EPISCOPACIE BY Divine Right ASSERTED BY JOS. HALL B. of Exon. IN DOMINO CONFI 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by R.B. for Nathanael Butter at the Pide-Bull by S. Augustine's Gate 1640. TO THE KINGS Most Excellent Majestie our most Gracious Soveraigne Lord CHARLES By the Grace of GOD of Great Britaine France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. May it please your Majestie WHen about a year agoe I presumed to tender to your Royall hands some few short Propositions concerning Church-Government I little thought that either the publike or my own Dioecesan Occasions would have called on me for so large and speedy a pursuance of them as now I am invited unto Episcopacie since that time hath suffered in the north even to the height of patience and I have met with some affronts within my owne Iurisdiction All evils especially those of Schism◠〈◊〉 as the plâ—gâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—ing and doe much mischiefe both in their act and the spreading It was therefore time for me to bend my best indeavours both to the remedy of what had happened in mine owne Dioecesse and prevention of what future mischiefe might ensue And long I sate downe and waited for the undertaking of some abler pen but seeing such a silence in so needfull a subject as one that might not be too long wanting either to the vindication of the common cause or the safety of my owne charge I have thus boldly rushed forth into the Presse I cannot be so weakly inconsiderate as to think that I could put my finger into this fire and not be scorched I doe well know never any man toucht upon this quarrell who was not branded with the deepest censure Yet I do willingly sacrifice my self herein to God and his Truth I confesse my heart burnes within mee to see a righteous cause thus martyred through unjust prejudice and to see some honest and well-minded Christians misled into a palpable error under the pretence of zeale and piety by the meere names of two or three late Authors not more learned and godly than in this point grossely mistaken If your Majesties great Cares of State could part with so much leisure as to peruse this short but faithfull relation of the first ground and originall of this unhappie division in the Church it might please your Majestie to be informed that when Petrus Balma the last Bishop of Geneva was by his mutining Citizens frighted and driven out of his place and that Church was now left headlesse Farell and Viret two zealous Preachers there devised and set up a new platforme of Church-Government never before heard of in the Christian World Themselves would supply the Bishop and certaine Burgesses of the City should supply his assistant Clergie and both these together would make up the body of an Ecclesiasticall Senate or Consistorie This strange bird thus hatched by Farell and Viret was afterwards brooded by two more famous successours and all this within the compasse of our present age Now had this forme being at first devised only out of need for a present shift contained it selfe within the compasse of the bankes of the Lemane lake it might have beene there retained with either the connivence or pitie of the rest of the Christian world but now finding it selfe to grow in some places through the fame of the abettors into request and good successe it hath taken the boldnesse to put it selfe forth to the notice and approbation of some neighbour Churches and some there are which I blesse my selfe to see that have taken such liking to it that they have affected a voluntary conformity thereunto and being weary of that old form of Administration which hath without contradiction continued in the whole Christian Church from the times of the blessed Apostles of Christ inclusively untill this present age are not onely eager out of their credulity to erect this new frame but dare venditate it to the world after fifteene hundred yeares deep silence for the very Ordinance and Kingdome of Christ whereas if any living man can shew any one lay Presbyter that ever was in the Christian World till Farell and Viret first created him let me forfeit my reputation to shame and my life to justice This is the true ground of this wofull quarrell wherein I cannot but heartily pitie the misguidance of many well-meaning soules of your Majesties subjects which are impetuously carried away in the throng by the meere sway of names and tyrannie of an ignorant zeale not being so much as suffered to know where they are or on what ground they goe the fervent desire of whose reclamation as of the settlement of others whom the ill condition of the time might cause to stagger hath put my pen upon this envious but necessarie taske whereto also my zeale was the more stirred by an information which I received from the late meeting at Edinburgh In the eight Session whereof it is reported that one M. G. Grahame Bishop of Orkney had openly before the whole body of the Assembly renounced his Episcopall Function and craved pardon for having accepted it as if thereby he had committed some hainous offence this