation These three rehearsed are things onely preparatory unto the course of Episcopal proceedings But the hurt is more manifestly seen which doth grow to the Church of God by faults inherent in their several actions as when they carelesly Ordein when they Institute negligently when corruptly they bestow Church-Livings Benefices Prebends and rooms especially of Jurisdiction when they visit for gain-sake rather then with serious intent to do good when their Courts erected for the maintenance of good Order are disordered when they regard not the Clergy under them when neither Clergy nor Laity are kept in that aw for which this authority should serve when any thing appeareth in them rather then a fatherly affection towards the flock of Christ when they have no respect to posterity and finally when they neglect the true and requisite means whereby their authority should be upheld Surely the hurt which groweth out of these defects must needs be exceeding great In a Minister ignorance and disability to teach is a maim nor is it held a thing allowable to ordain such were it not for the avoiding of a greater evil which the Church must needs sustain if in so great scarcity of able men and unsufficiency of most Parishes throughout the Land to maintain them both publick Prayer and the Administration of Sacraments should rather want then any man thereunto be admitted lacking dexterity and skill to perform that which
otherwise was most requisite Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf By reason whereof the Church groweth burdened with silly creatures more then need whose noted baseness and insufficiency bringeth their very Order it self into contempt It may be that the fear of a Quare impedit doth cause Institutions to pass more easily then otherwise they would And to speak plainly the very truth it may be that Writs of Quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the others place Yet where Law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment to shew their judgment they are not hindred And I doubt not but that even conscienceless and wicked Patrons of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England are the more imboldened to present unto Bishops any reffuse by finding so easie acceptation thereof Somewhat they might redress this sore notwithstanding so strong impediments if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart were not in a manner contented with it Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present if that which some of your selves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath if a man do but think what it is for a Bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower and that in trust without any other obligation then his sacred Order only and that religious Integrity which hath been presumed on in him Simoniacal corruption I may not for honors sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place So often they do not I trust offend by sale as by unadvised gift of such preferments wherein that ancient Canon should specially be remembred which forbiddeth a Bishop to be led by humane affection in bestowing the things of God A fault no where so hurtful as in bestowing places of jurisdiction and in furnishing Cathedral Churches the Prebendaries and other Dignities whereof are the very true successors of those ancient Presbyters which were at the first as Counsellers unto Bishops A foul abuse it is that any one man should be loaded as some are with Livings in this kind yea some even of them who condemn utterly the granting of any two Benefices unto the same man whereas the other is in truth a matter of far greater sequel as experience would soon shew if Churches Cathedral being furnished with the residence of a competent number of vertuous grave wise and learned Divines the rest of the Prebends of every such Church were given within the Diocess unto men of worthiest desert for their better encouragement unto industry and travel unless it seem also convenient to extend the benefit of them unto the learned in Universities and men of special imployment otherwise in the affairs of the Church of God But howsoever surely with the publick good of the Church it will hardly stand that in any one person such favours be more multiplied then law permitteth in those Livings which are with Cure Touching Bishops Visitations the first institution of them was profitable to the end that the state and condition of Churches being known there might be for evils growing convenient remedies provided in due time The observation of Church Laws the correction of faults in the service of God and manners of men these are things that visitors should seek When these things are inquired of formally and but for custom sake fees and pensions being the only thing which is sought and little else done by Visitations we are not to marvel if the baseness of the end doth make the action it self loathsom The good which Bishops may do not only by these Visitations belonging ordinarily to their Office but also in respect of that power which the Founders of Colledges have given them of special trust charging even fearfully their consciences therewith the good I say which they might do by this their authority both within their own Diocess and in the well-springs themselves the Universities is plainly such as cannot chuse but add weight to their heavy accounts in that dreadful Day if they do it not In their Courts where nothing but singular integrity and Justice should prevail if palpable and gross corruptions be found by reason of Offices so often granted unto men who seek nothing but their own gain and make no account what disgrace doth grow by their unjust dealings unto them under whom they deal the evil hereof shall work more then they which procure it do perhaps imagine At the hands of a Bishop the first thing looked for is a care of the Clergy under him a care that in doing good they may have whatsoever comforts and encouragements his countenance authority and place may yield Otherwise what heard shall they have to proceed in their painful course all sorts of men besides being so ready to malign despise and every way oppress them Let them find nothing but disdain in Bishops in the enemies of present Government if that way lift to betake themselves all kind of favourable and friendly help unto which part think we it likely that men having wit courage and stomack will incline As great a fault is the want of severity when need requireth as of kindness and courtesie in Bishops But touching this what with ill usage of their powe amongst the meaner and what with disuage amongst the higher sort they are in the eyes of both sorts as Bees have lost their sting It is a long time sithence any great one hath felt or almost any one much feared the edge of that Ecclesiastical severity which sometime held Lords and Dukes in a more religious aw then now the meanest are able to be kept A Bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them are under his charge what good might he do ten thousand ways more then any man knows how to set down But the souls of men are not loved that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious This is the very root the fountain of all negligence in Church-Government Most wretched are the terms of mens estate when once they are at a point of wrechlesness so extream that thy bend not their wits any further than only to shift out the present time never regarding what shall become of their Successors after them Had our Predecessors so loosely cast off from them all care and respect to posterity a Church Christian there had noâ— been about the regiment whereof we should need at this day to strive It was the barbarous affection of Nero that the ruine of his own Imperial Seat he could have been well enough contented to see in case he might also have seen it accompanied with the fall of the whole World An affection not more intolerable then theirs
is exceedingly worth the noting which Plato hath about the means whereby men fall into an utter dislike of all men with whom they converse This sowreness of minde which maketh every mans dealings unsavoury in our taste entereth by an unskilful over-weening which at the first we have of one and so of another in whom we afterwards find our selves to have been deceived they declaring themselves in the end to be frail men whom we judged demi-gods When we have oftentimes been thus begailed and that far besides expectation we grow at the length to this plain conclusion That there is nothing at all sound in any man Which bitter conceit is unseemly and plain to have risen from lack of mature judgment in humane affairs which iâ— so be we did handle with art we would not enter into dealings with men otherwise then being beforehand grounded in this perswasion that the number of persons notably good or bad is but very small that the most part of good have some evil and of evil men some good in them So true our experience doth find those Aphorisms of Mercurius Trismegistas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To purge gooddness quite and clean from all mixture of evil here is a thing impossible Again To 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When in this World we term a thing good we cannot by exact construction have any other true meaning then that the said thing so termed is not noted to be a thing exceeding evil And again Moros 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amongst men OEsclapius The name of that which is good we finde but no where the very true thing it self When we censure the deeds and dealings of our Superiors to bring with us a fore-conceit thus qualified shall be as well on our part as theirs a thing availeable unto quietness But howsoever the case doth stand with mens either good or bad quality the verdict which our Lord and Saviour hath given should continue for ever sure Qua Dei sunt Deo let men bear the burthen of their own iniquity as for those things which are Gods let not God be deprived of them For if only to withold that which should be given be no better then to rob God if to withdraw any mite of that which is but in purpose only bequeathed though as yet undelivered into the sacred treasure of God be a Sin for which Ananias and Sapphyra felt so heavily the dreadful hand of Divine revenge quite and clean to take that away which we never gave and that after God hath for so many ages therewith been possessed and that without any other shew of cause saving only that it seemeth in their eyes who seek it to be too much for them which have it in their hands can we term it or think it less then most impious injustice most hainous sacriledge Such was the Religious affection of Ioseph that it suffered him not to take that advantage no not against the very Idolatrous Priests of Egypt which he took for the purchasing of other mens lands to the King but he considered that albeit their Idolatry deserved hatred yet for the honors sake due unto Priesthood better it was the King himself should yield them relief in publique extremity then permit that the same necessity should constrain also them to do as the rest of the people did But it may be men have now found out that God hath proposed the Christian Clergy as a prey for all men freely to seize upon that God hath left them as the fishes of the Sea which every man that lifteth to gather into his net may or that there is no God in Heaven to pity them and to regard the injuries which man doth lay upon them Yet the publique good of this Church and Commonwealth doth I hope weigh somewhat in the hearts of all honestly disposed men Unto the publique good no one thing is more directly availeable then that such as are in place whether it be of Civil or of Ecclesiastical Authority be so much the more largely furnished even with external helps and ornaments of this life how much the more highly they are in power and calling advanced above others For nature is not contented with bare sufficiency unto the sustenance of man but doth evermore cover a decency proportionable unto the place which man hath in the body or society of others For according unto the greatness of mens calling the measure of all their actions doth grow in every mans secret expectation so that great men do always know that great things are at their hands expected In a Bishop great liberality great hospitality actions in every kinde great are looked for And for actions which must be great mean instruments will noâ—serve Men are but men