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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64661	The judgement of the late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland 1. Of the extent of Christs death and satisfaction &c, 2. Of the Sabbath, and observation of the Lords day, 3. Of the ordination in other reformed churches : with a vindication of him from a pretended change of opinion in the first, some advertisements upon the latter, and in prevention of further injuries, a declaration of his judgement in several other subjects / by N. Bernard.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1658 (1658)	Wing U188; ESTC R24649	53,942	189

1634. as Doctor Heylin hath affirmed DOctor Heylin under the mask of an Observator hath been already offended with me for joyning in a Certificate against what he hath related concerning the abrogating of the Articles of Ireland which was done by the command of this most Reverend Primate in his life time and since that he hath been much more for my saying in his Funeral Sermon Some had rashly affirmed it and that some such presumptious affections have been lately published and stiling that person a presumptuous I may say also uncharitable observator that should presume to enter into the Lord Primates breast and aver that the abrogating of them to use his own term was the cause of his carrying a sharp tooth bearing a grudge and that a mortal one towards the L. Lieutenant Strafford The Language with which throughout he pleaseth himselfe might have been easily returned but in regard such pen-combats are unseasonable and unfitting betweene those of the same profession onely gratefull to the adversary of both I have left it to the prudence of a third person who hath a convenient opportunity in his History to clear the whole in the examination and moderation of all the passages between Mr. L. Strange and him Onely thus much upon this occasion the observator is pleased to give me a share in his Title-page calling it a rescue from the back-blowes of Dr. Bernard Indeed as to the person smitten if they were any they could be no other for he then turned the back and not the face being an Anonymus and so appearing in that disguise I might be excused as he was that smote a Clergy man riding without his Priestly habit A man that walks in the dark may meet with a knock by such as mean him no harm And indeed the apprehension of the Authours disaffection so much expressed to this Eminent and pious Primate in the endeavours thus to blemish him whom the whole reformed Church hath an high esteem of gave it suspected both to my self and others to have been some Jesuit or Agent of the Sea of Rome though as yet not any one as I hear of hath moved his tongue against that true Israelite at his Exit hence and I am sorry to see his sole enemies to be those of his own house and profession But for the confirmation of what is here affirmed by the Primate that the Articles of Ireland were not called in though his above-mentioned Letter is sufficient to all uninteressed persons yet for the Readers more full satisfaction I shall give you a brief Narrative of the whole matter being then a Member of that Convocation First in the House of the Clergy which was then in the Cathedrall of St. Patricks Dublin there was a motion made for the reception anew of the Articles of Ireland and all unanimous were for the affirmative excepting two who went out Another time the whole house of the Clergy being called into the Quire where the Bishops sate and the same thing again propounded to them they all stuck to their former vote excepting seven The intent of the whole Clergy being by this sufficiently understood and it appearing there was no need of any such confirmation having been An. 1615. fully and formally established viz. signed by Arch-Bishop Jones Chancelour of Ireland and then Speaker of the House of the Bishops in Convocation by the Prolocutor of the House of the Clergy in their names and signed by the then Lord Deputy Chichester by order from King James in his name that motion was no more repeated onely the Primate was consulted with concerning the approving and receiving of the Articles of England also to which he readily consented there being no substantial difference between them to which he had subscribed himself voluntarily long before in England and conceiving it to be without any prejudice to the other Hereupon the first Canon being all that was done in relation to them was drawn up the Primate approved it and proposed it selfe as President of the Synod in the House of the Bishops commended it to the House of the Clergy where by his motion many assented the more readily they all gave their Votes man by man excepting one person who suspended his out of the suspition that some might make that construction which is the observators conclusion Now the chief argument which the observator if I may not call him Dr. Heylin spends himself upon is from what he hath picked out of the words of the Canon where they do not onely approve but receive the Articles of England from thence he inferres a superinducing of those and so an abrogating of these of Ireland But I answer there was not a reception of the one instead of the other but the one with the other and there being no difference in substance but onely in method number of subjects determined and other circumstantials it argues no more an abrogation than that doth of the Apostles Creed by our reception of the Nicene Creed and Athanasius's wherein some points are more enlarged or that the reception into our use the form of the Lords Prayer according to Saint