uncouth act of his was more than enough to inflame any dutifull son of the Church and to occasion this my ensuing most just expostulation Only I had need to crave pardon of your Majestie for the boldnesse of this interpellation that I have dared to move your Majestie to descend so low as to take view of this on my part so confidently undertaken duell Although if the Combatants be single yet the Cause is so common as that the whole Church of God claimes her interest in it But your Majesties long-knowne goodnesse incourages me to this presumption And withall I could not but have some due regard to that right and propriety which your Majestie may justly challenge in all the labours of this kinde from whose pen soever as being under God appointed the great Patron of all divine truths the great Guardian and Protector of these parts of his Church upon earth whose true ancient and Apostolicall government is here questioned and whose deserved devotions and faithfull prayers shal be continually powred out to the God of heaven for your Majesties long and happy preservation amongst which shall be duly paid the daily tribute of Your Majesties most humble Loyall and zealously devoted Subject and Servant Ios Exon. The Contents The First Part. § 1 AN expostulatorie entrance into the question Page 1 § 2 The difference of the condition of forraigne Churches and Divines from those of our Northerne neighbours Page 6 § 3 The judgement of the German Reformers concerning the retention of Episcopacie Page 10 § 4 The attestation of forraign Divines to our Episcopacie Page 14 § 5 The particularity of the difference of our freedome and the benefit of a Monarchicall reformation Page 17 § 6 The project and drift of the treatise following Page 27 § 7 The first ground or Postulate That government whose foundation
is laid by Christ and whose fabricke is raised by the Apostles is of divine institution Page 28 § 8 The second ground The practice and recommendation of the Apostles is sufficient warrant for an Apostolicall Institution Page 30 § 9 The third ground That the formes ordained for the Churches Administration by the Apostles were for universal and perpetuall use Page 32 § 10 The fourth ground That the universall practice of the Church immediately succeeding the Apostolike times is a sure Commentary upon the practice of the Apostles and our best direction Page 35 § 11 The two famous rules of Tertullian and S. Augustine to this purpose asserted Page 39 § 12 The fifth ground That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another forme of government different from that they received of the Apostles Page 50 § 13 The sixth ground That if the next successors would have innovated the forme of government yet they could not in so short space have diffused it through the whole Christian world Page 56 § 14 The seventh ground That the ancientest Histories of the Church and writings of the first Fathers are rather to be believed in the report of the Primitive state of the Church than the latest Authors Page 59 § 15 The eight ground That those whom the ancient Church of God and all the holy Fathers of the Church since have condemned for Hereticks are no fit guids for us to follow in that their judgement of the government for which they were so condemned Page 64 § 16 The ninth ground That the accession of honourable Titles and Compatible priviledges makes no difference in the substance of a lawfull and holy calling Page 66 § 17 The tenth ground That those Scriptures whereon a new and different forme of government is raised had need to be more evident and unquestionable than those which are alledged for the former that is rejected Page 69 § 18 The eleventh ground That if Christ had left this pretended order of government it would have ere this time been agreed upon what that forme is and how to be managed Page 71 § 19 The twelfth ground That if this which is challenged be the Kingdome of Christ then those Churches which want any essentiall part of it are mainly defective and that there is scarce any at all entire Page 72 § 20 The thirteenth ground That true Christian policie requires not any thing absurd or impossible to be done Page 74 § 21 The fourteenth ground That new pretences of truths never before heard of especially in maine points carry just cause of suspicion Page 76 § 22 The fifteenth ground That to depart from the judgement and practice of the universall Church of Christ ever since the Apostles times and to betake our selves to a new invention cannot but be beside the danger extremely scandalous Page 78 The Second Part. § 1 THe Termes and state of the Question setled and agreed upon Page 1 § 2 Church government begun by our Saviour in a manifest imparity Page 11 § 3 The execution of this Apostolicall power after our Saviours ascent into Heaven Page 16 § 4 The derivation of this power and majoritie from the Apostles to the succeeding Bishops Page 19 § 5 The cleare testimonies of Scripture for this majoitie especially those out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus urged Page 26 § 6 Some elusions of these