Bishops and distinct from Cathedrals that they could not be there buried before they were built and in Being which saith Selden began in England seven hundred years after Christ here one and there one as a Patron erected it Selden of Tythes pag. 267. Yea in seven hundred he findeth but one of Earl Puch in Beda and in Anno 800. divers appropriate to Crowland and so after And it was the Character of a Parish Church to have Baptisterium Sepulturam pag. 262. So that before a Bishop's Church however called had but one place that had Baptisterium Sepulturam Yea long after that Parishes had very few Members in most places so long was it e'er the People were brought to Christianity And they were then as our Bishops make them now not proper Churches but Chappels of Ease Selden ibid. pag. 267. tells you that Ralph Nevil Bishop of Chichester and Chancellor of England requested of the King that the Church of Saint Peter in Chichester might be pulled down and laid to another Parish because it was poor having but two Parishioners Sure it was never built for two Persons But it 's like many were Heathens Or if not so then in the Years 700 and 800 they were so Though Master Thomas Jones hath well proved that the Brittish Churches were far extended before Gregory sent Austine and that our Bishops and Religion are derived from them Even at Tours in France in the days of Saint Martin notwithstanding all his Miracles the Christians were not so many as the Heathens at least till one publick Miracle towards his later time convinced some CHAP. VI. The same further confirmed by the Ancients I. EUsebius Demonstrat Evangel pag. 138. saith When he considered the Power of Christ's Word how it perswaded innumerable Congregations of Men and by those Ignoble and Rustick Disciples of Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 numerosissimae Ecclesiae were constituted not in certain unknown and obscure places but erected in the most famous Cities Rome Alexandria and Antioch through all Egypt and Lycia through Europe and Asia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Villages and Countries or Regions and all sorts of Nations By this it appeareth that Villages had Churches then II. Though of later date consider the History of Patrick's Plantation of Churches in Ireland who is said himself in his own time to have three hundred sixty five Churches and as many Bishops and three thousand Presbyters as Ninius reporteth Not only Thorndike taketh notice of this but a better Author Usher de Eccles Brit. Primord pa. 950. And Selden in his Comment on Eutychius Origines Alex. pag. 86. from Antoninus and Vincentius thus mentioneth it Certe tantum in orbe terrarum tunc temporis Episcoporum segetem mirari forsan desinet quisquis crediderit quod de B. Patricio Hibernensi Antoninus Vincentius tradunt Eum scilicet solum Ecclesias fundasse 365. totidemque Episcopos ordinasse praeter Presbyterorum 3000. Qua de re consulas plura apud praestantissimum virum Jacobum Usserium c. So that here was to every Church a Bishop and near ten Presbyters No Man will doubt but the Bishops themselves were taken out of the better sort of the Laity and the Presbyters of the second sort and all below many private Christians now among us And were there three hundred sixty five Cities think you in Ireland Yea or Corporations either It 's easie to conjecture what Churches these were III. All History Fathers and Councils consent that every City was to have a Bishop and Presbytery to govern and teach the Christians of that City and the Country people near it which is but a Parish or Presbyterian Church For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth in the old common use any big Town yea little Towns that were distinct from Country Farms and scattering Villages so that all our Corporations and Market Towns are Oppida and such Cities as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signified Therefore even by this Rule we should have a Bishop to every such Town 1. Crete was called Hecatompolis as having an hundred Cities as Homer saith it had And what kind of Cities were those Which were to have an hundred Churches and Bishops in a small Island 2. Theocritus Idyl 13. de laudibus Ptolem. vers 82. saith that he had under his Government thirty three thousand three hundred and thirty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cities And if so they must be as small as our Boroughs if not some Villages certainly he had not above twice the number of Cities eminently so called that Stephanus Byzantinus could find in the whole World in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. He that will peruse and compare the Texts in the New Testament that use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above sixscore times and see Grotius on Luk. 7. 11. c. shall soon see that the word is there used for such Towns as I am mentioning if not less IV. Sozomen lib. 5. cap. 3. tells us that Majuma which was Navale Gazae being as part of its Suburbs or the adjoyning part but twenty Stadia distant was because it had many Christians honoured by Constantine with the name of a City and had a Bishop of their own And Julian in malice took from them the honour of being a City but they kept their Bishop for all that It had the same Magistrate with Gaza and the same Military Governors and the same Republick but was diversified only by their Church-State For saith he each had their own Bishop and their own Clergy and the Altars belonging to each Bishoprick were distinct And therefore afterward the Bishop of Gaza laboured to subject the Clergy of Majuma to himself saying that it was unmeet that one City should have two Bishops But a Council called for that purpose did confirm the Church-Right of Majuma V. Gregory Neocaesariensis called Thaumaturgus was by force made Bishop of that City where all the Christians were but seventeen at his Ordination such was the Bishop's Church And when he had preached and done Miracles there till his Persecution there is no mention of any Presbyter he had with him but of his Deacon Musonius that fled with him Though when he died he left but seventeen unconverted And when he had converted some at Comana a small Town near him he did not set a Presbyter over it and make it part of his own Diocess but appointed Alexander the Collier to be their Bishop and that over a Church who were no more than met and debated the Case of his Election and Reception See Greg. Nyssen in Orat. in Greg. Thaumat Basil de Spirit Sancto cap. 19. Breviar Roman die 15 Novemb. Menolog Graec. VI. Concil Nic. Oecum 1. Can. 13. decreeth that every one that before death desireth the Sacrament was to have it from the Bishop One Ed. in Crab saith Generaliter omni cuilibet in exitu posito poscenti sibi Communionis gratiam tribui Episcopus
vel ei etiam assentiente Sacerdotali ordine in media Ecclesia ordinet praesente populo Episcopo alloquente an etiam posset ei populus ferre testimonium Ordinatio autem non fiat clanculum Ecclesia enim pacem habente decet praesentibus sanctis ordinationes fieri in Ecclesia Undoubtedly as Balsamon noteth by Saints is meant fideles the People Here then you see that the Churches then were such where all the Clergy were present with the Bishop who ordained Ministers to a single Church where all the people could be present to be consulted XXXI In the Life of Fulgentius it is said that Plebs ipsius loci ubi fuerat Monasterium constitutum differre suam prorsus Electionem donec inveniret B. Fulgentium cogitabat where the Bishops resolved to ordain though the King forbad it them And though the King persecuted them for it it is added Repleta jam fuerat Provincia Bizacena novis Sacerdotibus pene vix paucarum plebium Cathedrae remanserant destitutae And the Phrase plebium Cathedrae doth signifie a Bishop's Seat in one Congregation of People One Plebs was one Congregation and had its proper Cathedram XXXII Sozomen after Socrates mentioning the diversity of Church Customs as aforesaid l. 7. c. 19. saith that at Alexandria the Arch-Deacon only readeth the Holy Scriptures in other places only the Deacons and in many Churches only the Priests and on solemn days the Bishops By which words it appeareth that then every Church was supposed to have a Bishop Priests and Deacons present in their publick Worship For the Bishop on his solemn days could not be reading in many Churches much less many hundred at once XXXIII Histor Tripartit l. 1. c. 19. out of Sozomen l. 1. c. 14. Edit Lat. Basil p. 1587. telleth us how Arius seeketh as from the Bithynian Synod to Paulinus of Tyre Euseb Caesar Patroph Scythopol ut una cum suis juberetur cum populo qui cum eo erat solennia Sacramenta Ecclesiae celebrare Esse dicens consuetudinem in Alexandria sicut etiam nunc ut uno existente super omnes Episcopo Presbyteri scorsim Ecclesias obtinerent populus in eis Câ—â—â—â—ctas solemniter celebraret Tunc illi una cum aliis Episcopis c. By this with what is said before out of Epiphanius it is undeniable that this gathering of Assemblies by the Presbyters in the same City and administring the Sacrament to them besides