A TREATISE OF THE EPISCOPACY LITURGIES AND ECCLESIASTICAL CEREMONIES OF THE PRIMITIVE TIMES AND Of the mutations which happened to them in the fucceeding Ages GATHERED Out of the Works of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church By John Lloyd B. D. Presbyter of the Church of North-Mimmes in Hertfordshire Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 Multum sacerdotalis officii meritum splendescit ubi sic summorum servatur auctoritas ut in nuâ—â— inferiorum putatur imminuta libertas Leonis Epist 61. Episcopi sacerdotes se esse noverint non Dominos honorent clericos quafi clericos ut ipsis à clericis quasi Episcopis honor deferatur Hierom. ad Nepotianum De vita clericorum LONDON Printed by W. G. for John Sherley at the Sign of the Pelican and Robert Littlebury at the Sign of the Unicorn in Little Britain M.DC.LX TO The Right Reverend Father in God IOHN LORD BISHOP OF EXCESTER MY LORD WHen the dark night of our confusions was by Gods wonderful mercy never to be forgotten well nigh at an end by the near approaching of our Sun the breath of our nostrils our dread Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty unto the horizon of his paenitent and loyal Subjects in his hereditary Kingdomes and Dominions whereby all began to be revived to be prepared for the receiving all good impressions in this beginning of our happiness considering with my self by what best means men of different apprehensions concerning Ecclesiastical things might be brought unto godly unity and meet uniformity therein I thought that the knowledge of the state of the Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes and in the four Centuries following their times as to the form of Ecclesiastical Government Discipline Liturgy and Rites used in them would very much conduce to the attainment of that blessed end For in those dayes many thousands of holy Confessors and Martyrs flourished in those times lived the most reverend Fathers of the first four general Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon celebrated over all the Christian world of whose wisdome and godly care to do nothing in those particulars against the institutions of Christ and his Apostles but rather to do all things as might be most pleasing to God and most conducing to the edification of the Church no prudent and charitable man can entertain the least doubt Men they were and might erre but that so many men of extraordinary holinesse and wisdome compared to the best men of these latter Centuries should unanimously agree for the space of two three or four hundred years in setting up and practising superstition is incredible to them who believe that God hath promised to teach the humble his way and shew his covenant to them that fear him and not to forsake them which have not first forsaken him Having therefore reason and religion to assure me that all understanding and sober men if they could once see the form of Church-government with the Liturgies and Rites used by those Primitive Churches demonstrated by undeniable testimonies of pure antiquity would easily be induced to embrace them so far as they should appear to be convenient for Christian unity and edification in the present circumstances of time place and persons whereof not private men but the Governours Civil and Ecclesiastical are the onely Judges on earth I made what inquiry I could if any book were extant in the English tongue containing a brief full and plain demonstration of all the said Ecclesiastical things which might be had at a cheap rate soon read over and easily understood by all men of indifferent capacity whereby the knowledge of those things might be the more divulged But after diligent inquiry finding none I resolved being the work was within the limits of my vocation and in reading the ancient writers I had with no small diligence noted the passages conducing thereto invocato Dei Opt. Max. Nomine to use my poor talent with my best indevour to write such a little book which should comprehend in it the sum and substance of all the matters above specified as briefly fully and plainly as I could And this was the beginning of this small Treatise which being ended in convenient time was offered to worthy men of excellent indowments to be perused by them in hope that one or other of them knowing the usefulness of the matter treated of and observing the too plain low and uneven manner of writing would be moved to put forth a work upon that subject which being replenished with good variety of well ordered matters adorned with convenient eloquence and commended by the worthy name of an Author famous for his learning eloquence and vertues would be by all readily entertained greedily read and would sweetly convey the things desired to be published to the knowledge of all men But herein my hope failed me For those worthy persons were so imployed in the high and weighty affaires of the Church that they had no leisure to go about this although an useful work yet of less profit to the Church and less proportionable to their great abilities then the sublime imployment wherein their time was spent What remained then but that either that needful work must be altogether wanting or this poor treatise so void of due ornaments must be suffred to go abroad I had indeed once in a manner resolved to bury it in my study but an occasion bringing the matterr into a new debate I suffered some reasons to prevaile with me to give it leave to present it self to the view of the world yet not without some honourable Patron the glorious lustre of whose great learning Excellent Vertues and pretious name might both illumminate it and conciliate for the mean and obscure author some room in the good esteem and affection of learned and good men For which end I thought it most convenient to make choise of one of those very bright stars which his Majesties wisdome and goodness had been pleased to set in the firmament of our Church among whom your Lordship was first presented to my thoughts in your very learned elegant and eloquent works especially both in your testification of your great and very remarkable zeal for the now most blessed and glorious Saint and Martyr our late glorious King CHARLS the first and in your no less zealous fidelity to our most dear and dread Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the second manifested in times of greatest peril and also in your sighs groans complaints and prayers for and of the Church of England in her deep distress in your prudent indefatigable endevours for her restauration in those parts of your Lordships most learned writings wherein as in exceeding fair monuments more lasting then brasse you consecrate the blessed Memories of many very precious names viz. of the right reverend Fathers Bishop Andrews Bishop Morton Bishop Potter Bishop Hall Bishop Brownrigg and other honourable persons never to be remembred without
l. 4. c. ult Hierom affirmeth that many things which are by tradition observed in the Churches have usurped to themselves the authority of a Divine law as in baptism to immerge the head thrice and then to tast the concord of milk and honey Adversus Luciferianos to signifie infancy and on the Lords day and in all the Pentecost not to pray kneeling nor to fast Constantine the great exhorteth all to embrace the decree of the Nicene Council concerning the set time of the celebration of the Feast of Easter as a gift of God and a Commandement sent down from heaven Euseb de vita Constantini l. 3. c. 18. Edit Basil 1570. for whatsoever is decreed in the holy Councils of Bishops that ought to be ascribed to the divine will Hierom in another place saith let every one judge the precepts of the ancients to be Apostolical laws Hierom. Ep. 28. It is not to be doubted saith Leo Bishop of Rome but that every Christian observance is of divine erudition and that whatsoever is received by the Church into a custome of devotion Serm. 2. de jejun Pentecost proceeded from the Apostolick tradition and the Doctrine of the holy Spirit The Fathers use very frequently to affirm some institutions or rites to be divine or Apostolical because they seemed a greeable to and their lawfulness demonstrable by the old Testament the Gospels or Apostolick Epistles So the Lent Fast is by them said to be of Apostolical and Divine tradition because it seems an imitation of the Fast of Elias and of Christ and Monachism is affirmed to be Apostolick because it hath an appearance of being an imitation of John the Baptist Amalar. Alcuin Pontifical Damas c. yet many ancient writers make Pope Telesphorus who flourished Forty years after the decease of St. John the Apostle to be the author of the Quadragesimal Fast although indeed it had a much later beginning and affirm Paul and Anthony to be the Fathers of Monachism So that many institutes were counted Apostolick because some example or reason of the Scripture did seem to warrant them Whence Hierom and others intimate Hierom. in vita Pauli that Episcopacy was instituted in imitation of Aaron and his Sons or of the Apostles and 70 Disciples affirming Bishops to be successors of aaron and the Apostles and Presbyters the successors of the Sons of Aaron and of the 70 Disciples Fourthly it is a certain truth acknowledged by all the learned that the Apostles were authors as well of local and temporary or universal and temporary ordinances rites or ceremonies as of universal and perpetual for they were inspired by the Holy Ghost infallibly to discern both what the present condition although variable of some or all the Churches required and what upon reasons arising from unvariable grounds and circumstances was needful to be observed in all the Churches of Christ Polycarpus a hearer of the Apostles and by St. John made Bishop of Smyrna celebrated the Pasche in the fourteenth moon and so did the rest of Asia and some of the East observing it the same time with the Jews moved thereto by the countenance and example of St. John the Apostle but Anicetus Bishop of Rome who flourished in the life time of Polycarpus and generally the Churches of the West kept the Feast at another time and on the Lords day induced thereto as they affirmed by the tradition and example of St. Peter the Apostle We cannot with reason and charity think that either Polycarpus with the Asians and East or Anicetus with the Western Churches Apud Euseb Iren. could be ignorant of the time when Peter in the West or John in Asia observed that Feast Polycarpus being an eye witness of what the Apostle St. John did and Anicetus being a hearer of the hearers of Clemens who was contemporary with the Apostle St. Peter or that they would considerately speak and perseveringly maintain an untruth imputing a fact to either Apostle which he had not done especially seeing the untruth on either side might have been confuted by a thousand witnesses wherefore we must judge this to be an evident example of a variable apostolick institution I might instance in part of the Apostles decree in the 15 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles of things strangled and blood but least I move scruples in weak consciences which they cannot easily be rid of I will only commend to the consideration of the judicious the judgment of some ancient writers quoted in the margent August contra Faustum l. 32. c. 13. Et tractcti contra graecos in biblioth patr to 4. pag. 1308. et 1318.1319.1320 There be many rites which the Fathers held to be Apostolical which in the times of the same Fathers were in many places altered or neglected as the three immersions in baptisme the repairing of neighbour Bishops to the people where a Bishop was wanting there to ordain one in the presence of the people not to fast in the dayes of Pentecost and some other which prove that according to the judgment of those Fathers the Apostles guided by divine inspiration made some decrees alterable and which were upon just reasons accordingly changed or disused and therefore if it were proved that the Apostles by divine motion were the primary Auctors of Episcopacy and not the Church yet if it cannot appeare to be a constitution built upon perpetuall reason and in its nature independing upon variable circumstances it may possibly be changed by the Church Here it may be demanded by what members of it self did the universal Church abrogate the Presbyterian and institute Episcopal Government and what power was taken from the Presbyters by that abrogation For answer to these demands we must distingnish between the power given to ministers to doe some things as to preach baptize ordain Pastors excomunicate absolve c. and secondly the free exercise of those acts and thirdly the regulation of the exercise of them as to the persons about whom time when the place where the manner decency c. To the regulation belong 1. The making of laws concerning the due exercise of the power agreeable to the divine laws and secondly the superintendents of the execution and thirdly the executors of them As for the power it doth not appear that any of that was taken from the Presbyters or their Colledge by the institution of Episcopacy if they were deprived of any part of it can 13. that must be the ordaining of Presbyters but the Council of Ancyra seems to demonstrate that the power of ordaining Pastors did and doth remain in them which they did exercise by the leave Et Synod Antioch c. 16. vide Vasque in 3. p. Disp 143. c. 4. and in the place of the Bishop which Could not at his pleasure give them but supposed the power continuing in them The words of the Council be these according to the Greek Original and not their vulgar