Scriptures met with and answered Page 35 § 7 The testimonie of S. John in his Revelation pressed Pag. 41 § 8 The estate and order of Episcopacie deduced from the Apostles to the Primitive Bishops Page 49 § 9 The testimony and assent of Bucer and some famous French Divines Page 54 § 10 The superiority and jurisdiction of Bishops proved by the testimonie of the first Fathers and Apostolicall men and first of Clemens the partner of the Apostles Page 59 § 11 The pregnant and full testimonies of the holy Saint and Martyr Ignatius urged Page 65 § 12 The testimonie of the ancient Canons called the Apostles Page 79 § 13 The state and historie of the next age Page 84 § 14 Proofes of the confessed superiority of Bishops from severall forceable arguments out of antiquitie Page 88 § 15 Power of Ordination only in Bishops Page 90 § 16 Power of jurisdiction appropriated to Bishops from the first Page 95 § 17 Exceptions against our Episcopacie answered and particularly of the dissimilitude of our Bishops to the Primitive in their Pompe and perpetuity Page 99 § 18 The practice of the whole Christian Church in all times and places is for this government by Bishops Page 110 § 19 Of the suppression of contrary Records and of the sole opposition of the heretick Aerius Page 117 § 20 The vindication of those Fathers which are pretended to second Aerius his opinion Page 120 § 21 The practice of the Waldenses and Albigenses in allowance of Episcopall government Page 125 § 22 The government by Bishops both universall and unalterable Page 129 The Third Part. § 1 THe appellation of Lay-Elders and the state of the Question concerning them Page 1 § 2 No Lay-Elder ever mentioned or heard of in the times of the Gospell in all the world till this present age the texts of Scripture particularized in pretence of the contrary Page 7 § 3 Lay-eldership a meere stranger to all antiquitie which acknowledgeth no Presbyters but Divines Page 15 § 4 S. Ambrose's testimonie urged commonly for Lay-Elders answered Page 19 § 5 The utter disagreement and irresolution of the pretenders to the new Discipline concerning the particular state of their desired government Page 24 § 6 The imperfections and defects which must needs be yeelded to follow upon the discipline pretended and the necessary inconveniences that must attend it in a kingdome otherwise setled Page 30 § 7 The knowne newnesse of this invention and the quality of the late authors of it Page 36 § 8 A recapitulation of the severall heads and a vehement exhortation to all Readers and first to our Northerne brethren Page 42 § 9 An exhortatorie conclusion to our brethren at home Page 53 EPISCOPACIE BY DIVINE RIGHT §. 1. An expostulatorie entrance into the Question GOod God! what is this that I have lived to heare That a Bishop in a Christian Assembly should renounce his Episcopall function and crie mercy for his now-abandoned calling Brother that was who ever you be I must have leave a while to contest seriously with you the act was yours the concernment the whole Churches You could not think so foule a deed could escape unquestioned The world never heard of such a Penance you cannot blame us if we receive it both with wonder and expostulation and tell you it had beene much better to have been unborn than to live to give so hainous a scandal to Gods Church and so deep a wound to his holy truth and Ordinance If Tweed that runs betweene us were an Ocean it could not either drown or wash off
other than to snatch the reines out of the hands of a skilfull Coachman and either to lay them loose on the horses necks or to deliver them to the hands of some ignorant and unskilfull lackeyes that run along by them But of this point more elsewhere My zeal and my respects to the Churches abroad and my care and pitie of many seduced soules at home have drawne me on farther in this discourse than I meant For who can indure to see simple and well meaning Christians abused with the false colour of Conformity with other Churches when there is apparently more distance in the ground of their differences than in the places of their situation Be wise my deare Brethren and suffer not your selves to be cheated of the Truth by the mis-mis-zealous suggestions of partiall-teachers Reserve your hearts free for the clearer light of Scripture and right reason which shall in this discourse offer to shine into your soules For you Sir fu frere confesse unlesse you can in truth deny it that you goe alone and that you have reason absolutely to quit all the hope of the Patrocination of other Churches which you might seeme to challenge from their example and practice For now that I have got you alone I shall be bold to take you to task and doe in the name of Almighty God vehemently urge and challenge you to maintaine if by any skill or pretence you may your owne act of the condemnation of Episcopacie and your penitent submission to a Presbyteriall government Wherein I doubt not but I shall convince you of an high and irreparable injury done by you to God his Ordinance and his Church § 6. The project and substance of the Treatise