the Church where the Bishop was was taken to be Alexandria's singularity even as low as Sozomen's time And yet note that here is even at Alexandria no mention of many Churches in the Countries at a distance much less hundreds thus gathered but only of some few in that great City And if even in a great City and in Epiphan and in Sozomen's days a Presbyter's Church was an Alexandrian Rarity what need we more Historical Evidence of the Case of the Churches in those times XXXIV Ferrandus Diaconus in Epist de 5. Quaest saith to Fulgentius Sanctos Presbyteros Diaconos beatamque Congregationem which was his Church saluto And that you may again see what Congregation or Church that was In vita Fulgentii cap. 17. pag. 8. it is said that the Plebs sought and chose him and that in despight of Foelix the ambitious Deacon who sought the place and sought the life of Fulgentius Populus super suam Cathedram eum collocavit Celebrata sunt eodem die Divina solenniter Sacramenta de manibus Fulgentii Communicans omnis populus laetus discessit And if in the noble City of Ruspe so late as the days of Fulgentius the Bishop's Church-members were no more than could chuse him set him on his seat and all communicate that day at his hands it is easie by this to judge of most other Churches XXXV Concil Parisiens 1. in Caranz pag. 244. Can. 5. saith Nullus civibus invitis ordinetur Episcopus nisi quem Populi Clericorum Electio plenissima quaesierit voluntate Non principis imperio neque per quamlibet conditionem Metropolis voluntate Episcoporum Comprovincialium ingeratur Quod si per ordinationem Regiam honoris sui culmen pervadere aliquis nimia temeritate praesumpserit a Comprovincialibus loci ipsius Episcopis recipi nullatenus mereatur quem indebite assumptum agnoscunt Siquis de Comprovincialibus recipere eum contra indicta praesumpserit sit a fratribus omnibus segregatus ab ipsorum omnium Charitate remotus Here again you see how late all the Church was to chuse every Bishop plenissima voluntate and consequently how great the Church was And were this Canon obeyed all the people must separate from all the Bishops of England as here all are commanded to do from all those Bishops that do but receive one that is put in by the King and not by the free choice of all the Clergy and People of his Church Note that Crab Vol. 2. pag. 144. hath it contra Metropolis voluntatem But both that and Caranza's Reading who omitteth contra seem contrary to the scope and it 's most likely that it should be read Metropolis voluntate contra Episcoporum comprov scilicet voluntatem XXXVI Leo 1. P. Rom. Epist 89. pag. mihi 160. damning Saint Hillary Magisterially yet saith Expectarentur certe vota Civium testimonia populorum quaereretur honoratorum arbitrium Electio Clericorum quae in Sacerdotum solent ordinationibus ab his qui norunt patrum regulas custodiri ut Apostolicae authoritatis norma in omnibus servaretur qua praecipitur ut Sacerdos Ecclesiae praefuturus non solum attestatione fidelium c. Et postea Teneatur subscriptio Clericorum honoratorum testimonium ordinis consensus Plebis Qui praefuturus est omnibus ab omnibus eligatur And how great must that Diocess be where all the Laity must chuse and vote c. It 's true that Epist 87. c. 2. p. 158. he would not have little Congregations to have a Bishop to whom one Presbyter is enough and no wonder at that time that this great Bishop of Rome the first that notably contended for their undue Supremacy in the Empire was of that mind who also Epist 88. saith of the Chorepiscopi Qui juxta Can. Neocaesar sive secundum aliorum decreta patrum iidem sunt qui Presbyteri The falsehood of which being too plain Petavius in Epiphan ad Haeres 74. p. 278. judgeth that these words being in a Parenthesis are irreptitious And ibid. Epist 88. he saith that by the Can. all these things following are forbidden the Chorepisc and Presbyter Presbyterorum Diaconorum aut Virginum consecratio sicut constitutio Altaris ac benedictio vel unctio Siquidem nec erigere eis Altaria nec Ecclesias vel Altaria consecrare licet nec per impositiones manuum fidelibus baptizandis vel conversis ex haeresi Paracletum Spiritum Sanctum tradere nec Chrisma conficere nec Chrismate Baptizatorum frontes
Communion be Professed seeming Christians and Saints or not And whether they revolt by Heresie or wicked lives from their profession And whether they be impenitent in these revoltings And therefore having opportunity by presence or nearness to know them and the witnesses must judge of the credibility or reports or accusations And must admonish the offenders and seek by all possible conviction and exhortation with patience to draw them to Repentance And if no perswasion will prevail to refuse to admit them to the Communion of the Church and to deliver them the Sacrament of Communion and to tell them openly of their sin and danger and pronounce them lyable to Gods wrath till they do repent and to charge the Church to avoid Communion with them 10. It is the particular Pastors of those Churches to whose office all this belongeth 11. If that Church have more Pastors than one they must do all this work in concord and not divide nor thwart each other So that as many Physicians undertake one Patient as each one singly of the same office and yet must do all by agreement unless some one see that the rest would kill the patient so it is in this case 12. All these particular Churches must in their vicinities and capacities live in Concord and hold such a correspondency and Communion of Churches for mutual strength and edification as tendeth to the common good of all The means of which are Messengers Letters and Synods as there is occasion All these twelve particulars I doubt not but so judicious and worthy a man as Dr. Stillingfleet will easily concede And indeed the summe of them is granted in his book And then whether you will call this a Form of Government or not how little care I for the meer name 13. I may add this much more that All these Congregations are under the extrinsick Government of the Magistrate as Physicians are And he only can rule them by the sword and force But then we will agree with Dr. Stillingfleet or any man that God hath left all these things following without a particular determination to be determined according to his General Laws 1. Whether this Parochial or Congregational Church shall always meet in one and the same place or in case of persecution or want of room or by reason of the Age Weakness and distance of some Members may have several houses or Chappels of ease where some parcels may sometimes meet who yet at least per vices may have personal present Communion with the rest 2. Whether a Church shall be great or small that is of what number it shall consist supposing that it be not so great or so small as to be inconsistent with the end 3. How many Pastors each Church shall have 4. Whether among many One shall be a Chief and upon supposition of his preeminence in Parts Grace Age and Experience shall voluntarily be so far submitted to by the rest as may give him a Negative voice 5. Whether such officers of many Churches shall consociate so as to joyn in Classes or Synods stated for number time and place And whether their meetings shall be constant or occasional pro re nata 6. Whether One in these meetings shall be a stated Moderator or only pro tempore and shall have a Negative voice or not in the circumstantials of their Synodical work 7. Whether certain Agreements called Canons shall be made voluntarily to bind up the several Members of the Synods to one and the same way in undetermined circumstances of their callings or as an agreement and secondary obligation to their certain duties 8. Whether these Associations or Synods shall by their Delegates constitute other provincial or larger associations for the same Ends Who those Delegates shall be Whether one in those larger Synods also shall have such a Negative as aforesaid All these and such like we grant to be undetermined And if they will call only such Humane modes and circumstances by the name of Forms of Government we quarrel not de nomine but de re do grant that such kind of Forms or Formalities are not particularly determined of in Gods word 9. And besides all these whether successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their work as A. Bishops or General Ministers having the care of many inferiour Bishops and Churches be not Lawful yea of Divine right or whether they be unlawful is a question which all Nonconformists are not agreed on among themselves so great is the difficulty of it But for my own part being unsatisfied in it I never presumed to meddle in any Ordinations lest it should belong to Apostolical A. Bishops only and I resolved to submit herein to the order of the Church wherever I should live III. But if you hold that Dr. Stillingfleet Bishop Reynolds and all those Conformists who say that no Church Form is jure divino necessario do extend this as expresly they do to the Diocesane Form Let it be observed 1. That we plead for no more than we have proved and they will confess I think to be jure