him a very notorious defect in fulfilling his duty of which yet if there was any the least probable appearance of repentance he was not denied the necessary viaticum as the Council of Nice calls it The best men ready to depart to a better life desired and took this caelestial meat for their comfort and refreshment in their passage to God Some ministers are so strict and parsimonious in giving the Holy Sacrament that they deny the same unto a considerable part yea often to most part of their parish which before had been admitted to it without using the method prescribed by our Saviour in Matth. chap. 18. vers 15 16 17. Which text requires publick accusation and proof in the presence of the governours of the Church and their publick condemnation before the publick execution of so high a censure They are also so hard hearted to dying men earnestly desiring that soul-confirming most refreshing viaticum that although they cannot truely before God and men if put to it assure it that they remain in a state of sin inconsistent with any degree of saving grace as in case of denial they should be upon good grounds assured yet they can be so uncharitable and unmerciful as to deny it unto them These extreams on the one hand and on the other hand partly the not forgotten great abuse of the holy censures by Chancellors and Commissaries partly the late ejecting of the set publick formes of prayers out of the Churches and partly the general contempt of all the holy ordinances spread over the Kingdomes by the several Sects brought in and maintained by the Regicides to strengthen and perpetuate themselves if they could in their most impious usurpation and tyranny these I say have made the Communion of Saints in the publick prayers and the holy Sacraments to be of very small esteem with most insomuch that very many are brought to believe they may go to heaven notwithstanding the neglect of them for which most pestilent disease if seasonable and convenient medicine be not found out and wifely applied the Church of England will be uncapable of receiving any benefit by the meer Ecclesiastical Discipline and the onely restraint under God against the growing sad effects of irreligious profaness will lie in the sole power of the Regal auctority What gesture of body was used in those ancient times in receiving the holy Communion Sect. 17. whether standing or kneeling or at some times the one and at other times the other is not very clearly and expressely set down by the writers of that age that I can remember This onely is certain that they did not kneel in the receiving of it on the Lords days because it was against a Canon of the Church to adore God by bowing of the knee on those dayes It is probable that on other days except in the Pentecost they received kneeling Hieron in Esa c. 45. for St. Hierom saith that it was an Ecclesiastical Custome to bow the knee to Christ Idem in Epist ad Ephes c. 3. which we may understand to be in the receiving of that holy Sacrament as well as in the publick prayers notwithstanding that this holy Doctor saith in another place that every one that is subject unto Christ is said to bend his knee unto him and citing the words of St. Paul at the name of Jesus every knee shall be bowed addeth that the words do not pertain to the knees of the body but to the subjection of the mind and inclination of the soul and obsequiousness of the heart to God Which this most learned Father would never have said or written if the Custome of the Church had been in his time to kneel not onely unto Christ himself but also to his name Jesus or if he had thought that this place of the Apostle did signifie it to be every mans duty to make the name Jesus a co-object with Christ of his adoration by the bowing of the knee as some of the latter Schoolmen have taught In the time of St. Hierom and before the standing in receiving the Eucharist on the Lords day was accompanied with a low bowing of the body even nigh to a prostration for St. Augustine writing upon the 98 Psalm faith August in Ps 98. none eateth that flesh unless he first hath adored it And in the words following he speaketh of inclination and prostration to that earth that is the flesh of our Saviour not considered as apart from but as in and with the most blessed Divine person Cyrill Hierosol Catech. Mystagog 5. Cyrill of Jerusalem speaking of the Holy Communion saith take the body of Christ saying Amen and a little after come saith he to the Cup of his blood not extending thy hands but incurving them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in manner of adoring and worshiping saying Amen But now that the more urgent reasons which moved the Fathers of the Primitive Church not to use kneeling in adoring God on the Lords days are ceased it seems most convenient to kneel in taking the Holy Sacrament upon what day soever we receive it for the nearer Christ comes to us and the more he doth descend and condescend in coming to us yea and into us mystically in those external weak Elements the more should we descend humble and debase our selves by the inward bowing of our souls and the external bending of our knees in the receiving of him thereby testifying our own unworthiness of that Grace and commending the exceeding freeness of it In the Kingdome of Prester John they stand when they receive the holy Communion In giving the Sacrament the Bishop or Presbyter said Francisc Alvarus apud Cassandri liturg De Sacrament l. 4. c. 6. the body of the Lord and the receive said Amen saith Ambrose About the year 600 in the Sacramentary of Gregory the great it is said while the priest giveth the Lords body let him say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thee to eternal life Amen And in giving the Cup let him say The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thee to eternal life In the mass of some Armenians in Russia the priest communicating faith Apud Cassand liturg By faith I believe in the most holy Trinity the Father Son and Holy Ghost By faith I eate thy quickning and saving body O Lord Jesus Christ let it be unto me to the absolution and remission of my sinnes And in drinking the Cup I drink by faith thy holy unmixed blood blotting out sins Apud Eundem O Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins and of my Parents and of all the world Every Communicant of the Armernians in India goeth before the foot of the altar to receive It is provided in the Council of Laodic before the year 400 Can. 19. that only the ministers might go in to the altar and there take the Communion Can. 17. In the fourth Council of Tolet. it was appointed
denote confirmation alone but any other perpetual ordinance of God wherein this ceremony was to be used by the authority of the Apostles exampled and practise They which say that this ceremony was to last no longer in use then God was pleased to continue the miraculous operations usual in the Apostolick times seem to impute inconsiderateness to the Apostle in reckoning that one of the fundamentals of Religion which was not to be perpetually continued in the militant Church but we are assured that the Apostle being moved by the Holy Ghost could not speak inconsiderately and that every fundamental of Christian Religion shall continue in Christs Church unto the end of the world as this ceremony both in confirmation and in ordinations of Pastors hath hitherto been alwayes used in the universal Church and without doubt will so continue unto the end of time Pastors are called in the Apostolical Epistles by two other names Sect. 4. that is Bishops and Presbyters the Apostleship contained in it self the pastoral offices and therefore an Apostle was also called a Bishop and Presbyter The first mention of Pastors by the name of Presbyters of Elders is in Acts 11.30 where the Church of Antioch is said to have sent relief by Barnabas and Saul unto the Elders of the Churches in Judaea in the time of the great dearth which was in the days of Claudius Caesar in the 15 Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we finde the controversie concerning the necessity of circumcision and keeping of the Law of Moses brought by Paul and Barnabas before the Apostles and Elders or Presbyters in the Church of Jerusalem to be by them determined We see in the chapter of the Acts how that Paul with some of the brethren went in unto James and all the elders were present whence we may observe that the Apostles did not discuss and end the controversie concerning circumcision and keeping of the Law without the presence of the Presbyters of the Church where they then were nor did James alone heat Paul but together with his Presbyters did both hear him and give him that seasonable Councel to purifie himself for the avoiding the offence of the beleiving Jews which were numerous in Jerusalem Here ariseth a question Sect. 5. whether St. James was head of the Presbyters of the Church of Jerusalem onely as he was an Apostle having his ordinary residence in that Church or also as having an ordinary authority over the Presbyters which was to be continued to successors over the succeding Presbyters it is certain that as an Apostle he was the head of the Presbyters having a superiority over them but as the Apostleship was not to pass to successors so neither was his authority to be conveyed to any in succession but to be terminated with his life it is more then probable that at that time he was their superior onely as an Apostle settled in that Church neither had we need to conceive him in any subsequent times to become their head in any other sense then this if the unanimous testimony of the ancient Doctors of the Church did not constrain us to be of another judgment unless we will reject the witness of the Catholick Church constantly persevered in from the beginining of the second Centuary after our Saviours birth unto this day For the Fathers do constantly affirm that St. James was for some time before his decease Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem not onely in the sense of the word Bishop common to an Apostle and every Presbyter but in the sense which soon after the time of Clemens Romanus was appropriated to it that is signifying such a Presbyter as had a superiority over all the rest of the Presbyters of the same Church to continue in him during life and to be transferred to some other after him Hegesippus an Historian Apud Euseb hiss l. 4. c. 21. Ibid. l. 3. c. 29. who flourished about the year 170 relateth that after the death of St. James Simon Cleopa being chosen Bishop of the Church of Jerusalem one Thebulis began to corrupt the Church with vain Doctrine because he was not made Bishop there And the same Historian writeth that Simon Cleopa lived Bishop of that place until the times of Trajane the Emperor under whose government Simon suffered Martyrdome and John the Apostle died by which testimony of an historian who lived within 60 years after the death of the Apostle St. John it plainly appeareth that Simon was not after the death of St. James brother of our Lord constituted onely a single Presbyter of that Church nor James before him head thereof only as an Apostle or an extraordinary governour but that both were ordinary rulers of the whole Church as well Presbyters as the other members thereof Clemens Alexandrinus Paedagog l. 3. c. ult Strom. 