what room soever amongst men they hold If therefore the measure of their Worldly habilities be beneath that proportion which their calling doth make to be looked for at their hands a stronger inducement it is then perhaps men are aware of unto evil and corrupt dealings for supply of that defect For which cause we must needs think it a thing necessary unto the common good of the Church that great Jurisdiction being granted unto Bishops over others a state of wealth proportionable should likewise be provided for them where wealth is had in so great admiration as generally in this golden age it is that without it Angelical perfections are not able to deliver from extreme contempt surely to make Bishops poorer then they are were to make them of less account and estimation then they should be Wherefore if detriment and dishonor do grow to Religion to God to his Church when the publique account which is made of the chief of the Clergy decayeth how should it be but in this respect for the good of Religion of God of his Church that the wealth of Bishops be carefully preserved from further dimination The travels and crosses wherewith Prelacy is never unaccompanied they which feel them know how heavy and how great they are Unless such difficulties therefore annexed unto that estate be tempered by co-annexing thereunto things esteemed of in this World how should we hope that the minds of men shunning naturally the burthens of each function will be drawn to undertake the burthen of Episcopal care and labour in the Church of Christ Wherefore if long we desire to enjoy the peace quietness order and stability of Religion which Predacy as hath been declared causeth then must we necessarily even in favour of the publique good uphold those things the hope whereof being taken away it is not the meer goodness of the charge and the Divine acceptation thereof that will be able to invite many thereunto What shall become of that Commonwealth or Church in the end which hath not the eye of Learning to beautifie guide and direct it At the length what shall become of that Learning which hath not wherewith any more to encourage her industrious followers And finally what shall become
of that courage to follow learning which hath already so much failed through the onely diminution of her chiefest rewards Bishopricks Surely wheresoever this wicked intendment of overthrowing Cathedral Churches or of taking away those Livings Lands and Possessions which Bishops hitherto have enjoyed shall once prevail the hand maids attending thereupon will be Paganism and extreme Barbarity In the Law of Moses how careful provision is made that goods of this kind might remain to the Church for ever Ye shall not make common the holy things of the children of Israel lest ye dye saith the Lord. Touching the fields annexed unto Levitical Cities the Law was plain they might not be sold and the reason of the Law this for it was their possession for ever He which was Lord and owner of it his will and pleasure was that from the Levites it should never pass to be enjoyned by any other The Lords own portion without his own Commission and Grant how should any man justly hold They which hold it by his appointment had it plainly with this condition They shall not sell of it neither change it nor alienate the first-fruits of the Land for it is holy unto the Lord. It falleth sometimes out as the Prophet Habbakkuk noteth that the very prey of Savage Beasts becometh dreadful unto themselves It did so in Iudas Achan Nebuchadnezzar their evil-purchased goods were their snare and their prey their own terror A thing no where so likely to follow as in those goods and possessions which being laid where they should not rest have by the Lords own testimony his most bitter curse their undividable companion These perswasions we use for other mens cause not for theirs with whom God and Religion are parts of the abrogated Law of Ceremonies Wherefore not to continue longer in the cure of a Sore desperate there was a time when the Clergy had almost as little as these good people wish But the Kings of this Realm and others whom God had blest considered devoutly with themselves as David in like case sometimes had done Is it meet that we at the hands of God should enjoy all kindes of abundance and Gods Clergy suffer want They considered that of Solomon Honor God with thy substance and the chiefest of all thy revenue so shall thy barns be filled with corn and thy vessels shall run over with new wine They considered how the care which Iehoshaphat had in providing that the Levites might have encouragement to do the work of the Lord chearfully was left of God as a fit pattern to be followed in the Church for ever They considered what promise our Lord and Saviour hath made unto them at whose hands his Prophets should receive but the least part of the meanest kind of friendliness though it were but a draught of water Which promise seemeth not to be taken as if Christ had made them of any higher courtesie uncapable and had promised reward not unto such as give them but that but unto such as leave them but that They considered how earnest the Apostle is that if the Ministers of the Law were so amply provided for less care then ought not to be had of them who under the Gospel of Jesus Christ possess correspondent rooms in the Church they considered how needful it is that they who provoke all others unto works of Mercy and Charity should especially have wherewith to be examples of such things and by such meons to win them with whom other means without those do commonly take very small effect In these and the like considerations the Church-Revenues were in ancient times augmented our Lord thereby performing manifestly the promise made to his servants that they which did leave either Father or Mother or Lands or goods for his sake should receive even in this World an hundred fold For some hundreds of years together they which joyned themselves to the Church were fain to relinquish all worldly emoluments and to endure the hardness of an afflicted estate Afterward the Lord gave rest to his Church Kings and Princes became as Fathers thereunto the hearts of all men inclined towards it and by his providence there grew unto it every day earthly possessions in more and more abundance till the greatness thereof bred envy which no diminutions are able to satisfie For as those ancient Nursing Fathers thought they did never bestow enough even so in the eye of this present age as long as any thing remaineth it seemeth to bee too much Our Fathers we imitate inperversum as Tertullian speaketh like them we are by being in equal degree the contrary unto that which they were Unto those earthly blessings which God as then did with so great abundance pour down upon the Ecclesiastical state we may in regard of most neer resemblance apply the self same words which the Prophet hath God blessed them exceedingly and by this very mean turned the hearts of their own Brethren to hate them and to deal politiquely with his servants Computations are made and there are huge sums set down for Princes to see how much they may amplifie and enlarge their own treasure how many publique burthens they may ease what present means they have to reward their servants about them if they please but to grant their assent and to accept of the spoil of Bishops by whom Church-goods are but abused unto pomp and vanity Thus albeit they deal with one whose princely vertue giveth them small hope to prevail in impious and sacrilegious motions yet shame they not to move her Royal Majesty even with a suit not much unlike unto that wherewith the Jewish High-Priest tried Iudas whom they sollicited unto Treason against his Master and proposed unto him a number of silver-pence in lien of so vertuous and honest a service But her sacred Majesty disposed to be always like her self her heart so far estranged from willingness to gain by pillage of that estate the only awe whereof under God she hath been unto this present hour as of all other parts of this noble Common-wealth whereof she hath vowed her self a Protector till the end of her days on earth which if nature could permit we wish as good cause we have endless this her gracious inclination is more then a seven times sealed warrant upon the same assurance whereof touching time and action so dishonourable as this we are on her part most secure not doubting but that unto all posterity it shall for ever appear that from the first to the very last of her Soveraign proceedings there hath not been one authorized deed other then consonant with that Symmachus saith Fiscus bonitum Principum non sacer dotum damnis sed hastium spoliis angeatur consonant with that imperial law Ea qua ad be atissima ecclesia jur a pâ—rtinent tanquam ipsamâ— sacro sanctam religiosam Ecclesiam intactu convenit vener abiliter aâ—stodiri ut â—icâ—â— ipsâ—religionis â—idei mater perpetua
est it a ejâ—â— patrimonium jugiter servetur illasâ—â— As for the case of publique burthens let any politirian living make it appear that by confiscation of Bishops livings and their utter dissolution at once the Common-wealth shall ever have half that relief and ease which it receiveth by their continuance as now they are and it shall give us some cause to think that albeit we sew they are implously and irreligiously minded yet we mayâ— esteem them at least to be tolerable Common-wealths-men But the case is too clear and manifest the World doth but too plainly see it that no one Order of subjects whatsoever within this Land doth bear the seventh part of that proportion which the Clergy beareth in the burthens of the Commonwealth No revenue of the Crownlike unto it either for certainty or for greatness Let the good which this way hath grown to the Common-wealth by the dissolution of religious houses teach men what ease unto publique burthens there is like to grow by the overthrow of the Clergy My meaning is not hereby to make the state of Bishopricks and of those dissolved Companies alike the one no less unlawful to be removed then the other For those religious persons were men which followed only a special kind of Contemplative life in the Commonwealth they were properly no portion of Gods Clergy only such amongst them excepted as were also Priests their goods that excepted which they unjustly held through the Popes usurped power of appropriating Ecclesiastical livings unto them may in part seem to be of the nature of Civil possessions held by other kinds of Corporations such as the City of London hath divers Wherefore as their institution was human and their end for the most part superstitious they had not therein meerly that holy and divine interest which belongeth unto Bishops who being imployed by Christ in the principal service of his Church are receivers and disposers of his patrimony as hath been showed which whosoever shall with-hold or with-draw at any time from them he undoubtedly robbeth God himself If they abuse the goods of the Church unto pomp and vanity such faults we do not excuse in them Only we wish it to be considered whether such faults be verily in them or else but objected against them by such as gape after spoil and therefore are no competent judges what is moderate and what excessive in them whom under this pretence they would spoil But the accusation may be just In plenty and fulness it may be we are of God more forgetful then were requisite Notwithstanding men should remember how not to the Clergy alone it was said by Moses in Deuteronomy Necum manducaveris biberis domos optimas adisicaveris If the remedy prescribed for this disease be good let it unpartially be applied Interest Reip utre suâ QUIS QUE bene utatur Let all states be put to their moderate pensions let their livings and lands be taken away from them whosoever they be in whom such ample possessions are found to have been matters of grievous abuse Were this just â— would Noble Families think this reasonable The Title which Bishops have to their livings is as good as the title of any sort of men unto whatsoever we accompt to be most justly held by them yea in this one thing the claim of â— B. hath preheminence above all secular Titles of right in that Gods own interest in the tenure whereby they hold even as also it was to the Priests of the Law an assurance of their spiritual goods and possessions whereupon though they many times abused greatly the goods of the Church yet was not Gods patrimony therefore taken away from them and made saleable unto