Matthew abrogates that of Saint Luke being the shorter Neither do I see but if for the manifestation of our Union with other reformed Churches We should approve and receive their Articles of Religion and they receive ours it were no abrogating of either And the difference in them being onely in circumstantials and not in substance all might be called one confession That as of many Seas one Ocean of many National Churches one Catholick Church so of many forms of Canfessions but one faith amongst them That Argument from the Apostles speech of making void the old Covenant by speaking of a new or taking in the first day of the week to be the Sabbath instead of the last when but one of the seven was to be kept doth not fit the case for in these there was a superinduction and reception of the one for the other but in the Canon the Articles of England are received not instead but with those of Ireland And that it was the sense then apprehended not only by the Primate but by the other Bishops at least divers of them appears in this That afterwards at an Ordination they took the subscription of the party ordained to both Articles And for further confirmation of this I shall give you the sense of a most eminent learned and judicious person upon the view of what the observator rescued had written of it I have received sayes he the book you sent me and have perused it I see he will have the allowance of our Articles of England by the Synod in Ireland to be a virtual disanulling of the Irish Confession which I conceive saith no more but That both Confessions were consistent And the Act of that Synod not a revocation of the Irish Articles but an approbation of ours as agreeing with them He hath his flings at your Sermon Preached at

the genuine Epistles of Ignatius are fouly depraved by a number of beggarly patches added unto his purple by later hands there is an ancient Latine translation to bee found in the Library of Caies Colledge in Cambridge which although it be very rude and corrupt both in many other and in this very same place also of the Epistle to the Magnesians yet is it free from these additaments and in many respects to be preferred before the common Greek Copy as well because it agreeth with the Citations of Eusebius Athanasius and Theodoret and hath the sentences vouched by them out of Ignatius and particularly that of the Eucharist in the Epistle to the Smyrnians which are not at all to be found in our Greek and hath in a manner none of all those places in the true Epistles of Ignatius against which exception hath been taken by our Divines which addeth great strength to those exceptions of theirs and sheweth that they were not made without good cause Now in this Translation there is nothing to be found touching the Sabbath and the Lords day in the Epistle to the Magnesians but these words only Non ampliùs sabbatizantes sed secundùm Dominicam viventes in quâ vita nostra orta est whereunto these of our common Greeke may be made answerable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all those other words alleadged by Dr. Heylin part 2. pag. 43. to prove that Ignatius would have both the Sabbath and the Lords day observed being afterwards added by some later Grecian who was afraid that the custome of keeping both dayes observed in his time should appear otherwise to be directly opposite to the sentence of Ignatius whereas his main intention was to oppose the Ebionites of his owne time who as Eusebius witnesseth in the third book of his Ecclesiasticall History did both keep the Sabbath with the Jewes and also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By whose imitation of the Church herein the antiquity of the observation of the Lords day may be further confirmed Ebion being known to have been St. Paul's Antagonist and to have given out of himself that he was one of those that brought the prices of their goods and laid them down at the Apostles feet as the universality of the observance may be gathered by the argument drawn from thence by Eusebius towards the end of his Oration of the praises of Constantine to prove the preeminency of our Saviour Christ above all the gods of the Heathen because this prescript of his touching the celebration of this day was admitted and submitted unto not within the Dominions of Constantine onely but also throughout the compasse of the whole world Quis n. saith he cunctis totius orbis terrarum incobis seu terra seu mari illi sint praescripserit ut singulis septimanis in unum convenientes diem Dominicum festum celebrarent instituentque ut sicut corpora pascerent cibariis sic animos Divinis Disciplinis refi●erent We see then that the Doctrine which the true Ignatius received immediately from the hands of the Apostles was the very same with that was delivered by the Fathers of the Councel of Laodicea about 250 years after for the profs produced by the Authours to whom my Lord of Eli pag. 73. refereth us for having it to be held before the first Nicene are nothing worth Non oportet Christianos Judaizare in Sabbatho otiari sed ipsos eo die operari diem autem dominicum praeferentes otiari si modo possint ut Christianos the contrary whereunto Pope Gregory the first in Registr lib. 11. Epist. 