divino 2. And that we plead against swearing and subscribing to nothing but what they themselves say is not of Gods institution 3. That the proper Prelatists affirm it to be of Divine Institution or else they will renounce it 4. That the preface of the book of Ordination to which we must subscribe or declare Assent and Consent doth make this Episcopacy to be a distinct Order from Presbyters as a thing certain by Gods word This therefore I wonder how they can subscribe to who say no Form is jure divino I am sure they perswade us not to subscribe it while they disprove it And I would have leave to debate the Case of the Church of England a little with these Humanists and to ask them If no Church Form be of Gods making 1. Why may not the King and Parliament put it down as aforesaid 2. But specially who made the Form of the Church of England which we must swear to If another Church then that other was not of the same Form otherwise that Form was made before which is a contradiction If it was of another Form I ask what it was and who made the Form of that other Church which made this Church Form and so to the Original If Bishops or Synods made it still they were parts of a Church or of no Church If of no Church what Bishops were those and by what power did they make new Church Forms that were of none themselves If an Emperor or King first made them either he was himself a member of a Church or of no Church If of a Church what form had that Church And why should not that first form stand And who made that form and so ad originem If he was of no Church how came he by power to make Church forms that was of none himself Nemo dat quod non habet It 's no honour to
prescribed in Scripture professed that it was always his opinion And joyned with us in our proposals for Bishop Ushers Model Dr Stillingfleet in his Irenicon hath said so much against the Jus Divinum of our Prelacy as can never be answered I have talked with many of the Bishops and Episcopal Conformists my self of these matters and I do not remember that ever I spake to one accounted a Learned man that did not confess when driven to it that the Greatness of the Diocesses and the Chancellors Government by the Church Keyes were causes of so great a lapse of discipline as is to be groaned under And can shew us no probability it possibility of restoring it while it so stands And yet they would have us subscribe and swear never to endeavour any alteration of the Church Government not excepting in our place and calling by petition or otherwise no though the King commanded us Bishop Hall in his Mod. Offer doth confess the faultiness and desires reformation and in his excellent Peace-maker would take up even with a presidencie durante vita as sufficient to reconcile us Dr. Hammond himself oft complaineth of the lapse of discipline and the clergies and peoples vices thereupon The Liturgy wisheth the godly Discipline restored but doth it not as if in our case it could not be done Abundance of their Writers lament the scandals of clergy and people which have abounded of which I shall say somewhat more anon 2. And this is yet plainlier confessed by the Actual omission of discipline We need not to dispute whether that can or be ever like to be done by our Prelacy which is no where done and never was done no not by any one man of them not excepting the very best so that if they had not come neer the Erastian opinion in their hearts and thought this use of the Keyes to consist but in bare Teaching or the rest to be of no great need it had not been possible that they should have quieted their Consciences Or at least if they did not do it by saying I cannot help it It is not long of me As Bishop Goodman layeth it on the King in the case of Chancellours and most lay it on the Church-Wardens and Ministers for presenting no more But all must confess that little is done besides the troubling of Nonconformists It is not one of a thousand in a Diocesse I am confident that ever is brought under the excercise of Church discipline that ought to be Nor one of many thousand that should be so according to the ancient Canons of the Churches If I should give no other instance than the ordinarie neglect of all Gods publick worship Preaching Prayer and Sacraments in publick Churches or any other Religious Assemblies I do not think but ten thousand persons in this Diocesse and twenty thousand if not fourty in London Diocesse are guilty that were never questioned by the Church I may therefore argue thus That which never was done by any one Bishop in England being the confessed work of their office is naturally or Morally Impossible to be done or if it have a possibility it is as bad as none when it never was once reduced into act But the true exercise of Church discipline on all or the hundredth or many hundredth person that it is due to was never done by one Bishop in England that can by any credible History be proved since the deformation or reformation Ergo. The strength of the Major is plain 1. From the Bishops own mouths who use to praise themselves as the Wisest Learn dst and best of the Clergie and therefore fitter to be trusted with the Government of the Church than all or any of the Presbyters though but under then And they would take it heynously if we question their wisdom conscience or honesty and if they are all or most so good sure it is long of the state and constitution of their places and not long of their persons that their very proper work is made but a shaddow and a dream 2. But though this be but ad homines yet really we have had very worthy and excellent persons to be Bishops what a man was Jewell Arch-bishop Grindal had Godliness enough and resolution too to make him odiâ—s and favoured Lectures and Preaching c. Enough to bring him down if Cambden Godwin or Fuller are to be believed but never could do this work of discipline upon one of hundreds or thousands under him We had an excellent Arch-Bishop-Abbot afterwards good enough to be reproached by Heylin and to suffer what I need not mention but never able to do this work What Learned Judicious worthy men were his Brother Robert Abbot and after him Davenant Bishops of Salisbury And how good a man was peaceable Bishop Hall so Usher in Ireland Moron and many more But no such thing was done by any of them what should I say now of Bishop Reignolds and Bishop Wilkins Men Learned and extraordinary honest in these times But let any man enquire whether any such thing as the discipline in question is exercised on the thousandth Criminal in their Diocese Indeed we have heard in Bishop Reignolds Diocese of a great number censured for Nonconformity And it is his praise that it was not his doing but his Chancellours though heretofore Judge Advocate in Fairefaxes or Cromwells Army And to say now that it is long of Church-Wardens Chancellours c. Is but to say that the Church is corrupted the Episcopal discipline almost quite cast out and all the remedy is to say It is long of somebody Like the Physician whose Praise was that his patients dyed according to the rules of art or the nurse whose praise was that though most of the Children perished it was long of themselves or somebody else IV. But the fullest experience which so far satisfieth me that all the books in the world cannot change me in this is my own and the rest of my Brethren in the Ministry I have lived now through Gods wonderful mercy threescore years wanting lesse than four In all this time whilst the Bishops ruled I never heard one man or woman called openly to repentance for any sin nor one ever publikely confess or lament any sin Nor one that was excommunicate in any Country where I came except the Nonconformists Nor did I hear of any but one man to my remembrance who did formal penance for Fornication I doubt not but there have been more But the number may be conjectuâ—ed by this I lived under a great number of drunken and ignorant Curates that never preached and Schoolmasters my self and many more were round about us that were never troubled with discipline or cast out I never lived where drunkards and swearers were not common but never one of them underwent the Churches discipline But those that met to fast and pray and went to hear a Sermon two miles off when they had none at home But yet this is the last