6. who lived before the year of our Lord 200 makes a clear distinction between a Bishop and a Presbyter saying that in the Scriptures some precepts pertain to Bishops some to Presbyters and some to Deacons and in another place that a Presbyter doing and teaching according to Gods will although he be not on earth honoured with the first chair shall sit on the 24 thrones judging the people and a little after he saith that here in the Church the provections or proficiencies of Bishops Presbyters Deacons be imitations of the angelical glory Tertullian who flourished in the year of our Lord 200 De Monogamia c. 11. mentions an use in his time of asking leave of the Bishop of the Presbyters and of the Deacons to marry Elsewhere he calls upon the Hereticks to shew the beginnings of their Churches and so to reckon the order of their Bishops running from the beginning by successions that the first Bishop have an Apostle or an Apostolical man for his auctor or antecessor as the Church of Smyrna relates Polycarpus to be placed there Bishop by John the Apostle and the Church of Rome reporteth Clement to have been ordained there by Peter the Apostle Adversus Valentin c. 4. In another place the same author saith that Valentinus because he was ingenious eloquent had hoped an Episcopacy De Baptismo c. 17. and being angry that another by prerogative of Martyrdome had obtained it he departed from the Church In another place he hath this observation viz. the emulation of Episcopacy is the mother of Schismes Adversus haeres l. 3. c. 3. apud Euseb l. 5. c. 18. I must not forget the testimony of Ireaaeus who affirmeth of himself that he was a hearer of Polycarpus who was not onely taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of them which saw the Lord but was also by the Apostles in Asia Advers haeres l. 3. c. 3. Edit Paris 1567. in which is the Church of Smyrna constituted a Bishop the same Irenaeus doth enumerate the Bishops of Rome which succeeded one another from Peter unto Eleutherius who was the
twelfth successor of Peter Polycrates who was 65 years in the Lord when he wrote his Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome concerning the time of the celebration of the PÃ sche which was about the year of our Lord 197 whereby it appeareth that he began to flourish about 50 years after the death of John the Apostle if not much sooner if he was come to years of discretion before his Baptism Polycrates I say who was so near the times of the Apostles saith that he was the eighth Bishop of Ephesus Now it is acknowledged by all that in the time of Victor a Bishop had the preheminence over the Presbyters in every Church and therefore it is consequent that Polycrates by the seven Bishops preceding him in Ephesus meaneth not single Presbyters but such Bishops as were in the Church at the time of his writing that Epistle to Victor If the principality of the Ecclesiastical regiment had been in the Colledge of Presbyters until the death of the Apostles and after their decease the principality of that government was committed to one and not before surely Polycrates Irenaeus and Hegesippus had egregiously prevaticated in attributing the principality of one to some part of the time of the Apostles which they living with thousands who must have seen and consented to that change made after the Apostles decease if any such had been then first made could not be ignorant of But that these holy men were not unfaithful in their relation doth evidently appear by this namely that all the Fathers none contradicting agree with them affirming Bishops having in an ordinary way a superiority over Presbyters to have been ordained in the times of the Apostles Concerning Arch-bishops Sect 6. omitting the guesses of some ancient Doctors concerning the Archiepiscopacy of Mark Timothy and Titus we may find some intimation of their being in the end of the second century partly by the act of Victor Bishop of Rome in his attempt to excommunicate the Churches of the East and partly by a passage in Tertullian where he saith the Bishop of Bishops hath made a decree c. but certain it is that before the year of our Lord 250 wherein Cyprian Bishop of Carthage flourished l. de pudicitia c. 1. Arch-bishops were ordained in the Church For Cyprian writeth that there were many years and a long age since many Bishops convening under Agryppinus Bishop of Carthage decreed Epist ad Jubâ—in ad Cornel. l. 4. Epist 8. c. and in one of his Epistles to Cornelius Bishop of Rome he saith that his adversaries boasted saying that twenty five Bishops of Numidia would come to Carthage who would make unto themselves a Bishop there Among these Arch-bishops who were such indeed but not yet in name that we can find in any approved auctor of that age were some more eminent then other each of which had some Arch-bishops subordinate to them which in following times were called primates for in a province was one chief City under which were divers mother Cities which had lesser Cities under them In these were the Bishops in the Mother-cities were the Metropolitans or Arch-bishops in the first the Primates priviledges made some variations Of Primates and Metropolitans the Council of Nice saith it is manifest that if any be ordained without the will and conscience of the Metropolitane Bishop this great and holy Council hath decreed he ought not to be a Bishop And in another Canon the ancient manner or custome doth last in Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria have the power of all these for the Bishop of Rome hath a like custome in like manner also at Antioch and other provinces let the due honour proper to every Church be preserved to it These Primates and Arch-bishops had no power in things proper to the cognizance of a Bishop in his own Diocess but onely in those things whereof the Canons of the Church had committed to them the hearing and Judgement or which were of concernment to many Diocesses And this is it which Cyprian meaneth where he saith Epist ad Quintium none of us Bishops doth constitute himself to be a Bishop of Bishops or doth compell this Colledge by tyrannical terror to the necessity of obeying seeing every Bishop hath according to his own liberty and free will that he may not be judged by another Adrian the Emperour Apud Vopisum in Saturnino who reigned from the year of our Lord 117 to the year 135 writeth in a certain Epistle horrible untruths against Christians as that there was never a Presbyter of the Christians which was not a Mathematician a Southsayer c. that the very Patriarch when he came to Egypt was by some compelled to adore Serapis by others to adore Christ that they which said themselves to be Bishops of Christ were devoted to Serapis It seems this Emperour had taken notice that Christians had Ecclesiastical officers whereof some were-called Presbyters some called Bishops and perhaps that the Bishop of Alexandria was over all Egypt c. and Bishops thereof and therefore calls him by the name of a like civil Magistrate Patriarch which was afterward used by Christians in a like sense but too much hath been said to shew that it was ordained in the times of the Apostles that the principal authority in every Church should be in one Presbyter advanced above and over the rest unto whom in a short time after the name of Bishop was made proper This truth is so clear and written as it were with capital or uncial letters in the writings of all the ancients that he that runneth may read it in them In the next place it should be considered whether that Ordinance constituting Episcopacy made in the Apostolical times was not in proper sense an Apostolical constitution Sect. 7. and if so whether therefore it be unalterable But that this matter may be better understood it is convenient first to speak of the Authority and Power given to the Bishop what it was and how ample in those times De baptisme c. 17. Tertullian gives us some information in this point when he saith that the chief Priest which is the Bishop hath the right or power of giving Baptism then the Presbyters and Deacons but not without the authority of the Bishop for the preservation of the honour of the Church which remaining safe peace is safe maintained For the understanding of this we must consider that where the exercise of the power of preaching baptising c. in such place and among such persons was not by some ordinance of the Church determined to this or that particular Presbyter there it pertained to the Bishop to do it and not to any other without his leave yea the very Ordinances and Canons could not be made without his consent and authority as their principal author under Christ In Epist ad Titum c. 1. For as Hierom saith the whole care of the Church
then they rather by custome then by the Lords disposition So Augustine writing to Hierome although saith he according to the names of honour which the use or custome of the Church hath kept a Bishop be greater then a presbyter yet Augustine a Bishop is in many things inferior to Hierome a presbyter So modestly and humbly doth the most pious and wise Bishop Augustine write unto the holy presbyter Hierome his elder in years and his inferior in dignity They that affirm Episcopacy to be instituted by a Council do not mean a Council taken in a proper sense but for the unanimous votes of the Churches decreeing the same thing upon the same grounds and reasons which are the principal things respected in a Council and it is truely said illud unumquodque dicitur quod est principalius in eo Fourthly it seems consequent to Hierom's above-cited discourse that it is not certain which some affirm that Bishops were set over the Churches before the time wherein St. Paul wrote his first Epistle to Timothy or his Epistle to Titus c. out of which Hierome proves the identity of Bishops and presbyters and the government of the Church by the Colledge of presbyters But of the exact time of the institution of Bishops it 's not much material to know seeing all agree it was made in the time of the Apostles By some of those places cited by him it 's likely he intended onely to prove the name Bishop to be common at that time as well to presbyters as to their superior Ecclesiastical officers But it might be thought that Hierome in this matter contradicts himself In cataloge Scriptorum Eccles in Jacobe because elsewhere he saith that James the brother of our Lord was statim quickly after our Lords passion ordained by the Apostles Bishop of Jerusalem and that he ruled that Church for 30 years until the seventh year of Nero unto this difficulty another may be added shewing a seeming contrariety in this learned Father's speeches concerning the institution of Bishops which is that here he affirmeth the Episcopacy to be an Ecclesiastical and so an humane constitution and in another place that it is an Apostolical tradition It is not hard to reconcile these seeming contrary expressions Epist ad Evagrium for first we must consider Episcopacy or government by one as chief among the presbyters to have been either extraordinary managed by one extraordinary person which was not by any ordinary rule of the Church to have