3. esteemeth to bee the Doctrine of the Preachers of Antichrist qui veniens diem Dominicum Sabbatum ab omni opere faciet custodiri which my Lord of Eli pag. 219. rendreth upon the old Sabbath-day or upon the Sunday by a strange kinde of mistake turning the copulative into a disjunctive A Letter of Doctor Twisse to the Lord Primate thanking him for the former Letter and his Book de primordiis Brit. Eccles. The History of Goteschalcus c. where the honour and respect he gives him is exemplary unto others Most Reverend Father in God I was very glad to hear of your Grace his coming over into England and now I have a faire opportunity to expresse my thankfull acknowledgement of that great favour wherewith you were pleased to honour me in bestowing one of your books upon me de origine Britannicarum Ecclesiarum which I received from Sir Benjamin Rudierd in your Grace his name about the end of Summer last wherein I do observe not onely your great learning and various reading manifested at full but your singular wisdom also in reference to the necessitous condition of these times taking so fair an occasion to insert therein the History of the Pelagian Heresie so opportunely coming in your way Your History of Goteschalcus was a piece of the like nature which came forth most seasonably we know what meetings there were in London thereupon by some and to what end to relieve the reputation of Vossius who laboured not a little when he was discovered to have alleadged the confession of Pelagius for the confession of Austin As also in fathering upon the Adrametine Monkes the Original of the Praedestinarian Heresie I was at that time upon answering Corvinus his defence of Arminius and had dispatcht one digression upon the same argument and in the issue concluded that it was but a trick of the Pelagians to cast the Nick-name of the Praedestinarian Heresie upon the Orthodox Doctrine of St. Austine But upon the coming forth of your Goteschalcus I was not onely confirmed therein but upon better and more evident grounds enabled in a second digression to meet with the Dictates of who endeavoured to justifie the conceit of Vossius but upon very weak grounds Thus I have observed with comfort the hand of God to have gone along with your Grace for the honouring of the cause of his truth in so precious a point as is the glory of his Grace And I nothing doubt but the same hand of our good God will be with you still and his wisdome will appear in all things you undertake whether of your own choice or upon the motion of others There being never more need of hearkening unto and putting in practice our Saviours rule Be ye wise as Serpents and innocent as Doves And have I not as great cause to return your Grace most hearty thanks for the kind Letters I received in answer to the motions I was emboldned to make had it been but onely to signifie the great satisfaction I received thereby in divers particulars but especially in two principal ones the one the mystery of the feasts of first fruits opened to the singular advantage of the honour of the Lords day in the time of the Gospel the other in correcting Ignatius by a Latine Manuscript of Caies Colledge which since I have gotten

into my hands and taken a Copy thereof and have caused it to be compared with two other Copies Manuscripts in Oxford the one in Magdalene the other in Baliol Colledge Library I take no small comfort in the hope I conceive of seeing your Grace before your departure into Ireland I heare of a purpose your Grace hath to see Oxford and abide some time there the Lord blesse you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you Newberry May 29. 1640. Yours in all observance desiring to sit at your Grace his feet WILLIAM TWISSE Mr. Chambers of Clouford by Bath hath long ago answered Dr. Heylines History of the Sabbath but knowes not how to have it printed A Clause in a Letter of the Primates to Mr. Ley of the Sabbath FOr mine own part I never yet doubted but took it for granted that as the setting of some whole day apart for Gods solemne Worship was Juris Divini naturalis so that this solemne day should be one in seven was juris Divini positivi recorded in the fourth Commandement And such a jus divinum positivum here I mean as Baptisme and the Lords Supper are established both which lie not in the power of any man or Angel to change or alter wherein me thinks your second position is a little too waterish viz. That this Doctrine rather then the contrary is to be held the Doctrine of the Church of England And may well be gathered out of her publick liturgy and the first part of the Homily concerning the place and time of prayer Whereas you should have said that this is to be held undoubtedly the Doctrine of the Church of England For if there could be any reasonable doubt made of the meaning of the Church of England in her Liturgy who should better declare her meaning than self in her Homily where she peremptorily declareth her minde That in the fourth Commandement God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six dayes and rested the seventh blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to rest and quietnesse from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service Than which what could you devise to say more your self For the further maintenance of which Doctrine I send you herewith a Treatise written by a learned man now with God against Theophilus Brabourn who gave occasion to the raising up of these unhappy broiles which if it may any way conduce to the furtherance of your more exact Treatice c. I shall be very glad and be ready to c. Part of a Letter of the Primates to an Honourable person not long after the coming forth of Doctor Heylins book of the History of the Sabbath which I found wrote in the same Paper with the former AS for Dr. Heylins relation concerning our Articles of Ireland it is much mistaken For first where he saith they did passe when his Majesties Commissioners were imployed about the setling of the Church Anno 1615. and chargeth them with this strict