shall obey as his Ministers any whomsoever the King shall commit any part of his power about Church matters to and promise them due obedience as such And so you see what is not the Question now to be debated But the Question is Whether the present Church Government in England as distinct from the Kings and Magistrates part be so good or lawful that we should swear or subscribe our approbation of it our obedience to it or that we will never in our place and calling endeavour an alteration of it no though the King command us and that every man in the three Kingdoms that vowed to endeavour such alteration is so clearly and utterly disobliged as that all strangers that never knew him may subscribe or declare that he is disobliged or not obliged to it by that Vow CHAP. II. The first Argument against the English Diocesans That their form quantum in se destroyeth the particular Church Form of God's Institution and setteth up a Humane Form in its stead ARGUMENT I. WE cannot subscribe or swear to that form of Church Government as good or lawful which in its nature excludeth or destroyeth the very specifical nature of the particular Churches which were instituted by the Holy Ghost and setled in the primitive times and is it self a humane from set up in their stead But such we take the present Diocesane form to be Ergo The Major will be denied by very few that we have now to do with And those few that will deny it must do it on this supposition 1. That the Holy Ghost did institute that particular Church Form which is destroyed but pro tempore And Secondly That he allowed men since to set up one or more of their own in its stead But the disproof of this supposition will fall in more fitly when I have shewed what Church Form was first setled The Minor I thus prove The Species of a particular Church which the Holy Ghost did institute was one Society of Christians united under one or more Bishops for personal Communion in publick worship and holy living The Diocesane English frame is destructive of or inconsistent with this species of a particular Church Ergo The Diocesane English frame is inconsistent with or destructive of the Species of the Holy Ghosts institution In the Major 1. By Bishops I mean Sacred Ministers authorized by Divine appointment to be the stated Guides of the Church by Doctrine Worship and Discipline under Christ the Teacher Priest and Ruler of the Church Whether he have a superior Arch-Bishop I determine not Nor now whether he may ordain Pastors for other Churches What I mean by Personal Communion and whether it be consistent with divers Assemblies I have fully shewed before I mean that the said Churches were no more numerous than our English Parishes nor had more Assemblies Or no more than could have the same personal Communion and that there were never any Churches infimaeâ—vel prime speciei which consisted of many such stated Assemblies I shall therefore now prove 1. That the Churches of the Holy Ghosts institution were no more numerous or were such single Congregations And that they had each such Bishops and Pastors will be proved partly herewith and partly afterward 2. And that such Churches do tota specie differ from the Diocesane Churches and from our present Parish Churches as they define them and are inconsistent with them And the first I shall prove 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Confessions of the Diocesanes 3. From the testimony of Antiquity All proving fully that the ancient Episcopal Churches were but such single Societies or Congregations as I have described and such as our Diocesses of many hundred Churches are different from and inconsistent with CHAP. III. That the primitive Episcopal Churches of the Holy Ghosts Institution were but such Congregations as afore described THese following particulars set together I think will by the Impartial be taken for full proof 1. In all the New Testament where ever there were more stated societies than one for publick worship as afore described they are called Churches in the Plural Number and never once a Church in the Singular Number except when the Universal Church is mentioned which containeth them all This is visible in Act. 9. 31. and 14. 41. and 16. 5. Rom. 16. 4 and 16. 1 Cor. 7. 17. and 11. 16. and 14. 33 34. unless that mean the several meetings of the same Assembly at several times and 16. 1 19. 2 Cor. 8. 1 18 19 23 24. and 11. 8 28. Gal. 1. 22. 1 Thess 2. 14. 2 Thess 1. 4. Rev. 1. 4 11 20. and 2. 7 11 17 29. and 3. 6 13 22 23. and 22. 16. If any say how prove you that all these were but single Congregations I answer 1. It is granted me by all that these plural terms Churches included many single Congregations 2. I shall prove anon that the most of the particular Churches named in Scripture were but such Congregations 3. And no man can give me any proof that a Society consisting of divers such Congregations is any where called a Church singularly And therefore we are not to believe that the plural term meaneth many such singulars as are no where singularly named 2. Particular Churches are described so in Scripture as fully proveth my aforesaid limitation and description As 1 Cor. 11. 16 18 20 22. When ye come together in the Church I hear that there be divisions among you A Church consisted of such as came together When ye come together into one place this is not to eat the Lords Supper And it is the Assemblies that are called Churches when he saith We have no such custom nor the Churches of God So 1 Cor. 14. 4. He that prophesieth edifieth the Church that is the Assembly that heareth him and not many hundred such Assemblies that are out of hearing Vers 5. Except he interpret that the Church may receive edifying Vers 12. Seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church Object May not the whole Church be edified per partes Ans Yes but it must be per plures vel diversis vicibus Not at once by the same man if the far greatest part of the Church be absent Obj. But is not the whole man edified naturally or morally by the edification of a part Answ Yes if it be a noble part Because the whole man being naturally One by the unity of the soul or form there is a natural Communion and Communication from part to part But one Corporation in a Kingdom may be edified or enriched without the wealth or edification of the rest And this Text plainly speaketh of Immediate Edification of that Church that heareth and this at once and by one speaker So Vers 19. In the Church I had rather speak one word with my understanding that I may teach others Here the Church is plainly taken for the Assembly Vers 23. If therefore the whole Church be come together
King will make every Market Town a City it shall have a Bishop And if he will make but one or two cities in a Kingdom there shall be but one or two Bishops And if he will make one City Regent to others that Bishop shall be so Thus Rome Constantinople c. came by their Superiority But Hierome telleth us the contrary that the Bishop of Tanais or any small City like our least Corporations was of equal Church-Dignity with Rome or the greatest 24. The same Council Can. 78. repeateth that All the Illuminate that is Baptized must learn the Creed and every Friday say it to the Bishop and Presbyters I hope they did not go every Friday such a Journey as Lincoln York or Norwich Diocess no nor the least in England would have put them to nor that the Bishop heard as many thousands every Friday as some of ours by that Canon should have heard 25. Anno 693. at a Toletane Council King Egica writeth a Sermon for them and therein tells them that Every Parish that hath twelve Families must have their proper Governor not a Curate that is no Governor But if it be less it must be part of another's Charge 26. Anno 756. Pipin called a Council in France whos 's Can. 1. is that Every City must have a Bishop And as is beforesaid every Corporate Town was a City 27. In the Epitome of the old Canons sent by Pope Adrian to Carolus Magnus published by Canisius the eighth Antioch Canon is Country Presbyters may not give Canonical Epistles but the Chorepiscopi By which it appeareth that the Chorepiscopi were Bishops as Petavius proveth in Epiphan Arrius And Can. 14 15. That No Bishop be above three Weeks in another City nor above two Weeks from his own Church Which intimateth that he had one single Church And Can. 19. That when a place wants a Bishop he that held them must not proudly hold them to himself and hinder them from one else he must lose that which he hath 28. The same Canons say Can. 94. If a Bishop six Months after Admonition of other Bishops neglect to make Catholicks of the people belonging to his Seat any other shall obtain them that shall deliver them from their Heresie So that 1. The Churches were not so big but that there might be divers in one Town 2. And converting the People is a better Title than Parish Bounds 29. It is there also decreed That no Bishop ordain or judge in another's Parish else it shall be void And they forbid Foreign Judgments because it is unmeet that he should be judged by Strangers who ought to have Judges of the same Province chosen by himself But our Diocesanes are Strangers to almost all the People and are not chosen by them See the rest Also another is that every Election of Bishops made by Magistrates be void yea all that use the Secular Magistrate to get a Church must be deposed and separated and all that joyn with him Also if any exact Money or for affection of his own drive any from the Ministry or segregate any of his Clergy or shut the Temple 30. A Council at Chalone under Carol. Magn. the Can. 15. condemneth Arch-Deacons that exercise Domination over Parish-Presbyters and take Fees of them as matter of Tyranny and not of Order and Rectitude And Can. 13. saith It is reported of some Brethren Bishops that they force them whom they are about to ordain to swear that they are worthy and will not do contrary