a successour or ordinary in the hand of one person which by a Canon of the Church was to have a successour an Apostle present in any Church had power over the presbyters and the preheminence in all sacerdotal duties above them in that Church Of Apostles some were primary as the twelve other secondary and these were either indeed as well as in name A postles or onely because they were conversant with the Apostles and their helpers and many times left by them in some Churches or sent to them as their Vicegerents such were Timothy Titus Linus Clemens c. all these by their Apostolical function or by vertue of their Vicegerency had the principal rule in the Churches wherein they abode even then when in all other Churches the Colledge of the presbyters took the care of all having no Superior constantly resident over them Afterward when upon occasion of the presbyters abusing their power by reason of the Apostles absence to the be getting of Schismes the Churches by Apostolical consent agreed to give in every Church a principality to one presbyter above the rest which in some time after had the name of Bishop made proper to him and was made an ordinary officer in all Churches then the Apostles and their Vicegerents in the Churches of their residence had the power over the Colledge of presbyters not onely by their Apostleship or Vicegerency but also by the new decree and institution of an ordinary Episcopacy Now because it was thought fit by the Apostles that James should reside at Jerusalem and that not long after the ascension of our Saviour it might truly be said that he was then ordained that is constituted Bishop extraordinary in that place for some particular reasons taken from consideration of some particular condition of that place whose Episcopacy afterward was continued for the general reason of preventing Schismes and consequently of an extraordinary Episcopacy was made an ordinary Episcopacy which was to pass to successors The same proportionably must be said of the Episcopacy of St. Peter in Rome and Antioch of Timothy in Ephesus of Titus in Crete of Linus and Clemens in Rome and so of others all of which were first Bishops extraordinary and after the general decree they were also made as ordinary Bishops in the Churches where the decree found them extraordinary Bishops Hierom doth in many places speak as one that supposed Bishops to be above Presbyters before the making of that decree but his meaning was not that ordinary Bishops were before it for then he had contradicted himself but the extraordinary If the rest of the Fathers be so understood as it is not very improbable but that many of them may the seeming difference between him and some of them may be perhaps in the main reconciled Theodoret saith that Bishops in the life time of the Apostles were called Apostles the name of the extraordinary Bishops being also communicated to the ordinary Bishops who also had some appearance of being Vicegerents unto those twelve general Pastors of the universal Church while they lived as they were counted their successors after their decease As to the other seeming contrariety in St. Hierom's writings affirming the ordinary Episcopacy to be of Ecclesiastical and humane institution and also of Apostolical tradition it is easily answered First That the ordinary Episcopacy is not a primary tradition of the Apostles but of the Churches to whose decree the Apostolical approbation added no new sanction but ratified the authority of the Churches as prudently exercised in making that constitution Secondly that decree may be said to be of Apostolical tradition because their extraordinary Episcopacy and the extraordinary Episcopacy of their Vicegerents established by them were patterns which the Churches had an eye unto for their direction and encouragement in the framing of that decree hoping that the good of peace preserved where the extraordinary Episcopacy was placed would be best maintained in all Churches when the like government should be setled in all to continue by succession 3. Thirdly the ancient Fathers affirm many ecclesiastical observances to be of divine or Apostolical institution or tradition upon other grounds then may beget a certain belief of their being truely divine or Apostolical Augustine saith that whatsoever the universal Church holdeth and is not found in following Councils constituted but always retained is most rightly believed to be delivered by the Apostolick authority De bapt contra Donatist l. 2. c. 7.
be made to thrust another out of the Church but reading and prayers and preaching c. ought to be so proportioned to the time appointed for them and the strength of them that officiate that no necessity that may be prevented may compel to the omission of any divine ordinance that ought to be performed In the sixt Council of Constantinople at which time much corruption was crept into the Churches the Fathers present in it commanded that the Bishops and Presbyters should dayly preach Gan. 19. especially on the Lords day It is commanded by another Council that if a Presbyter cannot preach by reason of sickness Conc. Vasens Can. 4. sub Leone 1. that a homily or sermon of one of the ancient Fathers be read by the Deacon In another Council it s thus decreed that if the Bishop be not at home or is infirm or is not able for some other cause yet never let on the Lords days or Festivals any want to be of one which may preach the Word of God so as the vulgar people may understand Concil Maguntiac c. 25. circa an 813. The Primitive Bishops were preaching Bishops and usually preached every Lords day as we see in Justine Martyr and in Festival days in the principal fasting days in Lent as we find in Ambrose Chrysost Augustine and others But I must return to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church The Ceremony of standing and not kneeling in prayer on the Lords days and the days between Easter and Whitsontide was in use in the Apostles days and instituted by them Apud anthorem Christian resp resp 115. as Irenaeus the hearer of Polycarpus Auditor of the Apostle John doth testifie In the time of Tertullian about the year 200 many other Ceremonies are mentioned by him which we find not in any approved Author before him spoken of and are affirmed by him to descend from the Apostles as the signing of the forehead of the baptized with the sign of the Cross besides Tertull. de corona militis c. 3. the usual signing with the same sign upon sundry occasions the tasting after Baptism of milk and honey the use of having Suerties for Infants to be baptized De Bapt. c. 7. 18. the annointing of the baptised with oyl Offering for the faithful deceased which was thus the friends of the deceased offered bread and wine in their behalf for the use of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and the Priest by faith in prayer in the celebration of the Eucharist presented to God the Father the sacrifice of Christ once offered by him and which was in some manner present in the Sacrament beseeching him for that most holy and perfect sacrifice sake to take away the remainder of sin from the soul departed which was not taken away in this life both as to the guilt and inhaerency of it and to grant to the soul the promised present blessed rest and in the day of judgment to make the person partaker of the publick justification and possession of full faelicity Before the receiving of the Lords Supper they kissed one another with the holy kiss the sign of true love and peace which we are sure was used in the Apostles dayes and seems to argue strongly for the use of significant Ceremonies The Easter and Pentecost were the set and solemn times of the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism de bapt c. 18. I need not speak of Confirmation of the observation of the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost of the fast in the days of our Saviour's death and burial of the less perfect and voluntary fasts of Friday and Wednesday Tert. de jejun c. 2. which be in part before touched for my purpose is not to make an exact collection of the ancient rites but of such as may give some light to see whence those Ecclesiastical Ceremonies which have been and partly are used in our Church took their beginnings As concerning the gesture of the body used in the prayers of the Church de Orat. c. 12. it was kneeling or standing this last on the Lords dayes Tertul. l. 2. ad uxor c. 9. de Monogam 6.10 and in all the Pentecost For as Tertullian saith it is a most irreligious fact to pray to God sitting before him unless we upbraid Him that prayer hath wearied us Concerning Matrimony De Veland Virg. c. 11. de pudicitia c. 9. Ambros Ep. 70. Nazianz. Epist 57. in Tertullian's time they defired of the Bishops presbyters Deacons and Widows leave to marry they were married by a Bishop or presbyter the woman used a Vaile they joyned their right hands kissed and Tertullian doth also seem to intimate the use of a ring it is certain it was in use in Isidors time and before Isidor de Eccl. offic l. 2. c. 19. the Bridegroom saith he gave a Ring to the Bride which was put upon her fourth Finger We may gather from Tertullian De bapt c. 9. Apolog. contagent c. 30. that the Lords prayer was commonly used in the publick prayers of the Church for he calls it the legitime and ordinary prayer which saith he being laid as a foundation we may build upon it the petitions which our particular cases require He shews that our private prayers wherein we express to God our particular wants and desires must not be loud not altogether set formes but prompted to us without such monitor by our own hearts which alone can tell us our particular necessities When we pray saith Cyprian let the Father acknowledge the words of his Son Cypr. de orat Dom. And we do saith he the more effectually obtain what we ask in Christs name if we ask using his own prayer Hom. 42. ex 50. The Lords prayer saith Augustine is dayly said at the Altar of God in his Church The fourth Council of Tolet. Can. 9. called it a Quotidian a dayly prayer and commanded it to be said by the Clergy not onely on the Lords days but every day both in the publick and private duty Concerning prayer de orat dom Cyprian hath these remarkable words when we stand to prayer saith he our mind must be onely upon that it prayeth and therefore the Priest premising a preface before the prayer prepares the minds of the Brethren saying Lift up your hearts that the people answering We have unto the Lord may be admonished they ought to think on noâ—hing but the Lord By which words we learn two things First that in Cyprian's time which was 250 years after our Saviour's birth set forms of publick prayers were used in the Churches Secondly that the people had other answers besides Amen to make to the minister in the solemn prayers of the Church De bono perseverantiae c. 13. de Spir. lit c. 11. Augustine discovereth what followeth those words of the publick prayers mentioned by Cyprian the Priest said saith St. Augustine let us give thanks to