austerity as he termeth it in the prescript observation of the Lords day he sheweth himself very credulous there having been no such Commissioners here at that time and our Articles having been published in Print divers years before the Commissioners whom hee meaneth came hither as Sir Nathaniel Rich who was one of them himself can sufficiently inform you Secondly where he saith he is sure that till that time the Lords day had never attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the faith he speaks very inconsiderately Hee that would confound the ten Commandements whereof this must be accounted for one unlesse he will leave us but nine with the Articles of the faith he had need be put to learn his Catechisme again And he that would have every thing which is put into the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod for the avoyding of diversity of opinions and for the maintenance of peace and uniformity in the Church to be held for an Article of the faith should do well to tell us whether hee hath as yet admitted the Book of the ordination of Bishops and the two volumes of Homilies into his Creed for sure I am he shall find these received in the Articles of Religion agreed upon in the Synod held at London 1562. To which Doctor Heylen himself having subscribed I wonder how he can oppose the conclusion which he findeth directly laid down in the Homily of the time and place of prayer in the fourth Commandement viz. God hath given expresse charge to all men that upon the Sabbath-day which is now our Sunday for these are the plain words of the Homily which the Doctor with all his Sophistry will never be able to elude they shall cease from all weekly and week-day labour to the intent thot like as God himselfe wrought six dayes and rested the seventh and blessed and consecrated it to quietnesse and rest from labour even so Gods obedient people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to the heavenly exercises of Gods true Religion and service By the verdict of the Church of England I am sure the Lords day had obtained such a pitch of credit as nothing more could be left to the Church of Ireland in their Articles afterward to adde unto it Thirdly he shameth not to affirm That the whole Book of the Articles of Ireland is now called in which is a notorious untruth And lastly that the Articles of the Church of England were confirmed by Parliament in this Kingdome Anno 1634. where it is well known that they were not so much as once propounded to either House of Parliament or ever intended to be propounded The truth is that the House of Convocation in the beginning of their Canons for the manifestation of their agreement with the Church of England in the confession of the same Christian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as they themselves professe and for no other end in the world did receive and approve of the Articles of England but that either the Articles of Ireland were ever called in or any Articles or Canons at all were ever here confirmed by Act of Parliament may well be reckoned among Doctor Heylins fancies Which shews what little credit he deserves in his Geography when he brings us newes of the remote parts of the world that tells us so many untruths of things so lately and so publickly acted in his Neigbour Nation A Confirmation of the latter clause in this Letter of the Primates viz. That the Articles of Ireland determining the observation of the Lords day were not called in Anno

heard he was not so severe as to condemn and disown the Ministery of other reformed Churches or refuse Communion with them because in every particular as to some persons usually ordaining they were defective For Episcopacy he was not wanting with Saint Paul to magnifie his own office by two several Tractates he hath published none being more able to defend the ancient right of it for which he was by Letters importuned by some of the most eminent persons of his own profession yet how humbly without any partiality to himself and the eminent degree he had obtained in it did he declare his judgement is evident by the above-said Tractates and the Letter before mentioned And his prudence in the present accommodation of things in that Treatise of his viz. The reduction of it to the form of Synodical Government for the prevention of that disturbance which did afterwards arise about it is as apparent also if others concerned in these transactions had been of that moderation humility and meeknesse the wound given might have been healed before it grew incurable That the Annual Commemorations of the Articles of the faith such as the Nativity Passion Resurrection of our Saviour c. were fit to be observed which Saint Augustine saith in his time were in use through the whole Catholick Church of Christ and is now in some Reformed Churches as a means to keep them in the memory of the vulgar according to the pattern of Gods injunction to the Israelites in the Old Testament for the Types of them appeared sufficiently to be his judgement by his then constant preaching upon those subjects The Friday before Easter i e. the Resurrection East in old Saxon signifying rising appointed for the remembrance of the Passion of our Saviour he did duely at Drogheda in Ireland observe as a solemn fast inclining the rather to that choice out of Prudence and the security from censure by the then custome of having Sermons beyond their ordinary limit in England when after the publick prayers of the Church he first preached upon that subject extending himselfe in prayer and Sermon beyond his ordinary time which we imitated who succeeded in the duties of