Congregation of Christians in all the World hath received and embraced the Episcopacy we contend for To this all the Fathers without exception of any one bear witness He among them who ascribes least to Episcopacy St. Jerom who was not a Bishop but a Presbyter of an inferiour Order whose Testimony therefore may stand in stead of many saith In toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus caeteris superponeretur ad quem omnis cura Ecclesiae pertineret It is universally decreed that one chosen from among the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom the whole care of the Church should appertain And that this was the universal Custom of the Church appears by this because those Hereticks who made a separation from the Church Catholick did yet retain this Order among them Thus the Authour of the Homilies upon St. Matthew Hereticks in their Schism have all those things among them which are proper to the true Church Similiter Ecclesias similiter Scripturas similiter Episcopos caeterosque Clericorum ordines They have their Congregations Scriptures Bishops and other Orders of the Clergy as the Church hath Aerius indeed in a Pang of indignation because he missed a Bishoprick which he stood for would have made himself equal to the Reverend Bishops by broaching this Doctrine Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia discerni debere That a Presbyter ought not to be distinguished by any difference from a Bishop but this errour of his was condemned by the whole Church When one wrote to St. Jerom Nihil interest inter Episcopum Presbyterum There is no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter he reproved him sharply in the Answer which he returned Hoc satis imperite This was not said for want of ignorance In portu ut dicitur naufragium you make shipwrack as they say Proverbially in the Haven Thirdly The Episcopacy under our present consideration is of venerable Antiquity in the Church having it's rise in the Apostles time In proof of which we can have no better Evidence then the Catalogue of Bishops in Irenaeus Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret who begin from the Age in which the Apostles lived Now no man can deny his assent to such Grave Authority so unanimously conspiring in matter of fact without incurring the guilt of singular irreverence and pertinacy It is as if one should deny that which all the Roman Histories affirm that the Consulship of Rome began from the Banishment of the Tarquins Will you hear St. Jerom Alexandriae a Marco Evangelista Presbyteri unum semper ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Ep. 85. The Presbyters of Alexandria ever since St. Mark the Evangelist having chosen one from among themselves and exalting him to an higher place stiled him Bishop St. Mark died in the eighth year of Nero about the year of our Lord 62. whose Successour St. John the Apostle yet living was Amianus to him succeeded Abilius to Abilius Cerdo After the Death of St. James Simon succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem After St. Peter's departure Linus Anacletus and Clement or as some St. Peter yet living sate in the Episcopal Chair at Rome as Evodius and Ignatius did at Antioch A Record of such Antiquity confirmed by Ignatius the Disciple of St. John cannot be rejected by any save such onely who have no Faith for any thing that themselves saw not Who may as well deny that ever there was a Philip of Spain or Lewis of France or Henry King of England as that the persons before mentioned were Bishops of their respective Sees Fourthly The Episcopacy we intend is approved by Divine Right or as Bucer expresseth it Visum Spiritui Sancto utinter Presbyteros unus cur am singularem gereret It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost that one among the Presbyters should have the especial care of the Church Of this we have an undeniable Argument in the book of the Revelations where we find Christ from Heaven commanding St. John to write unto the seven Angels of the Churches of Asia The Title of Angel may I acknowledg be applyed in a general signification to every particular Pastour or Presbyter But here it is manifest Christ intends one in each Church onely whom he stiles the Angel in a proper and peculiar sence For It is no ways probable that Churches so large of such vast extent as Ephesus Smyrna and the rest were had but one Pastour or Presbyter in each of them Nay it is certain and evident concerning Ephesus that in the days of St Paul there were many Presbyters ordained or constituted to feed the Church of God Acts 20.17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and said unto them verse 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock c. to feed the Church of God And we may as rationally conclude concerning the rest that there were many Pastours in each Church Why then should Christ direct his Epistle to one the Angel if there had not been one among them of a Superiour Function and more eminent Dignity Sub Angeli nomine saith St. Augustine Epist 162. laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae Under the name of the Angel he commends the Prefect of the Church Angelos Ecclesiis Praesidentes dixit Hierom By Angels he understands the Presidents of the Churches And for Smyrna Polycarpus was without controversie Bishop of it ordained by St. John as Bullinger himself acknowledgeth and Irenaeus saith of him l. 3. c. 3. Polycarpus non solum ab Apostolis eruditus c. Polycarp was not onely instructed by the Apostles and conversant with divers of those persons who saw our Lord in the flesh but in Asia he was constituted by the Apostles Bishop of the Church of Smyrna whom I saw saith the Father while I was a young man I wholly wave many other Evidences and descend to a late Protestant Writer Marlorat in locum St. John saith he mentions first the Church of Ephesus in respect of the dignity of the place Nec populum aggreditur sed Principem Cleri utique Episcopum And he doth not apply himself to the people but to the Principal of the Clergy to wit the Bishop And because the Authority of Mr. Beza and Doctour Reinolds may possibly go furthest with those who have no great friendship for the Episcopal Dignity let us in the Point in hand hear them To the Angel saith Beza id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem nimirum oportuit inprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum caeteros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam That is the President who first ought to be admonished and by him his Colleagues and so the whole Church Reinolds in his Conference with Hart c. 8. Sect. 3. saith Though there were in the Church of Ephesus many Presbyters and Pastours to Administer to that Church yet there was one ever those many whom our Saviour stiles the
grand cases of Blasphemy and Heresy but in those lesser occasions of Errour and Schism he is entrusted with Power to quench the least spark as well as the devouring flame Arius in Alexandria was but a little spark in the beginning but because the Christian Emperour did not timely interpose his Authority for the quenching it Totum orbem ejus flamma depopulata est it became a flame which consumed almost the whole Christian World The Prince's Authority may and ought to be exercised in restraining dangerous Disputations concerning Religion Sozomen l. 7. c. 12. tells us that Constantine enacted a Law against Disputes of the Trinity Nemo Clericorum de summa Trinitate disputet And Marcianus prohibited all Disputes De fide Christiana of the Christian Religion Andronicus the Emperour when his Bishops were disputing curiously and subtilely of those words of Christ Pater major me est My Father is greater then I threatned to cast them into the River Ni tam periculosis sermonibus abstinerent unless they did forbear such dangerous Discourses That of Sisinius to Theodosius being most true Disputando de sacris accendi tantum contentiones that Contentions only are fostered by Disputations Secondly To the second Question How far the Coercive Power of the Prince extends It is acknowledged that his Authority may extend to Imprisonment Confiscation of Goods and Banishment of persons sinning against his Commands but whether it may extend to Life is not so manifest because the Apostle saith onely Haereticum hominem devita Titus 3.10 The Gloss upon Gratian turns the Verb into a Substantive de vita and adds supple Tolle There is not as a learned Gentleman of our Church in His Historical Vindication hath observed any example in History of prosecuting an Heretick further then to avoid him till after God having given peace to his people under Christian Emperours they finding that if the Church were in trouble the State was seldom otherwise provided by Laws to punish Hereticks The Councel of Nice therefore having in the year 325 censured the opinion of Arius for Heretical the Emperour who had formerly granted certain considerable Priviledges to Christians declared in the year following Haereticos atque Schismaticos hâ— privilegiis alienos that no Heretick or Schâ—â—smatick should have any part in those Privileges but they rarely proceeded to blood unless perhaps against some seditious Preacher And the Holy men of those times used earnest perswasions to deterr men inclining to that severity from it as not esteeming it to agree with that entire Charity that should be in Christians St. August professeth he had rather be himself slain by them then by detecting the Donatists be any cause they should undergo the punishment of death Ep. 127 This was the Temper of the Christians at least 800. years after Christ But about the year 1000 the Christian World began to punish Miscreants as branches not bearing fruit in Christ by casting them into the fire But the Devout men of those Times did not approve of this rigour St. Bernard explaining those words of Solomon Take us the Foxes the little Foxes that spoil the Vines Cant. 2.15 If saith he according to the Allegory by the Vines we understand the Churches and by the Foxes Heresies or rather Hereticks the meaning is plain that Hereticks be rather taken then driven away Capientur