following FOr the full and satisfactorie performance vvhereof I shall only need to make good these tvvo maine points First That Episcopacie such as you have renounced even that vvhich implies a fixed superioritie over the rest of the Clergie and jurisdiction is not only an holy and lavvfull but a divine Institution and therefore cannot be abdicated vvithout a manifest violation of Gods Ordinance Secondly That the Presbyterian Government so constituted as you have novv submitted to it hovvever venditated under the glorious names of Christs Kingdome and Ordinance by those specious and glozing termes to bevvitch the ignorant multitude and to insnare their consciences hath no true footing either in Scripture or the practice of the Church in all ages from Christs time to the present That I may clearly evince these two maine points wherin indeed consists the life and soul of the whole cause I shall take leave to lay down certain just and necessary Postulata as the ground-workes of my ensuing proofs all which are so cleare and evident that I would fain suppose neither your selfe nor any ingenuous Christian can grudge to yeeld them But if any man will be so stiffe and close-fisted as to stick at any of them they shall be easily wrung out of his fingers by the force of Reason and manifest demonstration of Truth §. 7. The first ground or postulate That government whose foundation is laid by Christ and whose Fabrick is raised by the Apostles is of Divine Institution THe first whereof shall be this That government whose ground being laid by our Saviour himselfe vvas aftervvards raised by the hands of his Apostles cannot be denied to be of Divine Institution A Proposition so cleare that it were an injurie to goe about to prove it He cannot be a Christian who will not grant that as in Christ the Sonne of God the Deity dwelt bodily so in his servants also and agents under him the Apostles the Spirit of the same God dwelt so as all their actions were Gods by them Like as it is the same spring-water that is derived to us by the Conduit-pipes and the same Sun-beames which passe to us through our windowes Some things they did as men actions naturall civill morall these things were their own yet they even in them no doubt were assisted with an excellent measure of grace But those things which they did as Messengers from God so their names signifie these were not theirs but his that sent them An Ambassador dispatcheth his Domesticall affaires as a private man but when he treats or concludes matters of State in his Princes name his tongue is not his owne but his Masters Much more is it so in this case wherein besides the interest the agents are freed from errour The carefullest Ambassador may perhaps swerve from his message these which was one of the priviledges of the Apostles were through the guidance of Gods Spirit in the acts of their Function inerrable So then if the foundation were laid by Christ and the wals built up by his Apostles the Fabrick can be no lesse than divine §. 8. The second ground That the practice and recommendation of the Apostles is sufficient warrant for an Apostolicall Institution SEcondly It must also be granted That not onely the government which vvas directly commanded and enacted but that vvhich vvas practised and recommended by the Apostles to the Church is justly to be held for an Apostolicall Institution In eminent and authorized persons even examples are rules much more in so sacred Neither did the Spirit of God confine it selfe to vvords but expressed it selfe also in the holy actions of his inspired servants as Chrysostome therefore truly said That our Saviour did not only speak but vvork Parables So may vve say here that the Apostles did not only enact but even act lavves for his holy Church Licèt autem nullum extat praeceptum de manuum impositione c. Calv. l. 4. Instit C. 3.8.16 And this is learned Calvins determination about imposition of hands Although saith he there is no certaine precept concerning Imposition of Hands yet because vve see it vvas in perpetuall use vvith the Apostles their so accurate observation of it ought to be unto us instead of a command and therfore soone after he affirmes plainly That this Ceremony proceeded from the Holy Ghost himself And in the fore-going Chapter speaking of the distribution of Pastors to their severall charges he saith Nec humanum est inventum c. It is no humane device but the Institution of God himselfe For vve read that Paul and Barnabas ordained Presbyters in all the Churches of Lystra Antioch Iconium And that direction vvhich the great Apostle of the Gentiles gave to Timothy vvas as Calvin truly Mandati nomine in the name and nature of a command And vvhat els I beseech you vvould the rigid exacters of the over-severe and Judaicall observation of the Lords day as an Evangelicall Sabbath seem to plead for their vvarrant vvere they able to make it good any vvay but the guise and practice of the Apostles Precept certainly there is none either given or pretended Thus the bitter Tileno-mastix can say There was a double Discipline of the Apostles Docens and Vtens in the first they gave precepts to
