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A78783 His Majesties finall ansvver concerning Episcopacie. Delivered in to the commissioners of Parliament the first of Novemb. 1648. England and Wales. Sovereign (1625-1649 : Charles I); Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649. 1648 (1648) Wing C2306; Thomason E469_17; ESTC R205464 21,665 30

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Argument how handsomely soever set off are not Engines of strength enough to remove him from that judgement wherein he hath been setled from his Childhood and findeth so consonant to the Judgement of Antiquity and to the constant practice of the Christian Church for so many 100 years which in a matter of this nature ought to weigh more than meere Conjecturall Inferences from Scripture Texts that are not so attested Which having now once told you his Majesty thinketh himselfe discharged from the necessity of making so large and particular an Answer to every Allegation in the sequell of your Reply as hither he hath done 6. Reply Sect. 9 As to the Apostles Mission and Succession To make his Answer the shorter to so long a discourse His Majesty declareth that his meaning was not by distinguishing the Mission and Vnction of the Apostles so to confine them as if they should relate precisely and exclusively the one to the office the other to the abilities but that they did more especially and eminently so relate For the Apostles after their last Mission Matth. 28 19. 20. whereby they were further warranted to their Office and Worke were yet to waite for that promised anoynting Luke 24. 49. Acts 1. 4. the speciall effect whereof was the enduing them with Gifts of the Holy Ghost for the better and more effectuall performing of that their Worke and Office Not was it His Ma●esties meaning to restraine the Extraordinaries in the Apostolicall Office to those Gifts only for His Majesty afterwards in the same paper mentioneth other Extr●ordinaries also as before is said but only to instance in those Gifts as one sort of Extraordinaries wherein the Apostles we●e to have no Successors But His Majesties full meaning was that the whole Apostolicall Office setting aside all and only what was personall and extraordinary in them consisted in the work of Teaching and Governing which being both of necessary and perpetuall use in the Church to the Worlds end the Office therefore was also to continue and consequently the persons of the Apostles being mortall to be transmitted and derived to others in succession And that the Ordinary Successors of the Apostles immediatly and into the whole Office both of Teaching and Governing are pro●erly the Bishops the Presbyters succee●i●g them also but in part and into the Office of Teaching only and that mediatly and subordinatly to the Bishops by whom they are to be ordained and authorised there●n●o which His Majesty taketh not to be as you call it a dissolving of the Apostolicall Office Now the ground of what His Ma●esty hath said concerning the manner of Succession to the Apostles that it may appeare not to have been said ●●atis is this The things which the Scriptures record to have been done by Christ or his Apostles or by others at their appointment are of three sorts some acts of Power meerly extraordinary others acts of an ordinary power but of necessary and perpetuall use oth●rsome lastly and those not a few Occasionall and Prudentiall ●itted to the present condition of the Church in severall times To the Apostles in matters of the first sort none pretends succession nor are either the Examples of what the Apostles themselves did or the directions that they gave to others what they should doe in matters of the third sort to be drawn into consequence so farre as to be made necessary Rules binding all succeeding Church-officers in all Times to perpetual observation So that there remaine the things of the middle sort only which we may call Substantials into which the Apostles are to have ordinary and standing successors But then the difference will be by what certain markes Extraordinaries Substantials and Prudentials may be known and distinguished each from other Evident it is the Scriptures doe not afford any particular discriminating Characters whereby to discerne them the Acts of all the three sorts being related in the like narrative formes and the directions of all the three sorts expressed in the like preceptive formes Recourse therefore must of necessity be had to those two more generall Criterians the Lawes of all humane actions Reason and Common Vsage Our own Reason will tell us that instructing the People of God in the Christian Faith exhorting them to Piety and good Works administring the Sacraments c. which belong to the Office of Teaching That ordaining of Ministers Inspection over their lives and Doctrines and orher Administrations of Ecclesiasticall Affaires belonging to the Office of Governing are matters of great importance and necessary concernment to the Church in all Ages and Times and therefore were to be concredited to standing Officers in a Line of succession and accordingly were ●udged and the continuance of them preserved in the constant usage of the Churches of Christ But that on the other side the decrees concerning Abstinence from Blood and strangled Acts the 15. The Directions given for the ordering some things in the Church Assemblies 1 Cor. 14. For making Provisions for the Poore 1 Cor. 16. 1. For the choyce and maintenance of Widdowes 1 Tim. 5. For the enoyling of the sicke Iames 5. 14. and other like were but Occasionall Prudentiall and temporary and were so esteemed by the Churches and the practise of them accordingly laid aside So for the succession into the Apostolic●ll office we find in the Scriptures Evidence clear enough that the Apostles committed to others as namely ro Timothy and Titus the power both of Teaching and Governing the Churches And common Reason and Prudence dictating to us that it is good for the edifying of the Church that there should be many Teachers within a competent precinct but not so that there should be many Governors And the difference of Bishops and Presbyters to the purposes aforesaid having been by continuall usage received and preserved in the Christian Church down from the Apostles to the present times His Majesty conceiveth the succcession of Bishops to the Apostles into so much of their Office as was ordinary and perpetuall and such a distinction of Bishops and Presbyters as His Majesty hath formerly expressed needeth no further Confirmation from Scripture to such as are willing to make use of their Reason also which in interpreting Scripture upon all other occasions they are inforced to doe nor any thing by you produced in this Paragraph any further Answer only that distinction of Eminently and Formally because you illustrate it by instancing in himselfe His Majestie could not but take notice of which hee either understandeth not or thinketh your Illustration thereof not to be very opposite For Actions and Operations flow from the Formes of things and demonstrate the same as effects doe their causes The Apostles therefore acting in the ordinary exercise of Church Government did act not Eminently only but formally also as Bishops rather than Apostles 7. R●ply Sect. 10-15 As Concerning Timothy Titus First whether they were Evangelists or no His Majesty never meant to dispute Only because you often call