other Tribes To rob God to ransack the Church to overthrow the whole Order of Christian Bishops and to turn them out of Land and Living out of House and Home what man of common honesty can think it for any manner of abuse to be a remedy lawful or just We must confess that God is righteous in taking away that which men abuse But doth that excuse the violence of Thieves and Robbers Complain we will not with S. Ierom that the hands of men are so straightly tyed and their liberal minds so much bridled and held back from doing good by augmentation of the Church-Patrimony For we confess that herein mediocrity may be and hath been sometime exceeded There did want heretofore Moses to temper mens liberality to say unto them who enriched the Church Sufficit Stay your hands lest favour of zeal do cause you to empty your selves too far It may be the largeness of mens hearts being then more moderate had been after more dureable and one state by too much over-growing the rest had not given occasion unto the rest to undermine it That evil is now sufficiently cured the Church treasury if then it were over-ful hath since been reasonable well emptyed That which Moses spake unto givers we must now inculcate unto takers away from the Church Let there be some stay some stint in spoiling If Grape-gatherers came unto them saith the Prophet would they not leave some remnant behind But it hath fared with the wealth of the Church as with a Tower which being built at the first with the highest overthroweth if self after by its own greatness neither doth the ruine thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded mediocrity but one part beareth down another till the whole be laid prostrate For although the state Ecclesiastical both others and even Bishops themselves be now fallen to so low an ebb as all the World at this day doth see yet because there remaineth still somewhat which unsatiable minds can thirst for therefore we seem not to have been hitherto sufficiently wronged Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in Appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty six thousand pounds yearly we rest contentedly and quietly without it till it shall please God to touch the hearts of men of their own voluntary accord to restore it to Him again judging thereof no otherwise then some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the Citizens of Rome that albeit they were in truth malè capta unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first nevertheless seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title which Law did after a sort make good repetitio corum proculdubio labefaltabat compositam civitatem what hath been taken away as dedicated unto uses superstitious and consequently not given unto God or at the least-wise not so rightly given we repine not thereat That which hath gone by means secret and indirect through corrupt compositions or compacts we cannot help What the hardness of mens hearts doth make them loath to have exacted though being due by Law eventhereof the want we do also bear Out of that which after all these
every one of them for distinction from the rest so that every body Politique hath some Religion but the Church that Religion which is only true Truth of Religion is the proper difference whereby a Church is distinguished from other Politique societies of men we here mean true Religion in gross and not according to every particular for they which in some particular points of Religion do sever from the truth may nevertheless truly if we compare them to men of an heathenish Religion be said to hold and profess that Religion which is true For which cause there being of old so many Politique societies stablished through the world only the Common-wealth of Israel which had the truth of Religion was is that respect the Church of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such Politique society of men as doth in Religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity As a Politique society it doth maintain Religion as a Church that Religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ with us therefore the name of a Church importeth onely a society of men first united into some publique form of Regiment and secondly distinguished from other societies by the exercise of Religion With them on the other side the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a maltitude of men so united and so distinguihed but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the Common-wealth so that even in such a Politique society as consisteth of none but Christians yet the Church and Common-wealth are too Corporations independently subsisting by it self We hold that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Common-wealth nor any member of the Common-wealth which is not also of the Church of England Therefore as in a figure Triangle the base doth differ from the sides thereof and yet one and the self same line is both a base and also a side aside simply a base if it chance to be the bottom and under-lye the rest So albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a Common-wealth qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church to be given to a multitude yet one and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both Nay it is so with us that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other contrariwise unless they against us should hold that the Church and the Common-wealth are two both distinct and separate societies of which two one comprehendeth alwayes persons not belonging to the other that which they do they could not conclude out of the difference between the Church and the Common-wealth namely that the Bishops may not meddle with the affairs of the Common wealth because they are Governours of an other Corporation which is the Church nor Kings with making Lawes for the Church because they have government not of this Corporation but of another divided from it the Common-wealth and the walls of separation between these two must for ever be upheld they hold the necessity of personal separation which clean excludeth the power of one mans dealing with both we of natural but that one and the same person may in both bear principal sway The causes of common received Errors in this Point seem to have been especially two One That they who embrace true Religion living in such Common-wealths as are opposite thereunto and in other publike affairs retaining civil Communion with such as are constrained for the exercise of their Religion to have a several Communion with those who are of the same Religion with them This was the state of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon the state of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this case because the proper affairs and actions of the Church as it is the Church hath no dependance on the Laws or upon the Government of the civil State and opinion hath thereby grown that even so it should be always This was it which deceived Allen in the writing of his Apology The Apostles saith he did govern the Church in Rome when Nero bare rule even as at this day in all the Churches dominions The Church hath a spiritual Regiments without dependance and so ought she to have amongst Heathens or with Christians Another occasion of which mis-conceit is That things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other affairs and have always had in the Church spiritual persons chosen to be exercised about them By which distinction of Spiritual affairs and persons therein employed from Temporal the Error of personal separation always necessary between the Church and Common-wealth hath strengthened it self For of every Politick Society that being true which Aristotle saith namely That the scope thereof is not simply to live nor the duty so much to provide for the life as for means of living well And that even as the soul is the worthier part of man so humane Societies are much more to care for that which tendeth properly to the souls estate then for such temporal things which the life hath need of Other proof there needeth none to shew that as by all men the Kingdom of God is to be sought first for so in all Common-wealths things spiritual ought above temporal be sought for and of things spiritual the chiefest is Religion For this cause persons and things imployed peculiarly about the affairs of Religion are by an excellency termed Spiritual The Heathens themselves had their spiritual Laws and Causes and Affairs always severed from their temporal neither did this make two Independent estates among them God by revealing true Religion sioth make them that receive it his Church Unto the Iews he so revealed the truth of Religion that he gave them in special Considerations Laws not only for the administration of things spiritual but also temporal The Lord himself appointing both the one and the other in that Common-wealth did not thereby distract it into several independent Communities but institute several Functions of one and the self-same Communitie Some Reasons therefore must there be alledged why it should be otherwise in the Church of Christ. I shall not need to spend any great store of words in answering that which is brought out of the Holy Scripture to shew that Secular and Ecclesiastical affairs and offices are distinguished neither that which hath been borrowed from antiquity using by phrase of speech to oppose the Common-weal to the Church of Christ neither yet their Reasons which are wont to be brought forth as witnesses that the Church and Common-weal were always distinct for whether a Church or Common-weal do differ in not the question we strive for but our controversie is concerning the kind of distinction whereby they are severed the one from the other whether as under heathen Kings of the Church did deal with her own affairs within her self without depending
judge of If it were a matter of wrong or an evill deed O ye Iews I would according to reason maintain you Causes of the Church are such as Gallio there receiteth if it be a question of your Law look ye to it I will be no judge thereof In respect of this difference therefore the Church and the Common-wealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other yet this is no Argument that they are two Independent Societies Some other Reasons there are which seem a little more neerly to make for the purpose as long as they are but heard and not sifted For what though a man being severed by Excommunication from the Church be not thereby deprived of freedom in the City or being there discommoned is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the Church What though the Church be bound to receive them upon Repentance whom the Common-weal may refuse again to admit If it chance the same man to be shut out of both division of the Church and Common-weal which they contend for will very hardly hereupon follow For we must note that members of a Christian Common-weal have a triple state a natural a civil and a spiritual No mans natural estate is cut off otherwise then by that capital execution After which he that is none of the body of the Common-wealth doth not I think remain fit in the body of that visible Church And concerning mans civil estate the same is subject partly to inferiour abatement of liberty and partly to diminution in the highest degree such as banishment is sith it casteth out quite and clean from the body of the Common-weal it must needs also consequently cast the banished party even out of the very Church he was of before because that Church and the Common-weal he was of were both one and the same Society So that whatsoever doth utterly separate a mans person from the one it separateth from the other also As for such abatements of civil estate as take away only some priviledge dignity or other benefit which a man enjoyeth in the Common-weal they reach only to our dealing with publike affairs from which what may lett but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augmenting the number of persons in whom either Church or Common-wealth consisteth He that by way of punishment loseth his voice in a publike election of Magistrates ceaseth not thereby to be a Citizen A man dis-franchised may notwithstanding enjoy as a Subject the common benefit of Protection under Laws and Magistrates so that these inferiour diminutions which touch men civilly but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the Common-wealth nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the