the day and which being known to be his constant custome some from Dublin as other parts came to partake of it which most excellent Sermons of his upon that occasion he was by many Godly Religious persons importuned much for the publishing of them and his strict observation of this fast was such that neither before or after that extraordinary paines would he take the least refreshment till about six a Clock and which did not excuse him from Preaching again on Easter day when we constantly had a Communion That Tractate of his entitled The Incarnation of the Son of God was the summe of two or three Sermons which I heard him preach at Drogheda at that Festivall when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour That he was for the often publike reading of the ten Commandements and the Creed before the Congregation according to the custome of other reformed Churches I suppose none can doubt of and not onely that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed but the Nicene and Athanasius his book of the three Creeds sufficiently perswade it What his judgement was of the use of the Lords Prayer his practice shewed it in the constant concluding of his prayer before Sermon with it And his approbation of that gesture of kneeling at the Communion was often apparent before many witnesses For confirmation of Children which Calvine Beza Piscator and others do much commend and wish it were restored among them he was not wanting in his observation as an ancient laudable custome by which was occasioned the more frequent having in memory the principles of religion with the yonger sort At his first publike giving notice of the time of that his intention it having been long disused in Ireland he made a large speech unto the people of the antiquity of it the prudence of the first reformers in purging it from Popish superstitions with the end of it and then such youths presented to him who could repeat the publike Catechisme were confirmed and so often afterwards and indeed the apprehension of his piety and holinesse moved the Parents much to desire that their Children might by him receive that Benediction which was seconded with good and spiritual instruction that stuck to them when they came to further yeares The publike Catechisme containing the summe of the Creed the 10. Commandements the Lords Prayer and Doctrine of the Sacraments despised by some for its plainnesse he thought therefore to be the more profitable for the vulgar And at Drogheda in Ireland gave me orders every Lords day in the afternoon beside the Sermon which was not omitted to explain it He was very exemplary in the careful observation of the Lords day in his family The Sermon preached by him in the forenoon being constantly repeated in the Chappel by his Chaplain about five of the Clock in the afternoon unto which many of the Town resorted For Habits he observed such which were accustomed by those of his profession for the Organ and the Quire he continued them as he found them in use before him And as in all things so in his ordinary wearing Garments he was a Pattern of gravity approving much of a distinctive Apparel in the Ministery that way Lastly for the Ecclesiastical Constitutions of Ireland as he was in An. 1634. being then the Primate the chief guide in their establishment so before he was a Bishop An. 614. being then a Member of the Convocation he was employed as a principal person for the Collecting and drawing up such Canons as concerned the Discipline and Government of the Church and were to be treated upon by the arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland divers taken out of the Statutes Queen Elizabeths Injunctions and the Canons of England 1571. which I have lately found written then with his own hand The two first of which being in these words 1. That no other form of Liturgy or Divine service shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the book of Common-Prayer and Administrations of Sacraments c. 2. That no other form of Ordination shall be used in this Nation but which is contained in the book of ordering of Bishops Priests and Deacons allowed by Authority and hitherto practized in the Churches of England and Ireland make it apparent that his judgement concerning many of the above-mentioned subjects was the same in his yonger as Elder years And yet notwithstanding all this there were alwayes some and still are too many who are apt to blurre him with the title of a Puritane which is is one occasion of this enlargement though in none the sense of it is more uncertain then in his application and from none a greater lustre would be given unto it than by his

reflexion In whom with his conformity to the Discipline Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England labour in writing constancy in preaching against the errours of Popery and such as border upon it so much humility holinesse and charity and other fruits of the spirit did so eminently shine Indeed I have seen divers Letters wrote unto him from those who heretofore were so aspersed full of respect and large expressions of their love to him and many receiving satisfaction have concurred with him in the abovesaid particulars his humility and meeknesse prevailing more then others strict austerity but how that said Title could be fixed on him I am yet to seek unlesse it bear a better sense than the Authours of it will own Nay some of the simpler sort hearing of a conjunction of Popery and Prelacy have thought they could not be parted in him though most of his Sermons as well as his writings sufficiently clear him that way I remember many yeares agone