our Lord God to which the people answered it is meet and right so to do and then the Priest went no saying it is very meet right c. Out of Authors now extant who flourished in the three first Centuties no more that I can remember concerning the divine service of the Church and the Ceremonies pertinent to our purpose is mentioned then what hath been already touched But the holy writers of the fourth Century and downward do affirm both that many other rites have been used in the three first Centuries whereof some were instituted by the Apostles as they write others by some Bishops of Rome and that many more were added in the fourth Century One reason why the Ceremonies increased in the fourth Century may be this because then the Church more flourished in prosperity then any time before and it might be thought convenient that the external glory of the Church should be proportioned to the glory of the Empite now made Christian The use of singing Psalmes and Hymnes in the Churches Epist 119. may as St. Augustine saith be defended out of Scripture seeing of this we have so profitable instructions examples and precepts of Christ and his Apostles But the manner of singing was various l. â— c. 8. hist Socrates relateth that Ignatius having in a vision seen Angels singing Hymnes Anthemewise unto the praise of the Holy Trinity delivered that manner of singing Psalmes unto his own Church in Antioch which was generally received thence by the Greek Churches and then by the Latines and West first by Ambrose in the fourth Century and after by the rest of the Western Bishops The Rubrick in our Common-prayer Book before Te Deum laudamus we praise thee O God hath these words that the people may the better hear in such places where they do sing there shall the Lessons be sung in a plain tune after the manner of distinct reading and likewise the Epistle and Gospel This Rubrick puts me in mind of a place in St. Augustine's Confessions l. 10. c. 33. where he saith that it was often told him that Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria made the reader of the Psalm to sound with so mean bending or turning of the Voyce that he might be nearer a pronouncer then a singer Epist 119. And in another place he saith when the Brethren are met in the Church when is it not time of singing holy songs unless it be the time of reading or preaching or of prayer c. By which words it seemeth that the Chapters Epistle and Gospel were not sung in those dayes And in truth any manner of singing them seemeth incongruous The Fathers use to reprove the abuses which were too often found in singing Psalms in the Churches especially that they were many times more pleased with the sweetness of the voyce then the divine matter or when onely a few of the Church did sing that they so sung that few understood what they sung In Epist ad Ephes c. 5. Let the servant of the Lord saith Hierome so sing that the words which he reads may more please then the voyce of him singing It is no perfect singing nor pleasing to God when mens hearts do not sing unto the Lord as well as their voyces I will not speak of singing with Organs in the Churches not that I think that God refuseth to be heartily praised in and with the use of them but because they were not brought into the Churches until much later times The Doxology Glory be to the Father to the Son and to the Holy Ghost for ever c. is by St. Basile proved to be used from the Apostles times both out of Clemens Rom. Irenaeus Orig. Gregor Thaumaturg Dionysius Rom. Dionysius Alex. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Basil de Sp. S. c. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. and the Evening-candle light thanksgiving which had been used time out of mind of man wherein they said We praise the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit of God But this Doxology with the addition as it was in the beginning c. was first a Epist Hier. ad Damasum Conc. Vasens c. 7. ordained to be said in the Divine Service of the Church after the Psalms by Damasus Bishop of Rome about the year of our Lord 370. He first commanded b Greg. l. 7. Epist 63. inter Ep. Hier. Aug. de temp serm 151. de can observant praeposit 23. Gregor l. 7. Epist 63. Conc. Vasens c. 5. Radulfs Vigres de can observant praeposit 23. Alleluia to be used in the Roman Church following therein the Liturgie of the Hierosolymitane and Greek Churches Kyrie eleison and Christe eleison Lord have mercy and Christ have mercy often repeated were in imitation of some greek Liturgies received into the Romane Divine Service-book by the authority of Pope Sylvester about the year 330 saith Radulphus Tugr which many years after were omitted and at last restored by Gregory the great The collection of the Episties and Gospels for the whole year into the form like that in present use is attributed to Hierom and by Pope Damasus commanded to be read in the Churches The Symbole or Creed composed in the first Council of Constantinople was by the same Pope Damasus ordained to be said or sung after the Gospel Rupert l. 2. c. 21. Strab. c. 22. It was received into the â—ivine Service in Spain by the command of the third Synoâ— of Tolet. The reasons brought to prove the Apostles or the Nicene Creed to have been said in the Liturgies of the fourth Century or before are of small weight and therefore I omit them How Damasus can truely be said to have enjoyned the singing or saying of the Creed and yet that it was not sung at Rome until about the year 1014 is easily answered if we conceive his command to be directed unto all other Churches subject unto him Berno de offic myssae c. 1. Vide Conc. tolet 3. c. 2. excepting Rome for that special reason which Berno relates Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in the time of the celebration of the Lords Supper Hierom. l. 1. dial contra Pelag Chrysost in Matt. hom 83. Conc. Carthag 4. c. 41. Et vide respenss Leonis 3. ad missos caroli M. sub Conc. aquisgranens used the white garment which we call the Surplice whether it was in use before the fourth Century is not related by any approved author living in those times Prayers composed after the manner of our Litany are to be seen in the Liturgies of Chrysostome and Basile In their time * Chrys in Ep. ad Eph. hom 14 24. glory be to God on high c. and †Idem in Epist ad Coloss hom 3. holy holy holy Lord God of Sabboth were wont to be said in the Divine Service Chrysostome saith that the Bishop was wont often in the time of the publik worship of God to say to the people
* in 2 Cor. hom 18. in Ep. ad Coloss hom 3. Peace be unto you and that the people answered And with thy spirit The same author relating how the people did in another part of the Service answer the minister saying Let us give thanks to our Lord God it is meet and right say the people so to do addeth †Chrysost in 2 Cor. hom 18. in 2. Epist ad Corinth hom 2. why should any marvel that the people should thus in the publick prayers speak with the Priest seeing they send up unto Heaven with the Cherubims and Caelestial powers those holy Hymnes one reason of this is in the same place intimated by Chrysostome which is to manifest unto the people that the prayers of the Church are not proper to the minister but theirs also by joyning with him in them which is more fully testified by their proper prolation of some part of them then onely by their presence and saying Amen Another reason may be the same which the same Father giveth of the Deacons exciting the people saying Let us pray and let us pray more fervently and the reason is because the Soul is wont to slumber in a long prayer Tâ—â— Fathers of the Council of Bracar require the Bishop or Prâ—â—â—yter to salute the people in due place in the Divine service saying the Lord be with you to which the people should answer and with thy Spirit which ceremony saith the Council all the East retained as delivered by the Apostles The Song of the three Children was generally received into the Liturgies of the Churches in this fourth Century Conc. toletam Ep. c. 13. It is a tradition that the Hymne Te Deum landamus c. We praise thee O God We acknowledge thee to be the Lord c. was comdosed by Ambrose and sung by Ambrose and Augustine after his Baptism Anastasius Bishop of Rome enjoyned all to stand at the reading of the Gospel after which followed the custome of standing at the reading of the Creed Hierome writing against Vigilantius affirmeth that in all the Churches of the East when the Gospel was to be read candles were lighted the sun shining not surely to drive away darkness but for a sign of gladness In the time of these last named Doctors the Feasts of Saints were more in number and celebrated with more solemnity then in former times Therein the Feast of our Saviours Nativity was generally observed and in the ancient Fathers sense said to be instituted by the Apostles whereas no approved Author of the former Centuries make mention of it Chrysostome in a sermon of his preached by him not long before the year 400 affirmeth Chrysost serm in natalem that Feast not to have come to the knowledge of the Churches among which he lived but ten within years before the preaching of that Sermon Tert. de idololatria c. 14. Vide Georgium in locum alios And many Learned men collect from Tertullian that in his time no other Feasts were commanded to be celebrated in the Churches that he knew of save onely the Lords day Easter and Pentecost I say not this out of any dislike of this holy Feast Ubi multorum strages jacet subtrahendum est aliquid severitati ut addatur amplius charitati vide conc Rom. 3. an 1099. or any other which we receive from those ancient times which without the adherent abuses I do heartily wish to be celebrated with due solemnity but by this example to shew that every thing had not a beginning in the Apostles time which is affirmed to be thence derived and descended by the testimony of some Fathers who were both in this matter and other things deceived by the counterfeited Canons and constitutions and other writings bearing the names of the Apostles 〈◊〉 Clemens Romanus or Dionysius Areopag whereof none â—â—re written before the year 300 yet being not well examined were received as genuine by Epiphanius and some other old Doctors of the Church We read in this fourth Century of divers consecrations and benedictions which we do not read to be used in the former times Sect. 16. as of consecrated Churches Altars Paschal Wax-candles c. and we find therein more regard and honour given to a Chrysost in Epist ad Rom. hom 32. relicks of Saints to the sign of the Cross to the b Nazianz in laudem Gorgoniae in laudem Basilii Altar or Communion Table the Bible and the c Chrysost in Eph. hom 3. In Epist ad Orthodox in apoleg 2. Vessels used in the Divine Service and the like then we can see to be given them in former ages yet piously without passing the bounds which in those things Christian religion had determined excepting perhaps in some particulars which humane frailty might extort from them Willingly to break the holy Communion Cup who can say but that it is a very great offence it was as it was said in Athanasius to do impiously against Christ to commit a sin then which none was greater Against the Carelesseness of these times in the administration of the Lords Supper August hom 26. ex 50. Et Cyrill Gatech Mystagog 5. the faying of Augustine is worthy of observation with what care or solicitude saith he do we observe when the body of Christ is ministred unto us that nothing of it fall to the ground from our hands It is likely that Tertullian spake before him to the same purpose we take it heavily saith he that any of our Cup or Bread fall to the ground Gregory Nazianz. treating of the Birth of our blessed Saviour saith Adore the Manger wherein he was laid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. orat in Christi nativitatem Hieron ad Marcellam ut commigret Hieros idem in Epitaph Paulae The cross and the sign were had in no less honour Without the sign of the Cross saith Augustine neither Baptism nor Confirmation nor the Lords Supper can be rightly as to the customes and Canons of the Church in those times performed The Cross was kissed people fell down before it d Paulinus l. 2. Epist 3. Chrysost in act hom 12. adored it yet Ambrose saith of Helene the mother of Constantine the great that she found the title of the Cross and adored the King Christ surely not the wood that is the errour of the Gentiles Minutius long before Ambrose said in the name of all Christians we do not worship the Cross We see then that in those days the Cross was adored by Christians and yet that it was not adored by them It was adored by an Ecclesiastical adoration which was wont to be exhibited to things or persons accounted excellent by reason of some dignity and notable usefulness in being occasions causes or instruments of some very singular benefit it was not adored by an adoration proper to God Aug contra Faustum Manich l. 20. c. 21. Super Genes quoest 60.