to the Canons and will be obedient to the Bishop that ordaineth them and to the Church in which they are ordained Which Oath because it is very dangerous we all agree shall be forbidden By which it appeareth that 1. The Dioceses were not yet so large as to need such subordinate Governors as ours have Nor 2. Were Oaths of Canonical Obedience to the Bishop and Church yet thought lawful but forbidden as dangerous 31. A Council at Aquisgrane under Ludov. Pius wrote an excellent Treatise gathered out of the Fathers to teach Bishops the true nature of their Office which hath much to my present use but too long to be recited 32. Upon Ebbos Flight that deposed Lud. Pius the Arch-Bishoprick of Rhemes was void ten Years and ruled by two Presbyters Fulk and Hotho who were not then uncapable of governing the Flock but it is not like that they governed Neighbour Bishops 33. Canisius tells us of a Concilium Regiaticinum and Can. 6. is That the Arch-Presbyter examine every Master of a Family personally and take account of their Families and Lives and receive their Confessions And Can. 7. That a Presbyter in the absence of the Bishop may reconcile a Penitent by his Command c. Which shew that yet Dioceses were not at the largest 34. A Council at Papia Anno 855. order yet That the Clergy and People chuse the Bishops and yet that the Laity on pretence of their electing power trample not on the Arch-Presbyter and that Great Men's Chappels empty not Churches 35. Yea Pope Nicholas Tit. 8. c. 1. decreeth that no Bishops be ordained but by the Election or Consent of the Clergy and People When they became uncapable of the ancient Order yet they kept up the words of the old Canons 36. This is intimated in the old Canons repeated at a Roman Council Anno 868. That if Bishops excommunicate any wrongfully or for light Causes and not restore them the Neighbour Bishops shall take such to their Communion till the next Synod Which was the Bishop of the next Parish or Corporation and not one that dwelt in another County out of reach And Can. 72. Because the Bishops hindred by other business cannot go to all the Sick the Presbyters or any Christians may anoint them How big was the Diocess when this Canon was first made Who would give his business rather than Distance and Numbers and Impossibility as the reason why the Bishop of London Lincoln Norwich c. visit not all the Sick in their Dioceses 37. Anno 869 till 879. was held a Council called General at Constantinople The Can. 8. is Whereas it is reported that not only the Heretical and Usurpers but some Orthodox Patriarchs also for their own security have made men subscribe that is to be true to them the Synod judgeth that it shall be so no more save only that Men when they are made Bishops be required as usual to declare the soundness of their Faith He that violateth this Sanction let him be deprived of his Honour But these later instances only shew the Relicts of Primitive Purity and Simplicity more evidently proved in the three first Centuries 38. And he that will read the ancient Records of the Customs of Burying will thence perceive the extent of Churches Doctor Tillesly after cited affirmeth pag. 179. against Selden that The Right of Burial place did first belong to the Cathedral Churches And Parish Churches began so lately as now understood having no
Diocesane form is not But that the Congregational form is I have fully proved Therefore they have not the same Foundation 2. And as to the Relation of the Members of a Diocese to one another there is no mutual consent truly nor seemingly signified by them what ever some few may do who are not the Diocese it is certain that the Diocese as such do neither Explicitely nor Impliedly by word or deed express any such Church consent but rather the clean contrary For 1. Their Dwelling in the Diocese is no more a profession of consent than the Christians dwelling in Constantinople sheweth them to be Mahometans For their Ancestors there lived and they have no other dwelling 2. Their choosing a Parliament who consent is no proof of their consent 1. Because it is not past a sixth or tenth or twentieth part of the Members that choose Parliament men 2. Because they never intend to choose them for any such use as to be the choosers of their Religion or Church and to dispose of their Souls But only to regulate Church matters according to Gods word which when they go against they go beyond and against the peoples consent As in choosing Parliament men we do not trust them to choose husbands and wives and Masters and servants for all the people Nor can we commit that trust for the choice of our Religion or Church to others statedly which Gods Word and Nature have bound us to use our selves Or if such mischoose for us they disoblige us from accepting their choice I am sure the Papists think not that they choose Parliament men to choose a Church for them Nor would the Prelatists think so if the Parliament should prove Presbyterian Independent Anabaptists or Papists 3. The Diocese doth not signifie Consent to a Church relation by the Church-wardens or accused persons coming to the Chancellors or Bishops Courts For 1. It is but a small number comparatively that do so 2. They are compelled and are well known to come full sorely against their wills They are undone if they refuse And submission and patience are not subjection nor consent 3. They most commonly profess to come to these Courts in obedience to the King and as they are empowered by him and strengthened by his sword And not at all as Church-Pastors empowered by Christ For who taketh the Chancellor to be such 4. The appearance of the Clergy at the Bishops Visitation and their Conformity is no proof of the peoples consent For the Ministers are distinct persons and have a distinct interest and are no way empowered to signifie the peoples consent 5. Yea they shew their dissent 1. By being so backward to be made Church-wardens 2. So backward to take their Oaths 3. So backward to present 4. So backward to appear at their Courts 5. Doing it on a civil account as obeying the Kings Officers 6. So few of them ever coming to a Bishop to be instructed resolved yea or for the ceremony of Confirmation So that the people can never be proved to consent to a Diocesane Church State And if they had that is not the same as a consent to a Congregational or Parish Church State 3. The same I need not say over again as to the Diocesane Bishop Chancellor and Archdeacon They consent to the Parish Ministers where they are tolerable by word or daily attendance in Gods worship But I know England so well as that I know that as they never choose their Bishops or Chancellors but the King chooseth them and a Dean and a few Prebends pro forma consent so they are never called to express their consent nor do any considerable part of the Diocese usually consent indeed some never mind such matters others say the King may put in whom he will it is no act of theirs others had rather have a good one than a bad one but had rather yet have none at all especially of late since so many hundred Ministers are silenced And some would have Bishops to silence the Ministers and some are for them on a better account But it 's no considerable part of the Diocese that signifieth Consent And as for the formal demand to the standers by at the Consecration whether any of them have any thing against the Bishop it 's a ceremony fitter for a stage than to come here into an Argument 4. And as for the Bishops and Chancellors relation to the People when it wants the word of God and his consent and the peoples consent and hath but the Kings collation the Deans and Chapters formal consent and the Prelates and Conformist Ministers consent I may well conclude that here is not the same Fundamentum as is of the Parochial and Pastors Church relation IV. And where there is not the same Relate and Correlate there is not the same Relation But a Parochial Church and Pastor and a Diocesane Church and Pastor are not the same Relate and Correlate Ergo. If they be let them become Parochial Bishops and be still the same But what I have said of the difference of Ends and Foundations proveth this a Combination of Christians into one Church primi ordinis for personal Communion is not the same with a Combination of Congregations for Communion mental or by delegates only And so of the Bishops of these several Churches V. If a Congregational Church or Pastor be of the same species with our Diocesane Churches and Prelates then a Church that extendeth through all the Kingdom yea to many Kingdoms yea to the East and West Indies or Antipodes may be of the same species also and so its Pastor And so the Pope and his Church may be of the same as to the magnitude But the consequent is false Ergo so is the antecedent The consequence in the Major is evident because there is eadem ratio For their reason of denominating a Church One is because it hath One Bishop and by their Principles there may be one Bishop to a Province to a Kingdom to an Empire to the World When all the subordinate Bishopricks were taken down to make up this Diocesane Church of Lincoln which I live in the Church was One which before was many And if all the Bishops were taken down except the two Archbishops the two remaining Churches I confess would be of the same species with a Diocese Yea if there were but One Church and Bishop in the Land And why might not all Europe on these terms make one particular Church If you say Because they are not under one King I answer 1. That 's no reason A King is a Civil extrinsick Accidental head of a Church as a Church and not a Constitutive Head But a Bishop is an Intrinsecal Ecclesiastical Constitutive head without whom it is no Church unless equivocally 2. Ten Kings may agree to give way to One Bishop in all their Kingdoms as they have done to the Papcy 3. The Roman Empire was bigger than Europe Why then might not that have been one