Church of God These I say do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted Societies And concerning Excommunication it curreth off indeed from the Church and yet not from the Commonwealth howbeit so that the party Excommunicate is not thereby severed from one body which subsisteth in it self and retained by another in like sort subsisting but he which before had fellowship with that society whereof he was a member as well touching things spiritual as civil is now by force of Excommunication although not severed from the body in Civil affairs nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching Communion in those things which belong to the same body as it is the Church A man which having been both Excommunicated by the Church and deprived of Civil dignity in the Common-wealth is upon his repentance necessarily reunited into the one but not of necessity into the other What then That which he is admitted unto is a Communion in things Divine whereof both parts are partakers that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some humane previledge or right which other Citizens happily enjoy But are not these Saints and Citizens one and the same people are they not one and the same Society Doth it hereby appear that the Church which received an Excommunicate can have no dependency on any pers o which hath chief Authority and Power of these things in the Commonwealth whereunto the same party is not admitted Wherefore to end this point I conclude First that under the dominions of Infidels the Church of Christ and their Common-wealth were two Societies independent Secondly that in those Common-wealths where the Bishop of Rome beareth sway one Society is both the Church and the Common-wealth But the Bishop of Rome doth divide the body into two divers bodies and doth not suffer the Church to depend upon the power of any civil Prince and Potenrate Thirdly that within this Realm of England the case is neither as in the one nor as in the other of the former two but from the state of Pagans we differ in that with us one Society is both the Church and Common-wealth which with them it was not as also from the state of those Nations which subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome in that our Church hath dependance from the Chief in our Common-wealth which it hath not when he is suffered to rule In a word our state is according to the pattern of Gods own antient elect people which people was not part of them the Common-wealth and part of them the Church of God but the self-same people whole and entire were both under one Chief Governour on whose Supream Authority they did all depend Now the drift of all that hath been alledged to prove perpetual separation and independency between the Church and the Commonwealth is that this being held necessary it might consequently be thought fit that in a Christian Kingdom he whose power is greatest over the Common-wealth may not lawfully have supremacy of power also over the Church that is to say so far as to order thereby and to dispose of spiritual affairs so far as the highest uncommanded Commander in them Whereupon it is grown a Question whether Government Ecclesiastical and power of Dominion in such degrees as the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Soveraign Governour thereof may by the said supream Governour lawfully be enjoy'd and held For resolution wherein we are First to define what the power of dominion is Secondly then to shew by what right Thirdly after what sort Fourthly in what measure Fiftly in what inconveniency According to whose example Christian Kings may have it And when these generals are opened to examine afterwards how lawful that is which we in regard of Dominion do attribute unto our own namely the title of headship over the Church so far as the bounds of this Kingdom do reach Secondly the Prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies about spiritual affairs publick Thirdly the right of assenting unto all those orders concerning Religion which must after be in force as Law Fourthly the advancement of Principal
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
That the Parliament being a mere Temporal Court can neither by the law of Nature nor of God have competent power to define of such matters That Supremacy in this kinde cannot belong unto Kings as Kings because Pagan Emperours whose Princely power was true Soveraignty never challenged so much over the Church That Power in this kinde cannot be the right of any Earthly Crown Prince or State in that they be Christians forasmuch as if they be Christians they all owe subjection to the Pastors of their Souls That the Prince therefore not having it himself cannot communicate it to the Parliament and consequently cannot make Laws here or determine of the Churches Regiment by himself Parliament or any other Court subjected unto him The Parliament of England together with the Convocation annexed thereunto is that whereupon the very essence of all Government within this Kingdom doth depend it is even the body of the whole Realm it consisteth of the King and of all that within the Land are subject unto him The Parliament is a Court not so merely Temporal as if it might meddle with nothing but onely Leather and Wool Those dayes of Queen Mary are not yet forgotten wherein the Realm did submit it self unto the Legate of Pope Iulius at which time had they been perswaded as this man seemeth now to be had they thought that there is no more force in Laws made by Parliament concerning Church-Affairs then if men should take upon them to make Orders for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven they might have taken all former Statutes of that kinde as cancelled and by reason of nullity abrogated What need was there that they should bargain with the Cardinal and purchase their Pardon by promise made before-hand that what Laws they had made assented unto or executed against the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy the same they would in that present Parliament effectually abrogate and repeal Had they power to repeal Laws made and none to make Laws concerning the Regiment of the Church Again when they had by suit obtained his confirmation for such Foundations of Bishopricks Cathedral Churches Hospitals Colledges and Schools for such Marriages before made for such Institutions into Livings Ecclesiastical and for all such Judicial Processes as having been ordered according to the Laws before in force but contrary unto the Canons and Orders of the Church of Rome were in that respect thought defective although the Cardinal in his Letters of Dispensation did give validity unto those Acts even Apostolicae firmitatis robur the very strength of Apostolical solidity what had all these been without those grave authentical words Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament that all and singular Articles and Clauses contained in the said Dispensation shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the Laws of this Realm lawful good and effectual to be alledged and pleaded in all Courts Ecclesiastical and Temporal for good and sufficient matter either for the Plaintiff or Defendant without any Allegation or Objection to be made against the validity of them by pretence of any General Councel Canon or Decree to the contrary Somewhat belike they thought there was in this mere Temporal Court without which the Popes own mere Ecclesiastical Legate's Dispensation had taken small effect in the Church of England neither did they or the Cardinal imagine any thing committed against the Law of Nature or of God because they took order for the Churches Affairs and that even in the Court of Parliament The most natural and Religious course in making Laws is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things which they are to concern In matters of God to set down a form of Prayer a solemn confession of the Articles of the Christian Faith and Ceremonies meet for the exercise of Religion It were unnatural not to think the Pastors and Bishops of our Souls a great deal more fit than men of Secular Trades and Callings Howbeit when all which the wisdome of all sorts can do is done for the devising of Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the form and vigour of Laws without which they could be no more unto us than the Councel of Physitians to the sick Well might they seem as wholesom admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without consent of the whole Church to be guided by them whereunto both Nature and the practise of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his People by the hand of Moses without their free and open consent Wherefore to define and determine even of the Churches Affairs by way of assent and approbation as Laws are defined in that Right of Power which doth give them the force of Laws thus to define of our own Churches Regiment the Parliament of England hath competent Authority Touching that Supremacy of Power which our Kings have in this case of making Laws it resteth principally in the strength of a negative voice which not to give them were to deny them that without which they were Kings but by mere title and not in exercise of Dominion Be it in Regiment Popular Aristocratical or Regal Principality resteth in that Person or those Persons unto whom is given right of excluding any kinde of Law whatsoever it be before establishment This doth belong unto Kings as Kings Pagan Emperors even Nero himself had no less but much more than this in the Laws of his own Empire That he challenged not any interest of giving voice in the laws of the Church I hope no man will so construe as if the cause were conscience and fear to encroach upon the Apostles right If then it be demanded By what right from Constantine downward the Christian Emperors did so far intermeddle with the Churches affairs either we must herein condemn them as being over presumptuously bold or else judge that by a Law which is termed Regia that is to say Regal the People having derived unto their Emperors their whole power for making of Laws and by that means his Edicts being made Laws what matter soever they did concern as Imperial dignity endowed them with competent Authority and power to make Laws for Religion so they were thought by Christianity to use their Power being Christians unto the benefit of the Church of Christ was there any Christian Bishop in the world which did then judge this repugnant unto the dutiful subjection which Christians do ow to the Pastors of their Souls to whom in respect of their Sacred Order it is not by us neither may be denied that Kings and Princes are as much as the very meanest that liveth under them bound in conscience to shew themselves gladly and willingly obedient receiving the Seals of Salvation the blessed Sacraments at their hands as at the