to suspend their reception of the ancient Episcopacy but in very deed receiving in some hidden sort the substance of it secretly giving that Authority to the moderator of the Colledge of Presbyters which tantamounts the Authority of the ancient Bishops This was done by them in their Emergency out of the Gulfe of the Babylonish Idolatry and Haeresies when the state of persons and Circumstances would not permit them directly and manifestly to set up the ancient Episcopacy but covertly and cloathed with the apparel of Presbytery Because the appearing of it in its native cloathing seemed to threaten an extreme danger of returning again to Idolatrous Babylon Thus when two duties became inconsistent the keeping out of Idolatry and the open and manifest use of an Ordinance inferior to the maintenance of the purity of Gods worship they did as it was their duty so far forbear the open use of Episcopacy as seemed needfull that they might preserve the truth and sincerity of the worship of God I know many writers are of another mind but the intentions of Churches are better seen in the causes of their actions and the managing of them then in the letter of a Law or in the speculative opinions of private persons Some think the present condition of our Church to be almost the same with the state of those Churches when they first began their Reformation and therefore that we stand in need of the same cure under the habit of the Presbyterian Government Surely these are much deceived first in their opinion of our present state secondly in the sequele if our case were like theirs for when we were like them in departing from Babylon we were unlike them in many other respects and needed not the habit of Presbyters but fall to purge the ancient Episcopacy from as many of the foul excrescencies which the sins of men made to grow to it as the condition of that time would permit whereby our Church kept more uniformity with the primitive Churches and by the blessing of God upon our endevour obtained more measure of the Heavenly light and of the power of Godliness in peace and that for a longer time then any part of those Churches attained unto which were necessitated to shrowd themselves under another habit of Government This I say not any way to disparage any other Church of Christ whom I honour and pray for from my heart or to ascribe any thing to our own wisdome and providence but to honour and glorifie the grace of God for his great mercies to our Church and to defend her honour against the mistakes of some But now our condition is changed our sins have brought us to misery the light and glory of our Church is turned to darkness confusion and contempt from which notwithstanding our unworthiness Gods infinite mercy which hath most gratiously restored our Soveraign Lord the King unto his Kingdomes and Subjects will be pleased I trust to deliver us and to beautifie our Church with the primitive Apostolicall Episcopacy attended by his assessors and Senate the reverend grave wise learned and pious Colledg of Presbyters to govern the house of God after the best pattern of the primitive holy orders and discipline for the obtaining whereof God would have us assisted by His grace to contribute our endevours improved to the uttermost of Christian Wisdom and moderation to be crowned with his rich blessing And because this business is about things for the most part spirituall tending to the edification of Gods house it will no doubt please our gracious King and his great Councell not to proceed in this work without the advise and counsell of them whom Christ hath ordained under Himself Minister all builders of His House least the neglect of His Ordinance and Ministers cause the Lord to blast all other Counsells and endeavours how probable soever they may seem to be in the eye of the world Give unto Casar the things which are Caesars and let the Vicegerents of Christ enjoy the things belonging to them let all interests have their due part in this weighty work and then whatsoever Government be settled what form soever of Divine service what Rites soever and Ceremonies shall be established they will with all readiness and due submission be received and embraced by all the people and all the obedient Sons and Daughters of our dearest Mother the Church of England among whom if there shall be some whose judgments cannot acquiesce in some determinations of the higher powers they will wisely consider first that in the remote conclusions of Divine maximes all good men in this our infirmity will never agree and that nature teacheth us that in controversies the resolution of the major part must be obeyed without which debates would never be ended and St. Paul saith let the spirits of the Prophets be subject to the Prophets Secondly That God hath appointed the powers civil and Ecclesiasticall in his stead to determine Ecclesiasticall controversies and to make Ecclesiasticall Ordinances from whose judgment there is no appeal but only to God by prayer Thirdly That to preserve the peace of the Church and Charity the bond of perfectness is a duty to be preferred before the duty of publick teaching divulging or preaching many of those Divine Truths whose ignorance if not voluntary doth not exclude from Heaven when that teaching or publishing doth disturb the publick peace and consequently the keeping of the peace requireth abstinence in that case from such divulging or preaching And from these considerations good men will infer that it is good for them and that it is their duty both for the sake of Gods Authority for good order sake and for Charity and peace sake out of a Conscientious regard to the higher powers to acquiesce in their determinations and to desist from opposing their private opinion to the publick judgment and pursuing their private interest to the prejudice of publick peace and Charity For which Wisedome and moderation that they may be in all let all good men pray to the onely wise and most mercifull God the Author of Truth and peace An APENDIX THe manner of the Ordination of Bishops forgotten to be shewed by me in due place is declared by the fourth Councill of Carthage in these words Can. 2. When a Bishop is ordained lay and hold the book of the Evangelists upon his head and neck and one Bishop pronouncing the Benediction over him let the rest of the Bishops present touch his head with their hands The Church never accounted any to be capable of this Episcopall Ordination that was not first ordained a Presbyter the manner of whose Ordination was that the Bishop blessing him saying receive the Holy Ghost whosoever sins you shall remitt Concil earth Can 3. c. and laying his hand upon his head the Presbyters present lay their hands upon his head by the hand of the Bishop There was a (a) Tert. de praescript c. 41. Cyprian Epist ad
Antonianum Hier. ad Heliodorum Conc. Sardicens c. 13. Canon in use in the second Century when it was made it is not known which required that every one that would be an Ecclesiasticall Officer should begin with and for some set time officiate in the lowest Office and so by degrees ascend to the Episcopacy if the Church did desire his advancement Yet we find that some laicks yea some unbaptised persons have been by the Clergy and people chosen Bishops as Ambrose Nectarius and other Paulinus in vita Ambrosij Niceph. Callist Eccl. hist l. 12. c. 12. who leaping over the inferiour offices and the time wherein they should have given proofe of their faithfulness and industry in the order of Presbytery have been Baptised made Presbyters and then Bishops within few dayes and some it may be took these two last orders in the same houre But this was very rare and by dispensation or was liable to an Ecclesiasticall censure When any under the degree of a Presbyter was by the ignorance or perversness of some Bishops ordained a Bishop nothing done by him was esteemed valid but what his former degree did warrant or a Laick might in necessity do untill he was made a Presbyter Bellarmine saith truly that it is impossible that one should be ordained a Bishop fit to officiate which was not before a Presbyter or did not take both orders together For saith he Episcopacy includes Presbytery in its essence and a Bishop no Presbyter is a figment De Sacramento Ordinis l. 1. c. 5. a Bishop being nothing else but the first or chief Presbyter Whence he doth rightly infer that the Ordination of a Bishop compared with the Ordination of a Presbyter is being in it self precisely considered inferior to it as being of no efficacy as to acts meerly Ecclesiasticall and which the civil Magistrate cannot execute Here some doubts are raised which by divers are diversely resolved As whether Christ did ordaine the Apostles in the first place Presbyters and after that Bishops and if so when was this done or if it be said that Christ made them Apostles Presbyters and Bishops in one and the same Ordination how can it be proved that Christ gave the Apostles the powers now proper to Bishops not only as they were extraordinary Officers but also as they were to have successors and not rather that Christ reserved those powers as they were to be conveyed by succession to be given in a more convenient time it is generally acknowledged that Presbyters were vertually ordained when the Apostles were ordained If Christ made the Apostles both Presbyters and Bishops in one Ordination how durst the Church alter our Saviours Ordinance as to ordain them by two actuall Ordinations whom He Himself had ordained in one virtuall Ordination to say that our blessed Saviour ordained the Apostles first Presbyters and afterwards Bishops is to affirm that which the Evangelists do not mention To Preach Baptise administer the Lords Supper to feed the Sheep to bind and loose all these offices appear by clear Testimonies of the holy Scriptures and the consent of the Catholick Church to belong to Presbyters and therefore it may not be reasonably thought that any of those places of the Evangelists which promise those powers or intimate them to be given or require the execution of them conveigh an Episcopacy to the Apostles supposed before ordained Presbyters Some say that St. Cyprian and some other of the Fathers affirm Christ in ordaining the Apostles to have ordained Bishops and that Bishops are the Apostles successors and Presbyters the successors of the 70 Disciples To these Objections the answers are ready and easie Ad Drâ—â—contiam in Ps 44. First Athanasius saith that Christ by his Apostles constituted and ordained Bishops and Augustine saith that the Church conceived Bishops neither of them writeth that Bishops were vertually ordained in the Apostles Ordination neither is this expresly said in any ancient Author In Epist 1. ad Timoth c. 3. Secondly Ambrose the contemporary or elder then the true Ambrose saith that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is one and the same this may seem strange for in his and the preceding times they were distinct but his following words declare his meaning when he gives this reason namely Cyprian ad florentium c. Epist because both Presbyter and Bishop are Sacerdotes Priests which shews that in saying that the Ordination of a Presbyter and Bishop is the same he meant quatenus Sacerdotes as they were Priests or Presbyters their ordination was the same So the other auncient Doctors which say that Christ in speaking some things to the Apostles as He that heareth you heareth me Basil constit monast c. 22. c. 