shall there tell him whom to Baptize where there is no Bishop And the power of Baptizing is the first and greatest Key of the Church even the Key of admission And they that do among us deny a Presbyter the power of judging whom to Baptize and give the Lords Supper to do not give it to the Bishop who knoweth not of the persons But the Directive part they commit to a Convocation of Bishops and Presbyters and the Judicial partly to the Priest and partly to a Lay-Chancellor X. Epiphanius Haeres 75. saith The Apostles did not set all in full order at once And at first there was need of Presbyters and Deacons by whom both Ecclesiastical affairs may be administred Therefore where no man was found worthy of Episcopacy in that place no Bishop was set By which it appeareth that he thought that for some time some Churches were Governed without Bishops And if so it there belonged to the Presbyters office to govern Whereto we may add the opinion of many Episcopal men who think that during the Apostles times they were the only Bishops in most Churches themselves And if so Then in their long and frequent absence the Presbyters must be the governours XI That many Councils have had Presbyters yea many of them is past doubt Look but in the Councils subscriptions and you will see it A Synod of some Bishops and more Presbyters and Deacons gathered at Rome decreed the Excommunication of Novatianus and his adherents Euseb lib. 6. c. 43. Noetus was convented judged expelled by the Session of Presbyters Epiphan Haeres 47. c. 1. See a great number of instances of Councils held by Bishops with their Presbyters in Blondel de Episc sect 3. p. 202. Yea one was held at Rome praesidentibus cum Joanne 12 Presbyteris An. 964. vid. Blond p. 203 206 207. Yea they had places and votes in General Councils Not only ut aliorum procuratores as Victor and Vincentius in Nic. 1. but as the Pastors of their Churches and in their proper right I need not urge Selden's Arabick Catalogue in Eutych Alex. where there were two persons for divers particular places or Zonaras who saith There were Priests Deacons and Monks nor Athanasius a Deacon's presence Evenof late the Council of Basil is a sufficient proof XII The foresaid Canons of Carthage which are so full are inserted into the body of the Canon Law and in the Canons of Egbert Archbishop of York as Bishop Usher and others have observed XXIII Hierom's Communi Presbyterorum Concilio Ecclesiae gubernabantur seconded by Chrysostome and other Fathers is a trite but evident testimony XIV That Presbyters had the Power of Excommunications see fully proved by Calderwood Altar Damasc p. 273. XV. Basil's Anaphora Bibl. Pat. Tom. 6. p. 22. maketh every Church to have Archpresbyters Presbyters and Deacons making the Bishop to be but the Archpresbyter CHAP. XIV The Confessions of the greatest and Learnedest Prelatists 1. THe Church of England doth publickly notifie her judgment that Church Government Discipline and the power of the Keys is not a thing aliene from or above the Order of the Presbyters but belongeth to their office 1. In that they allow Presbyters to be members of Convocations and that as chosen by the Presbyters And whereas it is said that the Lower house of Convocation are but Advisers to the Upper I answer All together have but an advising power to the King and Parliament But in that sort of power the lower house hath its part as experience sheweth 2. There are many exempt Jurisdictions in England as the Kings Chappel The Deanry of Windsor and Wolverhampton Bridgenorth where six Parishes are governed by a Court held by a Presbyter and many more which shew that it is consistent with the Presbyters office 3. The Archdeacons who are no Bishops exercise some Government And so do their Officials under them The Objection from Deputation is answered 4. The Surrogates of the Bishops whether Vicar General Principal Official or Commissaries are allowed a certain part of government 5. They that give Lay-Chancellors the power of Judicial Excommunication and Absolution cannot think a Presbyter uncapable of it 6. A Presbyter proforma oft passeth the sentence of Excommunication and Absolution in the Chancellors Court when he hath judged it 7. A Presbyter in the Church must publish that Excommunication and Absolution 8. By allowing Presbyters to baptize and to deliver the Lords Supper and to keep some back for that time and to admit them again if they openly profess to repent and amend their naughty lives and to absolve the sick they intimate that the Power of the Keys belongeth to them though they contradict themselves otherwise by denying it them 9. And in Ordination the Presbyter is required to exercise discipline And the words of Act. 20. 28. were formerly used to them Take heed to your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers or Bishops to feed or Rule the Church of God Whence Bishop Usher gathereth that the Churches sence was that the Presbyters had a joynt power with the Bishop in Church Government And though lately Anno 1662. this be altered and those words left out yet it is not any such new change that can disprove this to have been the meaning of them that made the book of Ordination and that used it II. Archbishop Cranmer with the rest of the Commissioners appointed by King Edward the Sixth for the Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws decreed the administring Discipline in every Parish by the Minister and certain Elders Labouring and intending by all means to bring in the ancient discipline Vid. Reform Leg. Eccles tit de Divinis Officiis cap. 10. And our Liturgy wisheth this Godly Discipline restored and substituteth the Curses till it can be done And the same Cranmer was the first of 46 who in the time of King Henry the Eighth affirmed in a book called The Bishops Book to be seen in Fox's Martyrology that the difference of Bishops was a device of the ancient Fathers and not mentioned in Scripture And of the opinion of Cranmer with others in this point his own papers published by Dr. Stillingfleet Irenic p. 390 391 c. are so full a proof that no more is needful III. Dr. Richard Cosins in his Tables sheweth how Church Discipline is partly exercised by Presbyters and by the Kings Commission may be much more And it is not aliene to their office IV. Hooker Eccles Pol. lib. 5. pleadeth against the Divine settlement of one form of Government And lib. 7. Sect. 7. p. 17 18. he sheweth at large that the Bishops with their Presbyters as a Consess governed the Churches And that in this respect It is most certain truth that the Churches Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth yet to be seen notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and course of the world hath
God would have them But when they see the Wilderness called the Garden of God and the wicked not only tolerated in the Church but forced into it by the Sword and so the Church to contain the world and to be as vicious as Infidels what ever men should do I dare confidently prophecy what they will do All the Prelates in the world no nor all the godly that preach will never prevent it but every age will bring forth new divisions and the stricter sort will be still flying from such Churches as these to worship God in purer societies And if you are angry with the Scriptures and with the Papists keep them from their knowledge you must do so also by the Creed Lords Prayer and ten Commandments or else the very Article of the Communion of Saints and the praying Thy Name be hallowed thy Kingdome come thy Will be done in earth as it is heaven with the precepts of Holiness and Righteousness will have the same kind of operation Obj. But in the Church of Rome there is unity and concord and no Sects and therefore that sheweth us what the sword may do Ans 1. But the Church of Rome is it self but a fraction divided from the rest of the Church Do they not differ sufficiently from the Greeks Armenians Abassines c. Did they not drive from them Germany Belgia and the rest of the Protestants Yea even by their cruelty so far was cruelty from preventing it The Anabaptists and many other Sects may be at one among themselves and yet not at one with any others 2. Are you willing of a concord in your Churches upon the same terms as the Church of Rome hath it What