the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury wrote unto him into Ireland of a strong rumour then raised of him here at Court That he was turned a Papist presumed to be by a Letter of some Popish Priest from thence But it fell out to be at the same time or immediately after he had in two Learned Sermons given his judgement at large that the Papacy was meant by Babylon in the 17 and 18 of the Revelation which in the return of his answer to that report he did affirm and was his judgment to his last though the reply made to him did not consent in that I am not a stranger to such a design of some of the Romish party a little before his death for the raising of the like rumour by some Letters wrote unto him from some of eminency among them which I disdain any further to mention And thus upon this occasion I have endeavoured to prevent for the future any more injurious mistakes of him by an impartial declaring according to my knowledge his judgement and practice in these particulars wherein he may well be esteemed of us as Erasmus saith of Saint Augstine Vividum quoddam exemplar Episcopi omnibus virtutum numeris absolutum And I wish in these divided times wherein each party hath a great and a reverend opinion of him they would shew it in this by taking his spirit of moderation for their Copy to write after and for my own part I would to God not only they but also all that read or hear this of him were both almost and altogether such as he was THE REDUCTION OF EPISCOPACY Unto the Form of Synodical Government Received in the ANCIENT CHURCH By the most Reverend and learned Father of our Church Dr. JAMES USHER late Arch-Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland Proposed in the year 1641. as an Expedient for the prevention of those Troubles which afterwards did arise about the matter of Church-Government Published by NICHOLAS BERNARD D. D. Preacher to the Honourable Society of Grayes-Inne London LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1658. TO THE READER THE Originall of this was given me by the most Reverend Primate some few years before his death wrote throughout with his own hand and of late I have found it subscribed by himself and Doctor Holseworth and with a Marginal Note at the first Proposition which I have also added If it may now answer the expectation of many pious and prudent Persons who have desired the publishing of it as a seasonable preparative to some moderation in the midst of those extreams which this Age abounds with it will attain the end intended by the Authour And it is likely to be more operative by the great reputation he had and hath in the hearts of all good men being far from the least suspicion to be byassed by any privivate ends but onely ayming at the reducing of Order Peace and Unity which God is the Authour of and not of confusion For the recovery of which it were to be wished that such as do consent in Substantials for matter of Doctrine would consider of some conjunction in point of Discipline that private interest and circumstantials might not keep them thus far asunder Grayes-Inne Octob. 13. 1657. N. BERNARD The Reduction of Episcopacy unto the form of Synodical Government received in the ancient Church proposed in the year 1641 as an Expedidient for the prevention of those troubles which afterwards did arise about the matter of Church-Government Episcopal and Presbyterial Government conjoyned BY Order of the Church of England all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments and the Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realme hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord had commanded therein the exhortation of Saint Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to Rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his blood Of the many Elders who in common thus ruled the Church of Ephesus there was one President whom our Saviour in his Epistle unto this Church in a peculiar manner stileth the Angell of the Church of Ephesus and Ignatius in another Epistle written about twelve yeares after unto the same Church calleth the Bishop thereof Betwixt the Bishop and the Presbytery of that Church what an harmonius consent there was in the ordering of the Church-Government the same Ignatius doth fully there declare by the Presbytery with Saint Paul understanding the Community of the rest of the Presbyters or Elders who then had a hand not onely in the delivery of the Doctrine and Sacraments but also in the Administration of the Discipline of Christ for further proof of which we have that known testimony of Tertullian in his general Apology for Christians In the Church are used exhortations chastisements and divine censure for judgement is given with great advice as among those who are certain they are in the sight of God and in it is the chiefest foreshewing of the judgement which is to come if any man have so offended that he be banished from the Communion of prayer and of the Assembly and of all holy fellowship The Presidents that bear rule therein are certain approved Elders who have obtained this honour not by reward but by good report who were no other as he himself intimates elsewhere but those from whose hands they used to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist For with the Bishop who was the chiefe President and therefore stiled by the same Tertullian in another place Summus Sacerdos for distinction sake the rest of the dispensers of the Word and Sacraments joyned in the common Government of the Church and therefore where in matters of Ecclesiasticall Judicature Cornetius Bishop of Rome used the received forme of