respect of their bad qualities their wickedness in it self a deprivation of right to deal in the affairs of the Church and a warrant for others to deal in them which are held to be of a clean other Society the Members whereof have been before so peremptorily for ever excluded from power of dealing for ever with affairs of the Church They which once have learned throughly this Lesson will quickly be capable perhaps of another equivalent unto it For the wickedness of the Ministery transfers their right unto the King In case the King be as wicked as they to whom then shall the right descend There is no remedy all must come by devolution at length even as the Family of Brown will have it unto the godly among the people for confusion unto the wise and the great by the poor and the simple Some Kniper doling with his retinue must take this work of the Lord in hand and the making of Church-Laws and Orders must prove to be their right in the end If not for love of the truth yet for shame of grosse absurdities let these contentions and stifling fancies be abandoned The cause which moved them for a time to hold a wicked Ministery no lawful Ministry and in this defect of a lawful Ministery authorized Kings to make Laws and Orders for the Affairs of the Church till it were well established is surely this First They see that whereas the continual dealing of the Kings of Israel in the Affairs of the Church doth make now very strong against them the burthen whereof they shall in time well enough shake off if it may be obtained that it is indeed lawful for Kings to follow these holy examples howbeit no longer than during the case of necessity while the wickednesse and in respect thereof the unlawfulness of the Ministery doth continue Secondly They perceive right well that unlesse they should yield Authority unto Kings in case of such supposed necessity the Discipline they urge were clean excluded as long as the Clergy of England doth thereunto remain opposite To open therefore a door for her entrance there is no remedy but the Tenet must be this That now when the Ministery of England is universally wicked and in that respect hath lost all Authority and is become no lawful Ministery no such Ministery as hath the right which otherwise should belong unto them if they were vertuous and godly as their Adversaries are in this necessity the King may do somewhat for the Church that which we do imply in the name of Headship he may both have and exercise till they be entered which will disburthen and ease him of it till they come the King is licensed to hold that Power which we call Headship But what afterwards In a Church ordered that which the Supream Magistrate hath to do is to see that the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all matters and orders of the Church be executed and duly observed to see that every Ecclesiastical Person do that Office whereunto he is appointed to punish those that fail in their Office In a word that which Allain himself acknowledgeth unto the Earthly power which God hath given him it doth belong to defend the Laws of the Church to cause them to be executed and to punish Rebels and Transgressors of the same on all sides therfore it is confest that to the King belongeth power of maintaining the Laws made for Church-Regiment and of causing them to be observed but Principality of Power in making them which is the thing we attribute unto Kings this both the one sort and the other do withstand Touching the Kings supereminent authority in commanding and in judging of Causes Ecclesiastical First to explain therein our meaning It hath been taken as if we did hold that Kings may prescribe what themselves think good to be done in the service of God how the Word shall be taught how the Sacraments administred that Kings may personally sit in the Consistory where the Bishops do hearing and determining what Causes soever do appertain unto the Church That Kings and Queens in their own proper Persons are by Judicial Sentence to decide the Questions which do rise about matters of Faith and Christian Religion That Kings may excommunicate Finally That Kings may do whatsoever is incident unto the Office and Duty of an Ecclesiastical Judge Which opinion because we account as absurd as they who have fathered the same upon us we do them to wit that this is our meaning and no otherwise There is not within this Realm an Ecclesiastical Officer that may by the Authority of his own place command universally throughout the Kings Dominions but they of this People whom one may command are to anothers commandement unsubject Only the Kings Royal Power is of so large compass that no man commanded by him according to the order of Law can plead himself to be without the bounds and limits of that Authority Isay according to order of Law because that with us the highest have thereunto so tyed themselves that otherwise than so they take not upon them to command any And that Kings should be in such sort Supream Commanders over all men we hold it requisite as well for the ordering of Spiritual as Civil Affairs in as much as without universal Authority in this kinde they should not be able when need is to do as vertuous Kings have done Josiah parposing to renew the House of the Lord assembled the Priests and Levites and when they were together gave them their charge saying Go out unto the Cities of Judah and gather of Israel money to repair the House of the Lord from year to year and haste the things But the Levites hastned not Therefore the King commanded Jehoida the Chief-priest and said unto him Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord and of the Congregation of Israel for the Tabernacle of the Testimony For wicked Athalia and her Children brake up the House of the Lord God and all the things that were dedicated for the House of the Lord did they bestow upon Balaam Therefore the King commanded and they made a Chest and set it at the Gate of the House of the Lord without and they made a Proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring unto the Lord the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the Wilderness Could either he have done this or after him Ezekias the like concerning the celebration of the Passeover but that all sorts of men in all things did owe unto these their Soveraign Rulers the same obedience which sometimes Iosuah had them by vow and promise bound unto Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandments and will not obey thy words in all thou commandest him let him be put to death only be strong and of a good courage Furthermore Judgement Ecclesiastical we say is
them who use but that Power which Laws have given them unless men can shew that there is in those Laws some manifest iniquity or injustice Whereas therefore against the force Judicial and Imperial which Supream Authority hath it is alledged how Constantine termeth Church-Officers Over-seers of things within the Church himself of those without the Church how Augustine witnesseth that the Emperor not daring to judge of the Bishop's Cause committed it to the Bishops and was to crave paâ—â—â—on of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end to appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs how Hilary beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical Causes to whom onely Common-wealth matters belonged how Ambrose affirmeth that Palaces belong unto the Emperor Churches to the Minister That the Emperor hath the authority over the Common-walls of the City and not in holy things for which cause he never would yield to have the Causes of the Church debated in the Princes Consistories but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to answer concerning Church-matters in a Civil Court he came not We may by these testimonies drawn from Antiquity if wellst to consider them discern how requisite it is that Authority should always follow received Laws in the manner of proceeding For inasmuch as there was at the first no certain Law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrates authority should be of how farr it should reach and what order it should observe but Christian Emperors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those affairs by this means it cometh to passe that they in their practise vary and are not uniform Vertuous Emperors such as Constantine the Great was made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the Church even when it lived under Infidels Constantine of reverence to Bishops and their Spiritual Authority rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do than was willing to claim a Power not fit or decent for him to exercise The Order which hath been before he ratifieth exhorting the Bishops to look to the Church and promising that he would do the Office of a Bishop over the Common-wealth which very Constantine notwithstanding did not thereby so renounce all Authority in judging of Special Causes but that sometime he took as St. Augustine witnesseth even personal cognition of them howbeit whether as purposing to give therein judicially any Sentence I stand in doubt for if the other of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh did in such sort judge surely there was cause why he should excuse it as a thing not usually done Otherwise there is no lett but that any such great Person may hear those Causes to and fro debated and deliver in the end his own opinion of them declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is But this kinde of Sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto it is a Sentence of private perswasion and not of solemn jurisdiction albeit a King or an Emperour pronounce it Again on the contrary part when Governours infected with Heresie were possessed of the Highest Power they thought they might use it as pleased themselves to further by all means that opinion which they desired should prevail they not respecting at all what was meet presumed to command and judge all men in all Causes without either care of orderly proceeding or regard to such Laws and Customs as the Church had been wont to observe So that the one sort feared to do even that which they might and that which the other ought not they boldly presumed upon the one sort of modesty excused themselves where they scarce needed the other though doing that which was inexcusable bare it out with main power not enduring to be told by any man how farr they roved beyond their bounds So great odds was between them whom before we mentioned and such as the younger Valentinian by whom St. Ambrose being commanded to yield up one of the Churches under him unto the Arrians whereas they which were sent on his Message alledged That the Emperour did but use his own right forasmuch as all things were in his power The Answer which the holy Bishop gave them was That the Church is the House of God and that those things that are Gods are not to be yielded up and disposed of it at the Emperors will and pleasure His Palaces he might grant to whomsoever he pleaseth but Gods own Habitation not so A cause why many times Emperours do more by their absolute Authority than could very well stand with reason was the over-great importunity of wicked Hereticks who being Enemies to Peace and Quietness cannot otherwise than by violent means be supported In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled than theirs was because our Lawes have with farr more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kinde of Power All decision of things doubtful and correction of things amiss are proceeded in by order of Law what Person soever he be unto whom the administration of Judgment belongeth It is neither permitted unto Prelates nor Prince to judge and determine at their own discretion but Law hath prescribed what both shall do What Power the King hath he hath it by Law the bounds and limits of it are known the intire Community giveth general order by Law how all things publickly are to be done and the King as the Head thereof the Highest in Authority over all causeth according to the same law every particular to be framed and ordered thereby The whole Body Politick maketh Laws which Laws gave Power unto the King and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that power it so falleth out that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort There is no cause given unto any to make supplication as Hilary did that Civil Governors to whom Common-wealth-matters only belong may not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical causes If the cause be Spiritual Secular Courts do not meddle with it we need not excuse our selves with Ambrose but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civil Judge in a matter which is not Civil so that we do not mistake either the nature of the Cause or of the Court as we easily may do both without some better direction than can be by the rules of this new-found Discipline But of this most certain we are that our Laws do neither suffer a Spiritual Court to entertain those Causes which by the Law are Civil nor yet if the matter be indeed Spiritual a mere Civil Court to give Judgement of it Touching Supream Power therefore to command all men and in all manner
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