to give for her nest Two things are answered hereto by Parker and his Clients The one That the rule of S. Augustine availes us nothing since that the Originall of Episcopacie is designed as from Decree by S. Hierome as from Councels by S. Ambrose but what that decree was or could be besides Apostolicall or what those Councels were hee were wise that could tell He and all his abettors I am sure cannot But of this in the Sequell The other after some mis-applied testimonies of our owne Authors who drive onely at matter of faith that hee can make instance in diverse things which were both universally and perpetually received no Councell decreeing them and yet farre from an Apostolike Ordination Sibrandus Lubbertus helpes him to his first instance borrowed from S. Augustine a fixed day for the celebration of Easter And what of that How holds his argument in this For that this or that day should be universally set and perpetually kept for that solemne Feast who that ever heard of the state of the Primitive time can affirme Since those famous quarrels and contrary pretences of their severall derivations of right from the two prime Apostles are still in every mans eye but that an Easter was agreed to be solemnly kept by the Primitive Church universally Euseb l. 5. hist c. 24. Quanquam enim in ipso die differeâ—tia erat in hoc tamen omnes Eâ—â—lâ—siae conspirâ◠unt Diem Paschatis observandum aliquem esse Ibid. Polit. Eccles those very Contentions betwixt Polycarpus and Annicetus do sufficiently declare and Parker himselfe confesseth Thus it was kept and withall decreed by no Councell yet not saith he by any Apostolicall institution How doth that appeare Nihil illi de festis c. They .i. the Apostles never delivered ought concerning Feast-dayes nor yet of Easter Why but this is the very question Parker denies it and must we take his word for proofe whereas we have the Apostles direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the feast And afterwards there is a plaine deduction of it from and through the times succeeding as is fully and excellently set forth by our incomparably-learned the late Bishop of Winchester to whose accurate discourse of this subject B. Andrewes Serm. of the Resur Ser. 13. I may well referre my reader His second instance is the Apostles Creed which our Authors justly place within the first three hundred yeares after Christ used and received by the whole Church and not enacted by any Councels yet not in respect of the forme of it delivered by the Apostles A doughty argument and fit for the great Controller of times and Antagonist of government we speak of the matter of the Creed he talkes of the forme of it we of things he of words and just so Tilenus his friend instances in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found in Ignatius But do these men suppose S. Augustine meant to send us to seek for all common expressions of language to the Apostles Let them tell us Is there any thing in the substance of that Creed which we cannot fetch from the Apostles Are not all the severall clauses as he cites them from S. Augustine per divinas Scripturas sparsae indè collectae in unum redactae scattered here and there in the Scriptures penned by the Apostles gathered up and reduced into this summe As for the syntaxe of words and sentences who of us ever said they were or needed to be fathered upon those great Legates of the Sonne of God Our Cause is no whit the poorer if we grant there were some universall termes derived by Tradition to the following ages whereof the Originall Authors are not knowne This will not come within the compasse of his quiddam vox est praetereà nihil His third instance is in the Observation of Lent for which indeed there is so great plea of Antiquity that himselfe cannot deny it to be acknowledged even by old Ignatius a man contemporary to some of the Apostles and as overcome by the evidence of all Histories grants it to be apparent that the whole Church constantly ever observed some kinde of Fast before their Easter no lesse than Theophilus Alexandrinus Polit. Eccles ubi suprà Lex abstinendi the Law of fasting in Lent hath beene alwayes observed in the Church and what need we more And yet saith Parker for all that Lent was not delivered by Apostolike authority Et in eo lapsi sunt Patres therein the Fathers are mistaken Magisterially spoken and we must believe him rather than S. Hierome who plainely tels us it is secundùm Traditionem Apostolorum according to the Tradition of the Apostles The specialties indeed of this fast admitted of old very great variety in the season in the number of dayes in the limitation subject and manner of abstinence as Socrates hath well expressed Socrat. l. 5. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for a quoddam jejunium some kinde of fast I see no reason why the man that can be so liberall as to grant it alwayes observed by the universall Church should be so strait-laced as to deny it derivable from the Tradition of the holy Apostles and when he can as well prove it not Apostolike as we can prove it universall we shall give him the Bucklers To what purpose do I trace him in the rest the ancient rites of the Eucharist and of Baptisme urged out of Baronius of gestures in prayer of the observation of solemne Feasts and Embers let one word serve for all it will be an harder work for him to prove their universality and perpetuity than to disprove their originall let it be made good that the whole Church of Christ alwayes received them we shall not be niggardly in yeelding them this honour of their pedigree deducible from an Apostolicall recommendation In the meane time every not ungracious sonne of this spirituall Mother will learne to kisse the footsteps of the universall Church of Christ as knowing the deare and infallible respects betwixt him and this blessed Spouse of his as to whom he hath ingaged his everlasting presence and assistance Behold I am with you alwayes to the end of the world and will resolve to spit in the face of those seducers who go about to alienate their affections from her and to draw them into the causlesse suspicions of her chast fidelity to her Lord and Saviour To shut up this point therefore if we can show that the universall practice of the Church immediately after the Apostles and ever since hath been to governe by Bishops superiour to Presbyters in their order and jurisdiction our Cause is won §. 12. The fifth ground That the Primitive Saints and Fathers neither would nor durst set up another forme of government different from that they received from the Apostles FIftly we may not entertaine so irreverent an opinion of the Saints and Fathers of the Primitive Church That they who
Christians especially in the greater Cities so multiplied that they must needs be divided into many Congregations and those Congregations must necessarily have many Presbyters and those many Presbyters in the absence of the Apostles began to emulate each other and to make parties for their own advantage then as St. Ierome truly notes began the manifest and constant distinction betwixt the Office of Bishops and Presbyters to be both known and observed For now the Apostles by the direction of the Spirit of God found it requisite a d necessary for the avoyding of schisme and disorder that some eminent persons should every where be lifted up above the rest and ordained to succeed them in the ouer-seeing and ordering both the Church and their many Presbyters under them who by an eminence were called their Bishops Or as the word signifies Supervisors and Governours So as the Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3.7 they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as the Offices so the names of Bishop and Deacon were of Apostolicall foundation These Bishops therefore were the men whom they furnished with their own ordinary power as Church-governors for this purpose Now the offi◠es grew fully distinct even in the Apostles daies and under their own hands although sometimes the names after the former use were confounded All the question then shortly is whether the Apostles of Christ ordained Episcopacie thus stated and thus fixedly-qualified with Imparitie and Iurisdiction For if we take a Bishop for a parochiall Pastor and a Presbyter for a Lay-elder as too many misconstrue the terms it were no lesse then madnesse to doubt of this Superioritie but we take Episcopacie in the proper and fore-defined sence and Presbyterie according to the only true and ancient meaning of the Primitive Church viz for that which we call now Priesthood the other is a meerly new and uncouth devise neither came ever within the Ken of antiquitie As for the further subdivision of this quarrell whether Episcopacy must be accounted a distinct Order or but a severall degree in the same Order there is heer no need for the present to enter into the discussion of it Especially since I observe that the wiser sort of our opposites are indifferent to both so that whichsoever you take may be granted them to be but Iuris humani And I cannot but wonder at the toughnesse of those other opposites which stand so highly upon this difference to have it meerly but a degree In the mean while never considering that those among the Pontificiall Divines which in this point are the greatest Patrons of this their fancy go all upon the ground of the Masse according to which they regulate and conforme their opinions therein First making all Ecclesiasticall power to have reference to the body of Christ Bellarm. de sacram Ord n. l. 1. c. 9. as Bellarmine fully then every Priest being able with them to make his Maker what possible power can be imagined say they to be above that The Presbyter therefore consecrating as well as the Bishop the Order in their conceit upon this ground can be but one So then these doughty Champions among us do indeed but plead for Baal whiles they would be taken for the only pullers of him down But for our selves taking order in that sense in which our Oracle of learning Bishop Andrewes Winton Epist ad Molin 1. ci es it out of the School qua potestas est ad actum