〈◊〉 spake in and by them to Bishops or that in them Christ ordained Bishops did mean That our Saviour spake in and by the Apostles to Bishops not as Bishops but as they were Sacerdotes Priests and Presbyters and only consequently and remotely by the means of a subsequent Ordinance as they were Bishops that is Presbyters having a presidency over their Brethren when the Pastors of that primitive Church say that Bishops are Successors of the Apostles and Presbyters successors of the 70 Disciples their meaning was That having respect to the Distinction which the Apostles made between one Presbyter and the rest by exalting one in every Church to a presidency over the rest The President Presbyter which is the Bishop succeeds the Apostles whose Successors and the subject Presbyters succeeded the 70 Disciples in some likeness of superiority and inferiority The Fathers could not mean That the Presbyters were ordained in the Ordination of the 70. For First None of them had any good ground to affirm That the 70 either had so ample an ordinary power if they had any ordinary power as the Presbytery have or that the power they received was rather the power of an Office to continue in them Ad Rodolphum Archiepiscopum Senonens in apparandarum rerum addend post tom 7. Concil then a power only to do some acts for a certain time after which the power was to leave them although Pope Nicholas the first affirms That the 70 Disciples had the Offices of Bishops and could ordain Presbyters Secondly The Form of Ordination both in our Church and in the Roman pontificial doth manifestly shew That Presbyters were virtually ordained in the Ordination of the Apostles after our Saviours Resurrection when he said Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit c. the which entire words are used in Presbyters Ordination and only one member of the words are used in the ordination of bishops that is Receive the Holy Ghost which words do not serve to conveigh unto them all power to remit c. which they had received in their Ordination to Presbytery but they serve to give them the power of Presidency whereby the Bishop is constituted and therefore Presbyters and Bishops as they
invalid Serm. de extellent sacrorum Ord. Ivo Carnotensis speaking of the ordination of Presbyters and having said that the Bishop and Presbyters had laid their hands he adds and they invocate the Holy Ghost upon them which are ordained where he leaves nothing proper for the Bishop but the words of benediction prolated by him and onely by him as in the place of Christ The Bishop invocated in the name of the whole congregation and blessed in the name and place of our Saviour St. Ambrose writing to a Bishop whom he had ordained Epist l. 1. Epist 3. ad Episcopum Comensem saith the ordination which thou hast received by the imposition of my hands and benediction in the name of the Lord Jesus is not reprehended in Esa c. 58. Hierome saith that ordination is not fulfilled onely by imprecation of the voyce but also by imposition of hand Now because the benediction was and ought to be said while the Bishop and Presbyters in the ordination of these impose and hold their hands on the head of the person to be ordained the formal prayer going before the imposition and following after it and because it is the principal part of the ordination to which the imposition of hand is subservient as it is a vertual prayer St. August saith De baptis contra Donatist l. 3. c. 16. what is imposition of hand but a prayer over a man And as it is spoken by the Bishop in Christs stead delivering the Ecclesiastical power in Christs name Ambrose saith In Epist 1. ad Timoth. c. 4. that the imposition of hands are mystical words whereby the elect to the office of the sacred ministery receiving authority is confirmed for his work that he may be bold to offer Sacrifice to God in Christs steed Whereby we see that imposition of hand and the benediction are distinct parts of ordination yet so conjunct and the benediction so excelling the imposition of hand that the whole is reckoned nothing else but a benediction or prayer I confess that I did sometime begin to suspect that when the Roman Court had determined ordination to be a Sacrament properly so called as baptism and instituted by our Saviour they put in those words in the solemnity of ordination for the better confirmation and propagation of their new opinion but considering the reasons aforesaid and especially that the blessed Reformers of our Church have retained the same words and nothing doubting but that in so doing they did not favour the popish opinion but were perswaded they did therein follow their pattern which was the usage of the Primitive Church I rejected that conceit and suspition The first Author that I can remember to have read more expressely intimating the said words of benediction to be used in the ordination of Presbyters is our Country-man Alexander of Hale in these words Summ. part 4. q. 21. membr 4. the Keyes saith he are given with the sacerdotal order when it is said whose fins you remit c. and when a Bishop is consecrated another Key is not conferred upon him but the use of that first Key is extended Thus far he who flourished about the year 1240. In the words Whose sins ye remit c. remission must not be taken precisely for the taking away the guilt of sin or the reconciling of paenitents upon their private or publick repentance for sins committed after baptism but also for the taking away the power and raign of sin which is done by infused grace which having removed the spiritual darkness and death illuminates the soul and makes it alive to God Every part of the Presbyterial function tends to this last effect as well as to the former although one pastoral office may be more especially directed to the former and another in a more special manner to the latter effect The Fathers do often apply those words in St. John now frequently remembred and the like in Matth. ch 16. and chap. 18. to the act of reconciling Paenitents to God and the Church and much oftner then they do to any other kind of the ministerial loosing or remission and they had good reasons moving them so to do For first Haereticks began in the second Century to deny that Christ left any ministerial power in his Church for the remission of any great sin committed after baptism and this Heresie was revived by Novatian and Novatus in the third Century and quickned by the Donatists in the fourth Century Against which the Orthodox Pastors of the Church used those places of Scripture to prove that the power of reconciling such Penitents was given to the Church of Christ Secondly the zeal of the people in the Primitive Times and the encouragements of the Ministers and after the Canons of the Church inclined the people to make confession of their secret enormities to the Church or Pastors not because necessary to salvation but because it was found very profitable as the times and persons were then qualified and publick offendors were brought to publick repentance and this being duely performed were publickly reconciled to God and his Church These things being so frequent and solemn yet very irksome and grievous to flesh and blood it was very necessary for the Fathers of the Church to put the people dayly in mind of the benefit of those confessions and penitence and the necessity of both as to scandalous offences in order to a publick reconciliation which they could not otherwise do better then by making use of those places of Scripture for the Demonstration and proof of the peoples Duty and the certainty and comfort of their reconciliation None of those holy Pastors denyed the ministerial power of remission or loossing to be exercised in the other ministerial offices instituted as the means which God would bless if not abused for the begetting and increasing of saving grace Yea some of them have expressely taught that the preaching of the word baptism and consequently the Lords Supper are Keyes which open Heaven to some and shut Heaven against others and are the instruments of Gods power to loose some from the bonds of the guilt and power of sin and to bind those that refuse to be loosed by them For doth not the Lords Supper bind the unworthy receivers who eat and drink their own damnation and doth it not set at liberty and open Heaven to them who in eating and drinking according to the will of Christ eat and drink their own salvation but le ts hear what holy Hierome saith the Apostles do loose men saith he by the words of God In Esa c. 14. the testimony of the Scriptures and exhortation of vertues Epist ad Hedib q. 9. And again in another place the Apostles saith he in the first day of Christs resurrection received the grace of the Holy Ghost whereby they might remit sins and baptise and make sons of God and give the spirit of adoption to believers our Saviour himself saying
due acknowledgement of their transcendent worth and especially of the most reverend Father in God Dr. James Usher late Arch-bishop of Armagh and Lord Primate of all Ireland who in an exact knowledge of all good learning in depth of judgment in the due stating and well cleering controversies of Religion and in sanctity of life was not much if at all inferior to any the best of Bishops since the Apostles dayes And lasty in an acceptable tast which I have had of the sweetness of your vertue in a particular favour for which I present my humble thanks to your Lordship May it please you right reverend father to take this small work into your honorable patronage and protection and pardoning my boldness in this attempt to take in good part the very humble and hearty tender of my best service to your Lordship God Almighty long continue your life and prosperous Estate and make you a happy instrument of much good to his Church Your Lordships in all Duty John Lloyd Praesb The PREFACE THis short treatise containeth the sum and substance of what the reverend Doctors of the Primitive Churches for the first four hundred years after the birth of our blessed Saviour have practised and written and thereby transmitted to our times concerning Episcopacy Presbytery Ecclesiastical Discipline Liturgy and Ceremonies omitting onely those which appear to be impertinent to the state and condition of the present times Every material point herein is proved out of authors received by all sides which caused the omission of the testimony of Ignatius c. and such authors against whom it cannot be reasonably presumed that they were deceived or erred in their relation of matters of fact and practise done or used in the times wherein they themselves or those with whom they conversed did live The authorities were not collected by the help of tables or received from second hands whence mistakes do easily and usually arise but were taken from the authors own work read and duely considered Because the Holy Scripture by reason of humane infirmities in all and perverseness in many is in many parts thereof-diversely understood it is very needful saith Vincentius