notwithstanding I knew well what speech it deserved and what some zealous earnest man of the spirit of Iohn and Iames â—irnamed Boanerges Sons of Thunder would have said in such a case yet I chose rather to content my self in exhorting him to revisit his Doctrine as Nathan the Prophet did the device which without consulting with God he had of himself given to David concerning the building of the Temple and with Peter the Apostle to endure to be withstood in such a Case not unlike unto this This is effect was that which passed between us concerning this matter and the invectives I made against him wherewith I am charged Which rehearsal I hope may clear me with all that shall indifferently consider it of the blames laid upon me for want of Duty to Mr. Hooker in not conferring with him whereof I have spoken sufficiently already and to the High-Commission in not revealing the matter to them which yet now I am further to answer My Answer is That I protest no contempt not wilful neglect of any lawful Authority stayed me from complaining unto them but these Reasons following First I was in some hope that Mr. Hooker notwithstanding he had been ovencarried with a shew of Charity to prejudice the Truth yet when it should be sufficiently proved would have acknowledged it or at the lest induced with Peace that it might be offered without either offence to him or to such as would receive it either of which would have taken away any cause of just Complaint When neither of these fell out according to my expectation and desire but that he replied to the Truth and objected against it I thought he might have some doubts and scruples in himself which yet if they were cleared he would either embrace sound Doctrine or at lest suffer it to have its course Which hope of him I nourished so long as the matter was not bitterly and immodestly handled between us Another Reason was the Cause it self which according to the Parable of the Tares which are said to be sown among the Wheat sprung up first in his Grass Therefore as the Servants in that Place are not said to have come to complain to the lord till the Tares came to shew their fruits in their kinde so I thinking it yet but a time of discovering of it what it was desired not their fickle to cutt it down For further answer It is to be considered that the conscience of my Duty to God and to his Church did binde me at the first to deliver sound Doctrine in such Points as had been otherwise uttered in the Place where I had now some years taught the Truth Otherwise the rebuke of the Prophet had fallen upon me for not going up to the breach and standing in it and the peril for answering the blood of the City in whose Watch-Tower I sate if it had been surprized by my default Moreover my publick Protestation in being unwilling that if any were not yet satisfied some other more convenient way might be taken for it And lastly that I had resolved which I uttered before to some dealing with me about the matter to have protested the next Sabbath day that I would no more answer in that Place any Objections to the Doctrine taught by any means but some other way satisfie such as should require it These I trust may make it appear that I failed not in Duty to Authoritie notwithstanding I did not complain nor give over so soon dealing in the Case If I did how is he clear which can alledge none of all these for himself who leaving the expounding of the Scriptures and his ordinarie Calling voluntarily discoursed upon School-Points and Questions neither of edification nor of Truth who after all this as promising to himself and to untruth a Victory by my silence added yet in the next Sabbath day to the maintenance of his former Opinions these which follow That no additament taketh away the Foundation except it be a Privative of which sort neither the Works added to Christ by the Church of Rome nor Circumcision by the Galatians were as one denieth him not to be a man that saith he is a Righteous man but he that saith he is a dead man Whereby it might seem that a man might without hurt adde Works to Christ and pray also that God and Saint Peter would save them That the Galatians Case is harder than the Case of the Church of Rome because the Galatians joyned Circumcision with Christ which God had forbidden and abolished but that which the Church of Rome joyned with Christ were good Works which God hath commanded Wherein he committed a double fault one in expounding all the questions of the Galatians and consequently of the Romans and other Epistles of Circumcision onely and the Ceremonies of the Law as they doe who answer for the Church of Rome in their Writings contrary to the clear meaning of the Apostle as may appear by many strong and sufficient reasons The other in that he said the addition of the Church of Rome was of Works commanded of God Whereas the least part of the Works whereby they looked to merit was of such works and most were works of Supererogation and works which God never commanded but was highly displeased with as of Masses Pilgrimages Pardons pains of Purgatory and such like That no one sequel urged by the Apostle against the Galatians for joyning Circumcision with Christ but might be us well enforced against the Lutherans that is that for their ubiquity it may be as well said to them If ye hold the Body of Christ to be in all places you are fallen from grace you are under the curse of the Law saying Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all things written in this Book with such like He added yet further That to a Bishop of the Church of Rome to a Cardinal yea to the Pope himself acknowledging Christ to be the Saviour of the World denying other errours and being discomforted for want of Works whereby he might be justified he would not doubt but use this speech Thou holdest the foundation of Christian Faith though it be but by a slender thred thou holdest Christ though but by the hem of his Garment why shouldst thou not hope that vertue may pass from Christ to save thee That which thou holdest of Iustification by thy Works overthroweth indeed by consequent the foundation of Christian Faith but be of good chear thou hast not to do with a captionus Sophister but with a merciful God who will justifie thee for that thou holdest and not take the advantage of doubtful construction to condemn thee And if this said he be an Errour I hold it willingly for it is the greatest comfort I have in this World without which I would not wish either to speak or to live Thus farr beng not to be answered in it any more he was bold to proceed the absurdity of which Speech I need not
the very foundation it self is straightway inferred As for Example if a man should say There is no Catholick Church it followeth immediately thereupon that this Iesus whom we call the Saviour is not the Saviour of the World because all the Prophets hear witnesse that the true Messias should shew light unto the Gentiles that is to say gather such a Church as is Catholick not restrained any longer unto one circumcised Nation In the second rank we place them out of whose Positions the denial of any the foresaid Articles may be with like facility concluded such as are they which have denied with Hebion or with Maercion his Humanity an example whereof may be that of Cassianus defending the Incarnation of the Son of God against Nestorius Bishop of Antioch which held That the Virgin when she brought forth Christ did not bring forth the Son of God but a sole and mere man out of which Heresie the denial of the Articles of the Christian saith he deduceth thus If thou dost deny our Lord Iesus Christ in denying the Son thou canst not choose but deny the Father for according to the voyce of the Father himself He that hath not the Son hath not the Father Wherefore denying him which is begotten thou deniest him which doth beget Again denying the Son of God to have been born in the Flesh how canst thou believe him to have suffered believing not his Passion what remaineth but that thou deny his Resurrection For we believe him not raised except we first believe him dead Neither can the reason of his rising from the dead stand without the faith of his death going before The denial of his Death and Passion inserreth the denial of his Rising from the Depth Whereupon it followeth that thou also deny his Ascension into Heaven The Apostle affirmeth That he which ascended did first descend so that as much as lieth in thee our Lord Iesus Christ hath neither risen from the depth nor is ascended into Heaven nor sitteth on the right hand of God the Father neither shall be come at the day of the final account which is looked for nor shall judge the Quick and the Dead And darest thou yet set foot in the Church Canst thou think thy self a Bishop when thou hast denied all those things whereby thou dost obtain a Bishoply Calling Nestorius confessed all the Articles of the Creed but his opinion did imply the denial of every part of his Confession Heresies there are of the third sort such as the Church of Rome maintaineth which be removed by a greater distance from the foundation although indeed they overthrow it Yet because of that weakness which the Philosopher noteth in mens capacities when he saith That the common sort cannot see things which follow in reason when they follow as it were afar off by many deductions therefore the repugnancy of such Heresie and the foundation is not so quickly or so easily found but that an Heretick of this sooner than of the former kinde may directly grant and consequently nevertheless deny the foundation of Faith 33. If reason be suspected tryal will shew that the Church of Rome doth no otherwise by teaching the Doctrine she doth teach concerning good works Offer them the very fundamental words and what man is there that will refuse to subscribe unto them Can they directly grant and directly deny one and the very self-same thing Our own proceedings in disputing against their works satisfactory and meritorious do shew not onely that they hold but that we acknowledge them to hold the foundation notwithstanding their opinion For are not these our Arguments against them Christ alone hath satisfied and appeased his Fathers wrath Christ hath merited Salvation alone We should do fondly to use such Disputes neither could we think to prevail by them if that whereupon we ground were a thing which we know they do not hold which we are assured they will not grant Their very Answers to all such Reasons as are in this Controversie brought against them will not permit us to doubt whether they hold the foundation or no. Can any man that hath read their Books concerning this matter be ignorant how they draw all their Answers unto these heads That the remission of all our sins the pardon of all whatsoever punishments thereby deserved the rewards which God hath laid up in Heaven are by the Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ purchased and obtained sufficiently for all men but for no man effectually for his benefit in particular except the blood of Christ be apply'd particularly to him by such means as God hath appointed that to work by That those means of themselves being but dead things onely the blood of Christ is that which puâ—teth life force and efficacy in them to work and to be available each in his kinde to our Salvation Finally that Grace being purchased for us by the blood of Christ and freely without any merit on desert at the first bestowed upon us the good things which we doe after Grace received be thereby made satisfactory and meritorious Some of their Sentences to this effect I must alledge for mine own warrant If we desire to hear foreign Judgements we finde in one this Confession He that could reckon how many the vertues and merits of our Saviour Iesus Christ hath been might likewise understand how many the benefits have been that are to come to us by him forsomuch as men are made Partakers of them all by means of his Passion by him it given unto us remission of our Sinnes Grace Glory Liberty Praise Salvation Redemption Iustification Iustice Satisfaction Sacraments Merits and all other things which we had and were behoveful for our Salvation In another we have these Oppositions and Answers made unto them All Grace is given by Christ Iesus True but not except Christ Iesus be applied He is the propitiation for our sinne by his stripes we are healed he hath offered himself up for in all this is true but apply it We put all satisfaction in the blood of Iesus Christ but we hold that the means which Christ hath appointed for us in the Case to apply it are our penal works Our Countrey-men in Rhemes make the like answer That they seek Salvation no other way than by the Blood of Christ and that humbly they doe use Prayers Fastings Almes Faith Charity Sacrifice Sacraments Priests onely as the means appointed by Christ to apply the benefit of his holy Blood unto them touching our good Works that in their own natures they are not meritorious nor answerable to the joyes of Heaven it commeth by the Grace of Christ and not of the Work it self that we have by well doing a right to Heaven and deserve it worthily If any man think that I seek to varnish their Opinions to set the better foot of a lame Cause formost Let him know that since I began throughly to understand their meaning I have found their halting greater