specialem there can be no reason to deny Episcopacy to be a distinct order since the greatest detractors from it have granted the power of Ordination of Priests Deacons and of Imposition of hands for Confirmation to Bishops only They are Chamiers owne words Camer de Oe cumen Pontif. l. 10. c. 5. Accipere Episcopum novam potestatem Jurisdictionem non iverim inficias I cannot denie that a Bishop as such receiveth a new power and jurisdiction Moreover in the Church of England every Bishop receives a new Ordination by way of Eminence commonly called his Consecration which cannot be a void-Act I trow and must needs give more then a degree and why should that great and ancient Councell define it to be no lesse than sacriledge to put down a Bishop into the place of a Presbyter if it were only an abatement of a degree but howsoever this be yet if it shall appear that there was by Apostolicall Ordination such a fixed imparity and constant Iurisdiction amongst those who were intrusted with the teaching and governing Gods people that is of Bishops above the other Clergie as I have spoken we have what we contend for which whiles I see doubted I cannot but wonder with what eies men read St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus Surely in my understanding the Apostle speaks so home to the point that if he were now to give direction to an English Bishop how to demean himselfe in his place he could not speak more fully to the execution of this sacred Office For I demand what it is that is stood upon but these two particulars the especiall power of Ordination and power of the ruling and censuring of Presbyters and if these two be not clear in the charge of the Apostle to those two Bishops one of Crete the other of Ephesus I shall yield the cause and confesse to want my senses §. 5. The clear Testimonies of Scripture especially those out of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus urged NOw because this is the main point that is stood upon and some wayward opposites are ready to except at all proofs but Scripture I shall take leave briefly to scan those pregnant Testimonies which I finde in those two Apostolicall Epistles and first Timothy is charged 1 Tim. 1.3 to charge the preachers of Ephesus that they teach no other Doctrine than was prescribed That they do not give heed to Fables and Genealogies If Timothy were an equall Presbyter with the rest those Teachers were as good as he what then had he to do to charge Teachers Or what would those Teachers care for his charge How equally apt would they be to charge him to keep within his own compasse and to meddle with his own matters It is only for Superiors to charge and inferiors to obey Secondly this charge S. Paul commits to Timothy to oversee and controll the unmeet and unseasonable doctrines of the Ephesian false teachers 1 Tim. 1.12 according to the prophecies which went before of him and that in opposing himselfe to their erroneous opinions he might war a good warfare This controlment cannot be incident into an equality In this charge therefore both given and executed however it pleased our Tileno-mastix in a scurrilous manner to jeer us upon the like occasion with a profecto erit pessimus Dominus Episcopus Paulus that S. Paul was an ill Lord Bishop I may truly say that both St. Paul and Timothy his disciple doth as truly Lord it heer in their
government sadly complaining of Antichrist and that the light of life hath lien hid under the mask of Popery until this day of love and now he coms to erect his Seniores sanctae intelligentiae Elders of the holy understanding and his other rabble Beware therefore I advise you how you take up this challenge but upon better grounds disgrace not Gods Truth with the odious name of Antichristianisme honour not Antichrist with the claime and title of an holy Truth Confesse the device new and make your best of it But if any man will pretend this governmet hath beene in the world before though no footsteps remaine of it in any history or record he may as well tell me there hath beene of old a passage from the Teneriffe to the Moone though never any but a Gonzaga discovered it §. 8. A Recapitulation of the severall heads and a vehement exhortation to all Readers and first to our Northerne brethren NOw then I beseech and adjure you my deare brethren by that love you professe to beare to the Truth of God by that tender respect you beare to the peace of his Sion by your zeale to the Gospell of Christ by your maine care of your happy account one day before the Tribunall of the most righteous Iudge of the quick and dead lay every of these things seriously together and lay all to heart And if you finde that the government of Episcopacie established in the Church is the very same which upon the foundation of Christs Institution was erected by his inspired Apostles and ever since continued unto this day without interruption without alteration If you finde that not in this part of the Western Church alone into which the Church of Rome had diffused her errours but in all the Christian world farre and wide in Churches