with the same ignorance and ungodliness Locking up the Scriptures in Latin Prayers and Masses and a Catholick Tyrant or Usurper and all this procured by the blood of so many hundred thousands and kept up by the same Love-killing means would you indeed have such a concord Et cum solitudinem facitis pacem vocabitis as Tertullian speaketh 3. But indeed the Church of Rome hath one other means for concord which you want and that is various houses and orders of Monasticks Ignorance and prophaness will serve for the concord of the worst but there will be still some who believe and forethink of a life to come and therefore will be religious and for these when they cannot have communion with the wicked this politickly holy Church hath provided this expedient every one that will be Religiouser than the rest hath a hive or society to fliâ— to at their choice and may betake themselves to that which is most strict or most suited to their own conceits And if you would make Independant Churches to be like such Monasteries where the Religiouser sort may have Communion with one another you may do much to prevent a further breach Object II. But the sword will prevail with the most In the changes of â— Religion in England and else where the People have alwayes changed with the he King Answ 1. Men may seemingly leave an ill way with the King Because they are wicked that walk in it and therefore can say any thing But men will not so easily leave a good way when a King shall leave it Because they that are in a good way are often Good men and true to God and hold Truth and Goodness faster than bad Men hold Error and Evil. 2. Indeed this is the way to have a Church onely of perfidious wicked Men who will turn to any thing with their tongues because they will not turn to God with their hearts And to have no true Christian left among you for such fear not them that can kill the body onely in comparison of him that can damn the Soul Luke 12. 4. 3. Do not France and all the Churches and Our selves at this day fully shew you the falseness of this Objection CHAP. XXII An Answer to the Objections 1. No Bishops no King 2. And of the Rebellions and Seditions of those that have been against Bishops I Come not for your own sake to meddle with such matters as these but you put a necessity on us by making us odious by such pretences 1. To the first I answer 1. Were not all the very Heathen Emperors heretofore and are not all the Heathen Kings still Kings and as great as others without Bishops And may not Christian Kings much more 2. If the Presbyterians had said no Presbyters no King you would have taken it for treasonable as if they had threatned that the King shall not be King unless they may have their way and shall not the King be King unless you may be Bishops 3. What is in the nature of the thing to warrant this assertion Presbyterians own every text and Article for Monarchy as the Prelatists do even as ever any Christian Council or Confession asserted as far as we can learn They plead no other divine right for their offices than our Prelates do And save what some of them have held by the Magistrates own gift they pretend to no power over any mans body or purse Many of them and the Independants meddle no further than their own Congregations What is in all this against Kings That an Aristocratical Church Government may not live quietly under Monarchy or a Monarchial Church Government under Aristocracy is an asserted fiction without all proof Otherwise by the same reason you would perswade Venice Holland and all such Governments that Prelacy may not be endured under them 4. But what if it were all as true as it is false What is it to those Nonconformists that craved Bishop Ushers Episcopacy The question is but whether a humble Bishop in a Parish or Market Town without any Lordship or great revenews or interest in the sword may not live as safely and obediently under Kings as our Lord Bishops Yea in very deed most of the Independant Churches themselves have a kind of Episcopacy whether they own the name or not For usually one single Pastor hath as much as a Negative voice in the management of all disciplinary affairs II. But the answer to the second will fuller answer this 1. Do you not know that where Prelacy is at the highest there Kings and Emperours have been at the lowest Do you not know how the Papal Prelacy at the present usurpeth one part of their Government and is ready to take away the other when they can when ever Kings displease them Can any thing be said to hide this by him that readeth but the two forenamed Councils Later Rom. sub Gregor 7. Did Prelacy preserve those Emperors of the East that suffered by it Doth it now preserve the Emperour of Moscovy where the Patriarks interest is pretended in the rebellion Did it preserve Frederick and the two Henries of Germany or Henry 3. and 4th of France Did it preserve the Kings of England Will. 2. Hen. 2. and 3. John c. from their wars and troubles
so pious as to be persecuted by his Prince and he and his brethren saved by that same usurper and openly give praise to God for the great felicity of the Church which it received by that same usurper whom he so resisted Iâ— it not pity that things should be so strangely carried And that yet you may see more into this business Paulinus in vit Ambros p. 40. tells us that Maximus took just a name to himself as Cromwel the Protector did Maximus Procuratorem se reipublicae nomine praefuisse confiteretur He would rule as the Procurator of the Common-wealth Well! But this is not all the Usurpers that rose up in those daies Eugenius soon becometh more terrible than he who once was but a Schoolmaster And how doth this loyal S. Ambrose carry it when he had got of Theodosius a pardon for all that took part with Maximus even his Army except two or three yea and benefits too yet did not this holy loyal man think it sinful to write thus to the Tyrant Eugenius Epistol l. 2. p. 103. Clementissimo Imperatori Eugenio Ambrosius Episcopus Bishop Ambrose to the most Clement Emperour Eugenius And thus concludeth In his vero in quibus vos rogari decet etiam exhibere sedulitatem potestati debitam sicut scriptum est cui honorem honorem cui tributum tributum Nam cum privato detulerim corde intimo quomodo non deferrem Imperatori i. e. But in these matters where it becometh us to petition you we must also give the diligence due to power as it is written honor to whom honor tribute to whom tribute For when I honored you when you were a private man from the inwards of my heart how should I not honor you an Emperour Reader do not only judge of my two Epistles to Rich. Cromwell by these passages but even of theirs that submitted to Oliver himself and yet Judge of the inferences that are raised by our accusers Should I but recite the words of submission of Bishops to usurpers yea of Gregory the Great and such of the highest note it would be over tedious to the Reader who I doubt will think that I have been too long in this unpleasant History already 2. But this I must need add ad homines 1. That it hath been the Bishops themselves that have been the grand cause of our Church divisions and separations what advantage they have given the separatists I shewed before I am sure in the Congregation where I once was teacher and the Countrey about nothing that ever came to pass hath so inclined the people to avoid the Prelates as their own doing especially the silencing and reproaching their ancient teachers whom they knew longer and better than the Prelates did 2. That it was a Parliament of Episcopals and Erastians and not of Presbyterians who first took up Armes in England against the King 3. That the General and chief Officers of the Parliaments first Army were scarce any of them at all Presbyterians but Episcopal by profession saving some few Independants 4. That the Lord Lieutenants of the several Counties were almost all Episcopal save three Independents 5. The Major Generals of the several By-armies in the Counties were almost all Episcopal 6. The Assembly of Divines at Westminster were all save eight or nine Conformable 7. Most of the Episcopal men of my acquaintance took the Covenant that could keep their places by it or at their composition 8. I knew few of them that took not the engagement it self against King and house of Lords meerly for liberty to travail about their business when we that ran a greater hazard by refusing never took it but many were cast out of their Churches and their government in the University Colledges for refusing it These and many more such unpleasant things I have fully proved elsewhere being constrained by the false accusations of implacable men to mention that which I had far rather silence 9. And what hand the Londoners the Presbyterian Ministers and Gentlemen and people had in bringing in the King was once known and acknowledged And General Monks Colonels and Captains were so many of them Presbyterians when they cast out the Anabaptists from among them in Scotland and marcht into England and restored the King that as I knew divers of them to be such so far as I could learn from