Now I taste nothing sweet but the Bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World Now mine eys see nothing but Jesus rising from the dead Now my ears refuse all kinde of melody to hear the Song of them that hath gotten victory of the Beast and of his Image and of his Mark and of the number of his Name that stand on the Sea of Glass having the Harps of God and singing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O King of Saints Surely if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the secret work of our Regeneration unto newness of life if we endeavour thus to frame our selves anew then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle in the tenth to the Hebrews We are not of them which withdraw our selves to perdition but which follow Faith to the conservation of the Soul For they which fall away from the grace of God and separate themselves unto perdition they are fleshly and carnal they have not God's holy Spirit But unto you because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to the end ye might know that Christ hath built you upon a Rock unmoveable that he hath registred your names in the Book of life that he hath bound himself in a sure and everlasting Covenant to be your God and the God of your Children after you that he hath suffered as much groaned as oft prayed as heartily for you as for Peter O Father keep them in thy Name O Righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me I have declared thy name unto them and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assurance of Faith unto the end 15. Here I must advertise all men that have the testimony of God's holy fear within their Breasts to consider how unkindly and injuriously our own Countrey-men and Brethren have dealt with us by the space of four and twenty years from time to time as if we were the men of whom St. Iude here speaketh never ceasing to charge us some with Scism some with Heresie some with plain and manifest Apostasie as if we had clean separated our selves from Christ utterly forsaken God quite abjured Heaven and trampled all Truth and Religion under our feet Against this third sort God himself shall plead our Cause in that day when they shall answer us for these words nor we them To others by whom we are accused for Schism and Heresie we have often made our reasonable and in the sight of God I trust allowable Answers For in the way which they call Heresie we worship the God of our Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets That which they call Schism we know to be our reasonable service unto God and obedience to his voyce which cryeth shrill in our ears Go out of Babylon my People that you be not Partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her Plagues And therefore when they rise up against us having no quarrel but this we need not seek any farther for our Apology than the words of Abiah to Iereboam and his Army 2 Chron. 13. O Ieroboam and Israel hear you me Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel hath given the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him and to his Sons by a Covenant of Salt that is to say an everlasting Covenant Jesuits and Papists hear ye me ought you not to know that the Father hath given all power unto the Son and hath made him the onely Head over his Church wherein he dwelleth as an Husband-man in the midst of his Vineyard manuring it with the sweat of his own brows not letting it forth to others For as it is in the Canticles Solomon had a Vineyard in Baalhamon he gave the Vineyard unto Keepers every one bringing forth the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of Silver but my Vineyard which is mine is before me saith Christ. It is true this is meant of the Mystical Head set over the Body which is not seen But as he hath reserved the Mystical Administration of the Church invisible unto himself so he hath committed the Mystical Government of Congregations visible to the Sonnes of David by the same Covenant whose Sons they are in the governing of the Flock of Christ whomsoever the Holy Ghost hath set over them to go before them and to lead them in several Pastures one in this Congregation another in that as it is written Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Neither will ever any Pope or Papist under the Cope of Heaven be able to prove the Romish Bishop's usurped Supremacy over all Churches by any one word of the Covenant of Salt which is the Scripture For the Children in our streets do now laugh them to scorn when they force Thou art Peter to this purpose The Pope hath no more reason to draw the Charter of his universal Authority from hence than the Brethren had to gather by the words of Christ in the last of St. Iohn that the Disciple whom Jesus loved should not dye If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee saith Christ. Straitways a report was raised amongst the Brethren that this Disciple should not dye Yet Jesus said not to him He shall not dye but If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee Christ hath said in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel to Simon the Son of Ionas I say to thee Thou art Peter Hence an opinion is held in the World That the Pope is universal Head of all Churches Yet Jesus said not The Pope is universal Head of all Churches but Ta es Petrus Thou art Peter Howbeit as Ieroboam the son of Nebat the servant of Solomon rose up and rebelled against his Lord and there were gathered unto him vain men and wicked which made themselves strong against Roboam the son of Solomon because Roboam was but a Childe and tender-hearted and could not resist them So the Son of Perdition and Man of Sin being not able to brook the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which forbad his Disciples to be like Princes of Nations They bear rule that are called Gracious it shall not be so with you hath risen up and rebelled against his Lord and to strengthen his arm he hath crept into the Houses almost of all the Noblest Families round about him and taken their
things are enjoyned them which God did never require at their hands and the things he doth require are kept from them their eyes are fed with pictures and their ears are filled with melody but their souls do wither and starve and pine away they cry for bread and behold stones are offered them they ask for fish and see they have Scorpions in their hands Thou seest O Lord that they build themselves but not in faith they feed their Children but not with food their Rulers say with shame Bring and not build But God is Righteous their drunkenness stinketh their abominations are known their madness is manifest the wince hath bound them up in her wings and they shall be ashamed of their doings Ephraim saith the Prophet is joyned to Idols let him alone I will turn me therefore from the Priests which do minister unto Idols and apply this Exhortation to them whom God hath appointed to feed his Chosen in Israel 32. If there be any feeling of Christ any drop of heavenly dew or any spark of God's good spirit within you stir it up be careful to build and edifie first your selves and then your flocks in this most holy Faith 33. I say first your selves For hâ— which will set the hearts of other men on fire with the love of Christ must himself burn with love It is want of faith in our selves my Brethren which makes us wretchless in building others We forsake the Lords inheritance and feed it not What is the reason of this Our own desires are settled where they should not be We our selves are like those women which have a longing to eat coals and lime aud filth we are fed some with honour some with ease some with wealth the Gospel waxeth loathsom and unpleasant in our taste how should we then have a care to feed others with that which we cannot fancy our selves If Faith wax cold and slender in the heart of the Prophet it will soon perish from the ears of the People The Prophet Amos speaketh of a famine saying I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they ran to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Iudgement must begin at the House of God saith Peter Yea I say at the Sanctuary of God this judgement must begin This famine must begin at the heart of the Prophet He must have darkness for a vision he must stumble at noon day as at the twi-light and then truth shall fall in the midst of the streets then shall the people wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord. 34. In the second of Haggai Speak now saith God to his Prophet Speak now to Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Prince of Iudah and to Iehoshua the Son of Iehosadak the High-priest and to the residue of the people saying Who is left among you that saw this House in her first glory and how do you see it now Is not this House in your eyes in comparison of it is nothing The Prophet would have all mens eyes turned to the view of themselves every sort brought to the consideration of their present state This is no place to shew what duty Zerubbabel or Iehoshuah doth owe unto God in this respect They have I doubt not such as put them hereof in remembrance I ask of you which are a part of the residue of God's Elect and chosen people Who is there amongst you that hath taken a survey of the House of God as it was in the days of the blessed Apostles of Jesus Christ Who is there amongst you that hath seen and considered this Holy Temple in her first glory And how do you see it now Is it not in comparison of the other almost as nothing when ye look upon them which have undertaken the charge of your Souls and know how far these are for the most part grown out of kind how few there be that tread the steps of their antient Predecessors ye are easily filled with indignation easily drawn unto these complaints wherein the difference of present from former times is bewailed easily perswaded to think of them that lived to enjoy the days which now are gone that surely they were happy in comparison of us that have succeeded them Were not their Bishops men unreproveable wise righteous holy temperate well-reported of even of those which were without Were not their Pastors Guides and Teachers able and willing to exhort with wholsome Doctrine and to reprove those which gain-said the Truth had they Priests made of the reffuse of the people were men like to the children which were in Niniveh unable to discern between the right hand and the left presented to the charge of their Congregations did their Teachers leave their flocks over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers did their Prophets enter upon holy things as spoils without a reverend calling were their Leaders so unkindly affected towards them that they could finde in their hearts to sell them as sheep or oxen not caring how they made them away But Beloved deceive not your selves Do the faults of your Guides and Pastors offend you it is your fault if they be thus faulty Nullus quimalum Rectorem patitur cum accuset quia sai fuit meriti perversi Pastoris subjacere ditioni saith St. Gregory whosoever thou art whom the inconvenience of an evil Governor doth press accuse thy self and not him his being such is thy deserving O ye disobedient Children turn again saith the Lord and then will I give you Pastors according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding So that the onely way to repair all ruines breaches and offensive decays in others is to begin reformation at your selves Which that we may all sincerely seriously and speedily do God the Father grant for his Son our Saviour Jesus sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost three Persons one Eternal and Everlasting God be honour and glory and praise for ever Amen FINIS * This you may find in the Temple Reconds Will. Ermstead was Master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priory and diâ—d 2. Eliz. Richard Alvey Bat. l. ivinity paâ— 13. Feâ— 2 Eliz. Magister sive Cujtos DemuÌ„s Ecclestae nevi Templle died 27 Bez. Richard Hooker Succeeded that year by Patent in terminiâ— as Alvy had â—â— and he left it 32 Eliz. Tint year Dr. Belgey succeeded Richard Hooker * Mr. Dering †See Bishop Spotswoods History of the Church of Scotland * In his Annals of Elâ—â— 1599. * Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop * Hâ—â—eâ— and Cappergot The cause of Writing this General Discourse Greg. Nat. Sulp. Seveâ—â— Epist. Hist. Eccles. Leg. Carol. Mag. fol. 421 Judg.