of as large extent as the Roman ever was and never in any submission to her no other forme of government was ever dreamed of from the beginning If you finde that all the Saints of God ever since the holy Martyrs and Confessors the Fathers and Doctors both of the Primitive and ensuing Church have not onely admitted but honoured and magnified this onely government as Apostolicall If all Synods and Councels that have been in the Church of God since the Apostles time have received and acknowledged none but this alone If you finde that no one man from the dayes of the Apostles till this age ever opened his mouth against it save onely one who was for this cause amongst others branded and discarded for an heretick If you finde that the ancient Episcopacie even from Mark Bishop of Alexandria Timothy Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Câ—ete were altogether in substance the same with ours in the same altitude of fixed superiority in the same latitude of spirituall jurisdiction if you finde the Laicke Presbytery an utter stranger to the Scriptures of God a thing altogether unheard of in the ancient times yea in all the following ages of the Church If you finde that Invention full of indeterminable uncertainties If you finde the practice of it necessarily obnoxious to unavoydable imperfections and to grosse absurdities and impossibilities Lastly if you finde the device so new that the first authours and abettors of it are easily traced to their very forme as those that lived in the dayes of thousands yet living If you finde all these as you cannot choose but finde them and many weighty considerations moe being so clearly laid before you I beseech you suffer not your selves to be led by the nose with an vnjust prejudice or an over-weening opinion of some persons whom you thinke you have cause to honour but without all respects to flesh and blood weigh the cause it self impartially in the ballance of Gods Sanctuary and judge of it accordingly Vpon my soul except the holy Scripture Apostolicall acts the practice of the ancient Church of God the judgement of all sacred Synods of all the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church all grounds of faith reason policie may faile us we are safe and our cause victorious Why then O why will you suffer your selves to be thus impetuously carried away with the false suggestions of some mis-mis-zealous teachers who have as I charitably judge of some of them whatsoever grounds the rest might have over run the truth in a detestation of error and have utterly lost peace in an inconsiderate chace of a fained perfection For you my Northerne brethren for such you shall be when you have done your worst if there were any foul personal faults found in any of our Church-governours as there never wanted aspersions where an extermination is intended alas why should not your wisdome charity have taught you to distinguish betwixt the calling the crime were the person vicious yet the function is holy why should God his cause be stricken because man hath offended yet to this day no offence proved Your Church hath been anciently famous for an holy and memorable Prelacie and though it did more lately fall upon the division of Dioeceses D. Henr. Spelman ex Hectore Boetio Anno 840. so as every Bishop did in every place as opportunity offered executo Episcopall offices which kinde of Administration continued in your Church till the times of Malcolme the third yet this government over the whole Clergie was no lesse acknowledged than their sanctimony after the setling of those your Episcopall Sees it is worth your note and our wonder which your Hector Boetius writes Sacer Pontificatus Sancti Andreae tanta reverentia c. The Bishoprick of St. Andrewes was with so great reverence and innocence of life from the first institution of it in a long line of Episcopall succession continued to the very time wherein we wrote this That six and thirty and more of the Bishops of that See were accounted for Saints Good Lord How are either the times altered or we There may be differences of carriage and those that are Oxthodoxe in judgement may be faulty in demeanour But I grieve and feare to speak it There is now so little danger of a Calender that no holinesse of life could excuse the best Bishop from being ejected like an evill spirit out of the bosome of that Church Deus omen c. In the name of God what is it what can it be that is thus stood upon Is it the very name of Episcopacie which like that of Tarquin in Rome is condemned to a perpetuall disuse What hath the innocent word offended Your own Church after the Reformation could well be contented to admit of Superintendents and what difference is here as Zanchius well but that good Greek is turn'd into ill Latin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superintendens Their power by your owne allowance and enacting is the same with your Bishops Their Dioeceses accordingly divided their residence fixed viz. The Superintendent of Orkney his Dioecesse shall be the Isles of Orkney Catnesse and Strathnever his Residence