others the chief strength of them were such or so inclined 10. And though many of the Parliament were supposed Presbyterians long after who were Episcopal at the raising of the Army yet could not the late King Charles I. be rejected and judged and put to death till most of the Parliament were violently secluded and imprisoned by the Army And as soon as they were but called together again it was they in Parliament and Council of State that opened the door for the Kings restitution But while the matters of the Church of Christ and the decision of religious controversies and the liberty of Christs Ministers to preach his Gospel must be laid upon state revolutions and where Bishops that can neither accuse Christs Ministers of heresie ignorance negligence covetuousness pride nor scandalous immoralities shall run to the old methods and perswade Kings that these men are not for their profit that they are pestilent fellows and movers of sedition among the people that they prophecy not good of Kings but evil and that they would set up another King one Jesus and therefore are not Caesars friends these malicious projects may silence Ministers and prosper while our sins are to be punished and the peoples contempt of the Gospel and their ingratitude are to be chastised But the wicked servant that saith my Lord delayeth his coming and beateth his fellow servants and eateth and drinketh with the drunken will see that his Lord will come in a day that he looked not for him and will cut him a sunder and give him his portion with hypocrites for their dead Image of Religion will not save them there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Matth. 24. 48 49 50 51. CHAP. XXIII Four douâ—le charges I have now proved against the foredescribed Diocesane fâ—rm of Government the least of which alone is enough to prove it utterly unlawful 1. THat it overthroweth the ancient Species of Churches and setteth up another sort of Churches in their place and sets up one Church of that kind instead of many hundreds 2. That it overthroweth the ancient office of a Presbyter by taking away one part of his work viz. Government which as much belongeth to him as the rest And maketh a new office of subject Presbyters which Cod never made 3. That it overthroweth the ancient sort of fixed Episcopacy as distinct from Itinerants and Arch-bishops taking down a thousand or very many Bishops even the Bishops of particular Churches and instead of them all setting up but one over all those Churches as if all Bishops were put down and the Archbishops only take all their charges
2. c. 5. That were for seventy years after their conversion without a Bishop Vlphilas being the first 4. Columbanus was no Bishop but a Presbyter and Monk nor his Successours that yet Ruled even the Bishops as Beda noteth Hist. li 3. c. 4. 5. Hâ—here solet ipsa Insula Rectorem semper Abbatem Presbyterum cujus jure omnis provincia ipsi etiam Episcopi ordine inusitatâ— debeant esse subjecti juxta exemplum primi Doctoris illius Columbani qui non Episcopus sed Presbyter extitit Monachus And these Presbyters did not only ordaine as being the only Church Governours but they sent Preachers into England and ordained Bishops for England at King Oswalds request as Beda at large relateth Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 3. 5. 17. 21. 24 25. The Abbot and other Presbyters of the Island Hy sent Aydan ipsum esse dignum Episcopatu ipsum ad erudiendos incredulos indoctos mitti debere decernunt Sicque illum ordinantes ad praedicandum miserunt c. Successit vero ei in Episcopatu Finan ipse illo ab Hy Scotorum insula ac monasterio destinatus c. 17. cap. 25. Aydano Episcopo de hac vita sublato Finan pro illo gradum Episcopatus a Scotis ordinatus missus acceperat c. So cap â—4 c. You will find that the English had a Succession of Bishops by the Scotish Presbyters ordination And there is no mention in Beda of any dislike or scruple of the lawfulness of this course Segenius a Presbyter was Abbot of Hy cap. 5. when this was done And cap. 4. it appears that this was their ordinary custome though in respect to the Churches that were in the Empire it be said to be more inusitato that Presbyters did Govern Bishops but none questioned the validity of their ordinations And the Council at Herudford subjecteth Bishops in obedience to their Abbots And the first reformers or Protestants here called Lollords and Wicklifists held and practised ordination by mere Presbyters as Walsingham reports Hist Angl. An. 1â— 89. and so did Luther and the Protestants of other Nations as Pomeranus ordination in Denmark shews and Chytraeus Saxon Chron lib. 14. 15. 16. 17. 5. Leo Mag. Epist 92. cited by Gratian being consulted a rustico Narbonensi de Presbytero vel Diacono qui se Episcopos mentiti sunt de his quos ipsi clericos ordinârâ—nt answered Nulla ratio sâ—vit ut inter Episcopos habeantur qui nec a clericis sunt electi nec a plebibus expetiti c. yet thus resolveth of their ordination Siqui autèm Clerici ab ipsis Pseudo Episcopis in eis Ecclesus ordinati sunt quae ad proprios Episcopos pertinebant ordinatio eorum cum consensu judicio presidentium facta est potest â—ata haberi ita ut in ipsis Ecclesus perseverunt So that the mere consent of the proper Bishops can make valid such Presbyters ordination 6. Fâ—licissimus was ordained Deacon by Novatus one of Cyprians Presbyters Schismatically yet was not his ordination made Null by Cyprian but he was deposed for Mal-administration See Blondel p. 312. 113. 7. Firmilian in 75 Epist apud Cyprian Saith Necessariò apud nos fit ut per singulos annos seniores praepositi in unum conveniamus ad disponenda quae curae nostrae commissa sunt ut si quae graviora sunt communi consilio dirigantur This shews that communi consilio importeth a consenting Governing Power c. Omnis potestas gratia in Ecclesus constituta ubi praesident majores natu qui baptizandi manum imponeâ—â—â— ordinandi possidâ—nt Potestatem If any say It is only Bishops that Formilian speakes of I answer 1. He had a little before used the word Seniores the same in sense with Majores natu here as distinct from Praepositi to signifie either all Pastors in general or Presbyters in special 2. When he speakes of Majores natu in general they that will limit it to Bishops must prove it so limited and not barely affirme it 3. The conjunct acts of the office disprove that It was the same men that had the power of baptizing 8. The great Council of Nice the most reverend Authority next to the holy Scripture decreed thus concerning the Presbyters ordained by Melitius at Alexandria and in Egypt Hi autem qui Dei gratiâ nostris precibus adjuti ad nullum Schisma deflexisse comperti sint sed se intra Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae fines ab erroris labe vacuos continuerint authoritatem habeant tum ministros ordinandi tum eos que clero digni fuerint nominandi tum denique omnia ex lege instituto Ecclesiastico libere exequendi If any say that the meaning is that these Presbyters shall ordain and Govern with the Bishops but not withoutthem I am of his mind that this must needs be the meaning of these words or else they could not be consonant with the Church Canons But this sheweth that ordination belongeth to the Presbyters office and consequently that it is no nullity though an irregulrity as to the Canons when it is done by them alone Socrat. lib. 5. 6. cap. 6. 9. It is the title of the twelfth Canon Concil An cyrani Quod non oportet Chorepiscopos ordinare nisi in agris villulis Now either these Chorepiscopi were of the order of Bishops or not If they were then it further appeareth how small the Churches were in the beginning that had Bishops even such as had but Vnum Altare as Ignatius saith when even in the Countrey Villages they had Bishops as well as in Cities notwithstanding that the Christians were but thinly scattered among the Heathens But if they were not Bishops then it is apparent that Presbyters did then ordain without Bishops and their ordination was valid And the Vafrities of the Prelates is disingenious in this that when they are pleading for Diocesan Churches as containing many fixed Congregations then they eagerly plead that the Chorepiscopi were of the order of Presbyters But when they plead against Presbyters ordination they would prove them Bishops Read Can. 10. Concilii Antiocheni 10. Even in the daies of ignorance and Roman Usurpation Bonifacius Mogunt alias Wilfred Epist 130 Auct Bib. Pat. To 2. p. 105. tells Pope Zachary as his answer intimateth that in Gente Boiariorum there was but one Bishop and that was one Vivilo which the Pope had ordained and that all the Prebyters that were ordained among them as far as could be sound were not ordained by Bishops though that ignorant usurping Pope requireth as it seemeth that they be reordained unless Benedictionem ordinationis should signifie only the blessing or confirmation of their former ordination which is not like For he saith Quia indicasti perrexisse te ad gentem Boiariorum inâ—enisse eos extra ordinem ecclesiasticum viventes dum Episcopos non habebant in Provincia nisi