their away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies the â—eal â—â—r may further see in the Bishop of Salisbury who brings divers proâ—is thereof That our allowing â—he customs of our fathers to be followed is no proof that we may not allow some customs which the Church of Rome hath alth â—iâ—h we do not account of them as of our fathers That the â—â—uâ—e which the wisdom of God doth â—â—ach maketh not against our â—â—â—u â—ity with the Church of Rome in such things T. C. l. â— p. 25. 131. Levit. 19. 27. and 19. 19. Deut 22 â—â— and 14. 7. Levit. 11. Ephes. 2. 14. Levit. 1â— 3. Levit. 15. 17 Levit. 21. 3. Deut. 14. 1. 1 Thes. 4. 13. Levit. 19. 19. Deut. 2. 11. Deut. 14. 7. Levit. 11. Levit. 19. 19. Deut. 14. Levit. 11. Ephes. 2. 14. That the example of the eldest Churches is not herein against us T. C. l. 1. p. 132. The Councels although they did not observe themselves always in making of Decrees this Rule yeâ— have kept this consideration continually in taking of their Laws that they would have the Christians differ from others in their Ceremonies Tom. â— â—sal Faust. Manich. lib. 30. cap. 4. T. C. l. 1. p. 132 Also it was decreed in another Council that they should not deck their houses with Bay leaves and green Houghs because the Pagangs did use so and that they should not rest their labour those days that the Pagans did that they should not keep the first day of every month as they did T. C. l. 3 p. 132 Tertul. saith O saith he better is the Religion of the Heathen for they use no solemnity of the Christians neither the Lords day neither c. but are not afraid to called Hea. T. C. l. 1. p. 133. But having she wed this in general to be the God first and of his People afterwards to pue as much difference as can be commodiously between the People of God and others which are not I shall not c. That â—â— is not ouâ—â—est policy for the establishment of found Religion to have in these things no agreement with the Church of Rome being unfound T. C. l. 1 p. 13. Comment reason also doth â—each that contraries are cured by their contraries Now Christianity and Antichristianity the Gospel and Popery be contraries and therefore Antichristianity must be cured not by it self but by that which is as much as may be contrary unto it T. C. l. 1. p. 132. If a man would bring a drunken man to sobriety the best and necceest way is to carry him as far from his excess in drink as may be and if a man could not keep a mean it were better to fault in prescribing thing leâ—e then he should drink then to fault in giving him more then he ought As we see to bring a stick which is crooked to be straightâ— we do not onely bow it so far until it come to be straight but we bend it so far until we make it to be so crooked on the other side as it was before of the first side to this end that â—â— the last it may bend straight and as it were in the mid-way beâ— with hoth the crooks That we are not to abolâ—sh our Ceremonies either because Papists upbraid us as having taken from them or for that they are said hereby to conceive I know not what great hopes T. C. l. 3. p. 1â—8 By using of these Ceremonies the Papists take occasion to blaspheme saying that one Religion cannot stand by it self unless it lean upon the staff of their Ceremonies Tâ—â—â— 3. p. 179. To prove the Papists triumph and joy in these things I alledged further that there are none which make such clamours for these Ceremonies as the Papists and those which they suborn 〈…〉 T.C. 1.3 p. 179. Thus they conceiving hope of having the rest of their Popery in the end it causeth them to be more frozen in their wickedness c. For not the cause but the occasion also ought to be taken away c. Although let the Reader judge whether they have cause given to hope that the tale of Popery yet remaining they shall the easilier hale in the whole body after considering also that Master Bucer noteth that where these things which have been lest there Popery hath returned but on the other partâ— in places which have been cleansed of these â—lregâ— it hath not been seen that it hath has any entrance Eccl. â— dis â— 54. The â—rief which they say godly Brethren conceive in regard of such Ceremonies as we have common with the Church of Rome T.C. â— 1. p. 180. There be numbers which have Antichristianity in such deâ—â—station that they cannot without grief of mind behold them And afterward such godly Brethren are not easily to be grieved which they seem to be when they are thou Marryred in their minds for Ceremonies which to speak the best of them are unprofitable T. C l. 3. p. 171. Although the corruptions in them strike no straight to the heart yet or gentle Poysons they consume by little and little Their exception against such Ceremonies a we have received from the Church of Rome that Church having taken them from the Jews solâ—8 â—8 and T C l. 3 p. 181. Many of these Popish Ceremonies fault by reason of the pomp in them where they should be agreeable to the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ crucified T.C.l. 1. p. 132. â—â—seb 1. 3. â— 17. Saeâ—â—â— â— 3 â—â— 1 Câ—â—â—il â—nd 〈…〉 Acts 6. 13 14. Viâ—le Nicepâ— lib. p. cap. 25. Sulpie Sâ—ver p. 149. in Eliâ— â—lanâ— Acts 15. Acts 21.25 Acts. 21. 20. Acts. 19. 20. Acts 16.4 Rom. 14. 10. Lib. qui Seder Olam inscribitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7 Heb. 13. 4. 1 Cor. 5. 11. Gal. 5. 19. Levâ—e 18. 1 Cor. 5.1 Leo in Jejun mens sept Ser. 9. Tertul. de prascript advers haeret T.C. lib. 3. p. 171. What an abusing also is it to affirm the mangling of the Gospels and Epistles to have been brought into the Church by godly and learned Men T. C. lib. 1. p. 216. Seeing that the office and function of Priests was after our Saviour Christs Ascension naught and ungodly the name whereby they were called which did exercise that ungodly function cannot be otherwise taken then in the evil part Concil Laod. Can. 37 3â— T. C. lib. 1. p. 131. T. C. lib. 3. p. 176. â— Concil Constantinop 6. cap. 11. Cypr. ad Pompei lib. cont Epist. Stephani * Sur. Eccle. first hist. lib 5. cap. 21. Flerique in Asia minore antiquiâ—us 14 die mensis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratione dict Sahbati habitâ— hoc festum observaruar Quod dum facitbeur cum aluÌ„s qui aliam rationem in codem festo agendo
â—â— 31. Jer. â—9 13. Joel 2. 12. Chrys. de repar laps lib. ad Theodor. Deposit dist 3. c. Talis Aug. in Ps. l. â— The state of Bishops although somtime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seen to please God yeâ— by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author Cyp. l. 1. ep 3. Sulpit. Severe lb. 2. Beda Eccl. hist. l. 2. c. 2. a An. 1066. b Alfredus Eborac asis Archieâ— iseopus Galieimum cognomeâ—to Northum spirantem adhue minesua caelis in peâ—ulum mitem redâ—liAâ—â— religiâ—sis in pro conservands repub tuerd que ecclesiast also sacramento asiiuxit Nub. iâ— l. â— c. â— What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong to his Office as he is a Bishop a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys. Haltar de Numa Pompili Antiq. lib. 2. Vult â—â— Pompeius esse quem tora â—re Campania maricima ora habear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quem delectus negotii summa referatur Cic. ad Attie lib. 7. Epist. 11. b Acts 20. Phil. 1. 1. And God brought them unto Adam that Adam might see or consider what name it was meet he should give unto them Gen. 2. 19. So also the name Deacon a Minister appropriated to a certain order of Ministers The name likewise of a Minister was common to divers degrees which now is peculiarly among our selves given only to Pastors and not as anciently to Deacons also In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority in it the first thing condemned the superiority over other Ministers what kind of superiority in ministers is it which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops Meminise Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praepoâ—â—os Dominus elegic Cyp. l. 3 cp 9. Rom. 2. 14 15. 1 Cor. 9.16 Joh. 22 15,1â— Gal. 2. 8. a Him Eusebius doth name the Governor of the Churches in Asia Lib 3. Hist. Eccles. cap. 16. Tertujian calleth the same Churches St. lohns Foster daughters Lib. 3. advers Marcion b Iacobus qui appe latur frarer Domini cognomento Justus pest pathonem Domini flatim ab Apostiolis Hierosolymerum Episeopus ordinatus est Hierom de script Eccles Eodem tempore Jacobum primumu fedem Episcopaslem Ecclesiae quae est Hierosolymis obtinuisse memoriae traditur Euseb. Hist. Eclces lib. 2. cap. 1. The same seemeth to be intimated Acts 15 13. and Acts 21. 18. c Acts 12. 2. d Acts 13.2 e Tit. 1. 5. f This appeareth by those subscriptions which are set after the Epistle to Titus and the second to Timothy and by Euseb. Eccles hist. lib. 3. c. 4. g Irem lib. 3. c. 3. h In Ep. ad Antioch Hiâ—ron ep 81. Cypr. ep ad plorent * Theed in 1 Tim 5. a Ipsius Apostolates nulla successio Pinitur enim legatio cum legoto nec aâ—l successores ipslus transit Srgpl. doct prin con b Act. 1. 21 22. 1 John 1. 3. c Gal. 1. 1. d Apoc. 21. 14. e Mar. 28. 19. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint Acts 20. 36,37 Acts 20.29 30. As appeareth both by his sending to call the Presbyters of Ephesus before him as far as to Milituch Acts 20. 17 which was almost fifty miles and by his leaving Timothy in his place with his Authority and iâ—sh uffions for ordaining of Ministers there 1 Tim. 5. 22. and for proportioning their maintenance verse 17.18 and for judicial hearing of accusations broughâ— against estem verse 19. and for holding them in an uniformity of Doctrine chap. 1 vers 3. Revel 2 Cypr. l. 4. Epist. 9. Hiâ—ren Ep. ad Eâ—ag Exod. 18 19. Epist. ad Jan. Ep. ad Evag. T. C. a. p li. It is to be observed that Ierom saith It was so in Alexandria sign sung that in other Churches it was not so Socrat. l. 1. c. 3. a Unto Ignatius Bishop of Anâ—â—uh Herâ— a Deacon there was made Successor Chrysostom being a Presbyter of Anfiâ—ch we chosen to succeed Nictarius in the Bishop rick of Constantinople a Bishops he meaneth by restraint for Episcopal power was always in the Church instituted by Christ himself the Apostles being in government Bishops at large as no man will deny having received from Christ himself that Episcopal Authority For which cause Cyprian hath said of them Meminisse Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praeposâ—ros Dominus elegit Diaconol aurem posla â—censum Domini in coâ—los Apostoli sibi constiruerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesia ministros Lib 3. Ep. 9. Lib. a. â—o â— Hâ—â—res 4 â— De prescrâ— p. oâ—â—â— râ— hereâ— Acts. 13. Acts. â— Acts. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 1â— What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had Aug. Ep. 19. â—d Hierom. de haeres 53. 1 Cor. 7 29. 1 Tim. 5. 9. Tettul de râ—â— viâ—g Epiph. 3. l. 10 â— haer 7. Acts. 1. â— 23. Tim. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 5. 8. A pud AEgyptum Presbyteri consir mans si â— raesens non fit Eps. copus Comq vulgo Amb. dic in 4. Ep. ad Ephes. Numb 3. 32. Numb 4.17 2 Chron. 19. 11. Joseph Atnig p. 61 â— Cypr. l. 3. ep 9. ad Rogatianum Hâ—erom Ep. â—5 Ep. ad Smyr 1 Tim. 3. 19. Against a Presbyter receive no accusation under two or three witnesses Ignat Epist. ad Antioch Apud Cypr Ep. 1. Ep. 7. Tertul advers Psychic Episcopi universae ple bi r mandare jejunia assoleni Cypr. Ep. 27. Cypr. Ep. 39. Vide Ignat. ad Magnes a Quod Aaron tilios ejus hoc Episcojum Presbyteros esse noverimns Hier. Ep. 2. of Neporiaâ—um b Ita est ut in Episcopis Hominem in Presbyteris Apostolos recognoscas Auctor opuse de ordinib Eccl. inter opera Hieron c Ignat. Ep. ad Tra. d Inslit l. 4. cap. 4. Sect. â—â— Hiere n. Epist. od Euâ—gr 85. Chrysostom lo in 1 Tim. 3. a Velut in a 1 qua sublimi specula 〈…〉 dignantur videre moâ—tales alloqui conâ—erâ—os suos in a. â— Epist. ad Gal. a Nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere Nemo audet accusare majorem propteres quasi sancti beati in praerptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peecatis Dissicilis est accusaâ—io in Episeâ—pum Si â—â—ha pâ—ecaverit non creditur si convictus suerit ron punirur in cap. 8. Ecclesiast b pessimae consuetudiâ—â— est in quiâ—usdam Ecclesâ—â— tacere Presbyteron praesentibus Episcopis non loqui quasi aâ—â— invideant aut non dignentur audice Ep. 2. ad Nepotian c Ep. 54. ad Ripâ—r d Hieron ad Nepoâ— e No Bishop may be a Lord in reference unto the Presbyters which are under him if we take that name in the worse part or Ierom here doth For a Bishop is no