Lirinensis that the line of Prophetical and Apostolical interpretation be directed according to the rule of Ecclesiastical and Catholick sense And also in the very Catholick Church great care must be had Adversus haeres c. 2. saith the same ancient author that we hold that which hath been believed every where alwayes and by all Which direction of this discreet Writer In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopre curandum est ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est c. 3. rightly understood and applied is very good and is and hath been of singular use especially against Schismaticks and Hereticks For when the consent of the Catholick Church in her principal members in all the parts of the world and in all ages beginning in and proceeding from the Apostolicall times unto any other set or proposed age doth clearly appear to be in any Divine Doctrine Discipline Liturgie Rites or any Ecclesiasticall usage who can gainsay that unanimous judgment of all the Saints of God which is a far better interpreter of the word of God then any generall councell can be who dare refuse to embrace the sentence of that just and impartiall Iudge except in decrees about things in their nature and morally mutable which may by the good leave of that Judge be with honour layed aside when they become unprofitable or dissentaneous to the edification and peace of the Church The Ecclesiasticall institutions which want sufficient evidence to prove their approbation by the Church flourishing in the Apostles dayes and are found to have the generall approbation of the Churches between the times of the Apostles and about the year of our Lord 500 although they be of less esteem and regard then the institutions known to be received by the Apostolicall Church yet are they Venerable and worthy of very great regard partly because of the propinquity of those Churches to the time of the Apostles from whom some of them might be probably thought to be derived although a certaine proofe of their derivation appeared not to succeeding ages partly because of the eminent wisdome of the Fathers and exemplary sanctity of the Churches in those times in comparison of the Churches in the following Generations The Churches of this space of time that is between the Apostles decease and the year 500. wanted the extraordinary Apostolicall Spirit which so guided the Church planted by them in all publick resolutions that she would make no Ordinance without the Apostles approbation and having it she could not erre in her determinations All other Churches therefore might easily erre and they that upon good occasion given them would modesty affirm that they did erre in some constitutions and usages generally approved by them and also in some remote conclusions of the Divine Doctrine are not to be thought to disparage them seeing upon the matter they say no more then that they were men which wanted the guide of the holy Spirit to lead them infallibly to truth and goodness in all things of Ecclesiasticall concernment but that those Churches within the first 500 years erred in any publick constitutions or customes unto Idolatry or which is less unto apparent superstition is a thing improbable and incredible to them who rightly consider the publick doctrine and Ecclesiasticall Ordinances of those times and take due notice of the great prudence and holiness of many of the chief Governors and Pillars of those Churches Hereticks Idolaters and superstitious persons were in many of the Churches but that the Churches themselves in any part of that time became Haereticall Idolatrous or Superstitious is very untrue and unworthy the thought of a prudent and charitable man And here by the way concerning the Church of England if we compare her in her legall constitution with any other Church after the year of our Lord 180. it will be found that they who charge her with Antichristianisme Idolatry or Superstition in her constitution established by Law do by clear consequence pass the sentence of the same condemnation upon every of those Churches especially them of the 4th and 5th century the rashness and injustice of which censure is very worthy of a very severe censure The Apostle indeed saith that the mystery of iniquity began to work in his time 2 Thes 2.7 Revel 2.24 but did he meane thereby that the mysterious iniquity and depth of Satan began to work in the publick constitutions of the Catholick Church in his dayes and that they were parts of the constitutions no surely neither can any Christian be so simple or so injurious to the Ministery of the Apostles and the purity of that Church as to think that the Apostle had any such meaning The mystery of Iniquity was indeed in the Church in some dead branches in some
ordmem contingit esse distinctionem dignitatum officiorum quae tamen novum gradum vel ordinem non constituunt ut Archipresbyter Episcopus Archiepiscopus Patriarcha pontifex summus qui ultra sacerdotium non addunt ordinem nec gradum novum sed solum dignitatem officium ita Episcopatus prout concernit ordinem sacer dotti benè potest dici ordo sed prout distinguitur contra sacerdotium dicitur dignitatem quandam vel officium Episeopi annexum non est propriè nomen ordinis nec no vus character imprimitur nec nova potestas datur sed potestas data ampliatur unde sicut non recipit alias claves sic nec alium ordinem hoc sensit magister Hugo de S. Victore Magister sententiarum Bonavent in 4. dist 24. q. 3. Et postea non ita propriè dicitur aliquis ordinari cum promovetur in Episcopum sicut cum promovetur in sacerdotem sed magis propriè dicitur consecrari postea non datur ibi nova potestas sed solùm potestas ligandi solvendi ampliatur Solis sacerdotibus datur in ordine sacerdotali potestas clavium scilicet quantum ad solvendum ligandum quasi mediatoribus inter Deum subditos Si objiciatur quod magis couvenit potestatem clavium dart Episcopo in consecratione Episcopi dicendum quod nequaquam quia Episcopus non dicitur novum ordinem nec in consecrationem Episcopi datur novus ordo sed tantum ampliatur potestas Alex. Halens to 4. de potest clavium q. 20. m. 8. a. Probatum est scilicet disp 140. c. 1. inquit Vasques quod Hieronymus nullam constituat differentiam jure Divino inter Episcopatum Presbyterium sed censeat jure tantum ecclesiastico discrimen fuisse introductum In 3. p. disp 142. c. 8. Ego sanè inquit Vasques suspicor vehementer S. Thomam existimasse consecrationem cum qua confertur potestas Episcopajis jure humano esse introductam In 3. p. disp 143. c. 2. and that in all Churches where fit men for that office were found they were ordained and set over the presbyters and that the Senate of presbyters did alone govern onely in some Churches where no man was found fit to be made a Bishop Hierom and some other taught Episcopes solae ordinatione superiores esse Presbyteris Chrysost in 1. Ep. ad Timoth. hom 11. Postea unus est gradus S. Hierom in 1. Ep. ad Tim. c. 3. that the Apostles left at the first the whole care of every Church where none of them or their Vicegerents or Evangelists resided unto the body of the presbyters of each Church which exercised all Ecclesiastical powers in common until the presbyters began to divide the flock and to make of one Church many Independent Congregations For the avoiding of which inconvenience the Churches unanimously agreed to commit the principal care of every Church unto one presbyter without whose consent the rest of the presbyters were not allowed to exercise any part of their Ecclesiastical function In Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. vide gloss dist 23. c. legimus and to that advanced presbyter some ministerial acts and also the name of Bishop were after some time appropriated Before Sidings in Religion saith Hierom were made by the instinct of the Devil and that it was said among the people El Amalarium de Eccles offic l. 2. c. 13. Et Steph. Eduens Episcopum de sacramento altaris c. 9. I am of Paul I of Apollos c. the Churches were governed by the Common Council of the Presbyters but after that every Presbyter thought those whom he baptised to be his and not Christs it was decreed in all the world that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be set over the rest unto whom all the care of the Church should appertain and so the seeds of Schismes should be taken away A little after he affirmeth that at the first the care of the Church was equally divided among many and yet a little further having cited out of 1. Epist to Tim. and the Epist to Titus and the Epist to the Philipp c. these saith he were said that we might shew that the ancient Presbyters were the same with Bishops but by little and little that the plants of dissention might be plucked up In quos delinquentes nonnunquam Episcoporum Presbyterorum censura desaevit Hier. ad Demetriad all the sollicitude was delated to one Therefore as the Presbyters know themselves by the custome of the Church to be subject to him who is set over them so let Bishops know themselves to be greater then Presbyters more by custome then by the truth of Divine dispotision and ought in common to rule the Church imitating Moses who when he might have alone ruled the people yet chose other with whom he would judge them The words of this ancient Father need no explication for they say plainly that every Church meaning wherein no extraordinary minister resided Apostle or his Vicegerent was at the first governed by the Colledge of Presbyters and that their dividing one Church into many Independent Congregations Quare in Ecclesia baptizatus nisi per manus Episcopi accipiat Spiritum Sanctum id factum reperimus ad honorem potius sacerdotii quā ad legis necessitatem Ecclesiae salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate ac veneratione consistit cui si non exors quaedam ab hominibus omnibus eminens detur potestas tot in Ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes Inde venit ut sine chrismate Episcopi jussione neque Presbyter neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi quod frequenter si tamen necessitas cogit scimus licere laicis Hier. contra Lucifer first that we can find in Corinth after in many other places put a necessity upon the Churches to provide a convenient remedy against so dangerous a disease which remedy was the committing of every Church to one chief minister to whom the rest were to be subordinate in the manner before specified Here observe 1. that according to St. Hierom every Bishop ought to rule the Church in common with the presbyters 2. that Hierom saith that the decree of making one chief in every Church was in all the world whereby he intimates this institution of Bishops to have its beginning after the planting of the Churches in most parts of the then known world 3. that he affirmeth that Paulatim by little and little or by degrees the care of every Church was committed to one which doth insinuate that the decree instituting a Bishop was not in a Synod of the Apostles or Churches but enacted in every Church first in some then in other and in a short time in all over all the world in such manner as a general custome is created and therefore he saith that the Presbyters are subject to the Bishop by the custome of the Church and the Bishop greater