dico non armis sed agrumentis taken I say not by Arms but Arguments whereby their Errours may be refuted and they themselves reconciled if possible to the Catholick Church And that the Holy Ghost intends this is evident saith he because he doth not say simply Take the Foxes sed capite nobis take us the Foxes sibi ergo sponsae suae id est Catholicae jubet acquiri has vulpes cum ait capite eas nobis In Cantic Serm. 64. He commands therefore that they be taken for himself and his Spouse that is the Catholick Church when he saith Take us the Foxes Thus the holy men in that Age in which they first stopped mens mouths not with Arguments but Arms judged of it And indeed we have not many Examples of persons suffering meerly for Conscience till after the year 1216. in which Pope Innocent the Third laid the foundation of that new Court called since the Inquisition who appointed such as should be convicted of Heresie ut vivi in conspectu hominum comburentur to be committed alive to the flames of fire And though such proceedings are not at any good agreement with those rules and examples which Christ hath left us in holy Scripture yet the practise hath been long since taken up in this Kingdom and is in force at this day by the Laws Anno 1166. about thirty Dutch came hither who detested Baptism the Eucharist and other parts of Religion and being by Scripture convicted in an Episcopal Councel called by the King at Oxford they were condemned to be Whipped and burnt in the face and a command given that none should either receive or releive them so that they miserably Perished By the Common-Law that is the Custom of the Realm of England Hereticks are to be Punished by Consuming them with Fire and accordingly there is a Writ De Haeretico comburendo An Apostate Deacon in a Councel held at Oxford by Stephen Langton was first degraded and then by Lay-hands committed to the Fire Bracto l. 3. de Corona c. 9 In Edward the Third's daies about the Year 1347. two Franciscans were Burnt quod de Religione male sentirent because they thought amiss of Religion Pol. Virg. Hist Ang. l. 19. And in the year 1583. Copin and Thacker were hanged at Saint Edmonds-Bury for publishing Brown's Book Cambd. which saith Stow p. 1174 was written against the Common-Prayer Book A Fair warning And thus you see if men will not be Subject to the Higher Powers in matters of Religion for Conscience sake they must be subject because of wrath for the Prince is entrusted with a Coercive Power and bears not the Sword in vain But because it is a thing Morally impossible for one man as the King to Govern the whole Church in his Kingdom Personally by himself He may substitute or delegate others under him to manage all his Power which is communicable in the Government of the Church I say communicable because there are some things inseparable from the Supreme Power as to Correct Alter Ratifie Repeal or Make Null Canons and Constitutions made by any persons under him to reverse or mitigate a Sentence injustly or unduly passed the right of Appeals of nominating Bishops to their respective Sees of translating or deposing them where he seeth cause These and such like are incommunicable unto any inseparable from his Crown But in all other things that are not of this nature he may give Power to others to Govern the Church to whom all persons ow their obedience by virtue of his Delegation as much as to the King himself because it is the King that requires or
Breviary Processional and Mass-Book as they did their Doctrine retaining nothing but what the Papists had received from purer Antiquity which argues onely a fair compliance in us with the Antient Church and not at all with them And if it be said that some Papists have boasted that our Service is but their Mass in English It is certainly a most unreasonable thing that they who will not believe the Papist in any thing else should believe them in their vain boast against us and thinke it an accusation sufficiently proved because some Papists have impudently said it Fourthly The truth is the Papists condemn our Book as much of Schism as the Consistorian do of compliance they accuse it as much of departing from the Church of Rome as the others of remaining with it Now there cannot be a surer evidence of the innocency of our Liturgie then the contrary Censures which it hath undergon between these two Persecutours in the extream it being the dictate of natural Reason that Virtue is infallibly known by this that is it accused by both the Extreams at guilty of either as for instance the true Liberality of mind is by this exemplifyed that it is defamed by the Prodigal for Parcimony and by the Niggard for Prodigality Thus you have some thing in Reply to the Objections in general whereby it appears that our Liturgie is neither Superstitious nor Popish The particular Objections are exceeding many but as Mr. Hooker in his Ep. Dedicatory to his fifth Book for the greatest part such silly things that the easiness renders them hard to be Disputed of in a serious manner I shall briefly consider the most principal of them First For the Litany against which a Cloud of Darts are cast Mr. Hooker a Person of whom it is hard to say whether his Sobriety or Learning may challenge the greatest admiration tells us that the absolute perfection of this piece upbraids with Errour or something worse them whom in all points it doth not satisfy Eccles Pol. B. § 41. Of the rare effects of which he gives us there two famous Instances the one of Mamercus Bishop of Vienna about 450. years after Christ the other of Sidonius Bishop of Averna who by the frequent and fervent use of the Rogation or Litany obtained of God the aversion of portended Calamities and the removing of Famine and a Potent Enemy which besieged them This part of our Service the Litany was Called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnest or intense Prayer and in the Greek Liturgy simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intense or earnest And therefore the Courch requires the Congregation or People to be more exercised in it then in any other part of the Service Concerning which three things have been offered to be justified against any Gainsayers but no man hath yet entred the Lifts 1. That there is not any where extant a more particular excellent enumeration of all the private or common wants of Christians so far as it is likely to come to the cognisance of a Congregation 2. Not a move innocent blameless Form against which there lies no just Objection and most of the unjust ones that have been made are reproachful to Scripture it self from which the Passages excepted against are fetched As for instance That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men from 1. Tim. ii 1. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men Not a more artificial composure for the raising of our zeal and keeping it up then this so defamed part of our Liturgy For which and other Excellencies undoubtedly it is and not for any coniuring or swearing in it as some Blasphemously have said that the Divel hath took such care that it should drink de peest of the bitter cup of calumnie and reviling Secondly For the Responser and following the Presbyter or Priest in the Confession of Sins and Profession of Faith They were designed by the Church from the example of pure Antiquity to very profitable uses as 1. By way of mutual Charity the people returning a prayer for the Priest who begins one peculiarly for them The Lord be with you saith the Priest And with thy Spirit Answer the people 2. To quicken devotion which is but to prone to dull and slacken by continual heairng 3. To engage every one present to be no idle or unprofitable spectatour or auditour of the Service onely Thirdly For the three Creeds the Apostles Nicene and Athanasius his Creed they have been of old a badg of the Church a mark to discern Christians from Infidels and Jews I have not yet heard of any thing objected against the matter of any of them The Apostles Creed whether delivered by the Apostles to the Church by Oral Tradition that famous Tradition so much mentioned by the Fathers or gathered out of the Writings of the Holy Apostles is the sum of the whole Catholick Faith the Key of the Christian Faith That of the Councel of Nice was made in that famous Assembly of 318. Bishops against the Heresie of Arrius who denyed the Coeternity and Coequality of the Son with the Father Athanasius his Creed composed by that Father who alone opposed himself to that Torrent of Arrianism which had over flowed the whole world was both in the East and Western-Church accounted as a Treasure of great price There is not any imaginable ground of rejecting either of these unless is be to gratifie the Separatists who are professed denyers of one Article the Holy Catholick Church Fourthly For the Doxology or Glory be to the Father c. it is a very antient Piece the former Versicle of it being according to good Authours composed by the first Councel of Nice and appointed by those Fathers to be used in the Church as a lesser Creed or Confession of the Trinity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consubstantiality of the Son and the Holy Ghost with the Father At which it hath therefore been the Custom antiently to stand up Confession of God being a praising of Him to which that Posture is most due and proper And for the other Versicle As it was in the Beginning c. when the Macedonian Hereticks excepted against the Divinity of the Holy Ghost as a Novel Doctrine Saint Jerom Opposition to them added that unto the former Versicle Fifthly For the reading of the Commandements and the Responses after them It must be acknowledged that it is not antiently to be found in the Church as a part of the Service no not till King Edward's second Liturgie by which yet we have this Advantage That Popery cannot be charged upon it yet it will appear to be a profitable Part of Devotion For the Priest after a Prayer for Grace to love God and keep His Commandements Almighty God unto whom all Hearts be open c. is appointed to stand and read the Commandements distinctly to the People and they to receive them in