is such a Society as should have its own Spiritual Officers chosen out of the rest of the faithful of any Nation and remaining distinct from them 2. That the Titles of Priests and Levites which have been so often attributed to the Officers of the Christian Church had not their Original from the meer fancies of the Ancient Fathers much less were they an invention of later times but are founded on an expression of the Holy Scripture 3. That amongst these Officers there should be such disparity as had been under the Law amongst the posterity of Levi. 2. You pretend to discover by what degrees Prelacy grew up to its present Grandeur And you tell me one need but some experience in the course of things and a little proportion of Mother wit to make a clear and distinct conception of what you have said on this Subject You believe that all Presbyters were equal by a Divine Institution Yet notwithstanding that appointment of Heaven it was requisit you say for orders sake that in every Assembly one should have the direction and 't is most probable the Eldest Presbyter had the first place and the first direction of matters Yet probable as it is if one should affirm that 't is a meer conjecture of Mother Wit you have said nothing that may be sufficient to confute him However this must be made the first prudential reason for a departure from a Divine Institution and the first step towards the degeneracy of succeeding times But this State of Affairs did not long continue Another prudential reason appears to justle out the former and introduces another step to corruption For it was found by experience you say that the eldest was not always the worthiest and fittest for the direction of matters A very notable discovery But it may seem a little strange that men inspir'd or but of ordinary capacity did not foresee this and that no care was taken to prevent the inconveniences of the last contrivance It also seems incredible that the old men should be so easily degraded from their accustomed precedence and suffer their juniors to be pearcht into their places They must be suppos'd to be persons of a very complaisant humour tho they had no great proportions of Mother-Wit seeing they would yield up their Title and Dignity of first Presbyters without the least murmur or complaint But that 's no matter Once upon a time all the world over it came to pass that the place devolv'd not by seniority but was confer'd by Election made by all the Presbyters and not unlikely but with Prayer and imposition of Hands Things very piously reckon'd amongst the means of depraving the Institution of Christ And now the first Presbyter by this new Ordination begins to look pretty like a Bishop yet he had no more Authority in the College of Presbyters than is by all Protestants allow'd to Peter in that of the Apostles But one step more brings him to the Episcopal Throne For the best men are but Flesh and Blood and the best Institutions liable to rust and canker There was a Diotrephes in the Apostles own times and those that follow'd after improv'd upon the example And so the first Presbyter soon became advanced into another order and from being First commenced Prince of the Presbyters A great and sudden change And the thing was managed with so much fineness that it was conceal'd many hundred years above a thousand and it may seem strange that it should be discover'd at last not from any Ancient writings or credible informations but by experience in the course of things and some proportions of Mother-Wit Authors indeed you quote and several Arguments you have by which you would prove that corruptions were introduced into the Church in such a manner as you have describ'd but you had much better have left us to depend wholly on your own word than at all have produced them Since they can only serve to expose the weakness of your Cause One of those Arguments you ground on 1 Tim. 5.17 where S. Paul says Let the Elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and doctrine From hence you gather that there was a distinction of Elders and that some of them being better at Ruling and some at Preaching they exercis'd themselves according to the Talent they had those that were better at Ruling in Ruling and those that were better at Preaching in labouring in the Word and Doctrine And you farther conclude that there was always a first Presbyter and make no question but he was of the number of those that labour'd in the Word And I make no question but here you have put together several things that might better have been omitted For you suppose that the Elders who labour'd in the Word and Doctrine were excell'd by others in Ruling whereas all that the Apostle mentions in this place are such as Rule well And then to those that you conceive were better at Preaching than at Ruling you attribute the praeeminence in Ruling or that chief direction of matters in the Consistories which belongs to the place of Presidents And this I think is sufficiently absurd But what is worst of all is you make a Text of Scripture a foundation of one of the steps to Corruption An instance of some that were better at Ruling than at Preaching you think you have found in the Epistle of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians and if you had the matter is not great since all that you would infer from thence is that others were prefer'd before them who were not so well qualified as themselves for the Administration of the Government I am willing however to see the exercise of your Critical faculty You think then that they who are said by Clemens to have Politiz'd well were the Presbyters that Ruled rather than Preach'd well But you might have found that in another place this Father tells us that Peter and Paul Politiz'd divinely if I may borrow your expression and doubtless did not mean thereby to distinguish them from Preaching Apostles You might also have found that when he upbraids some for not Politizing as they ought he meant not to reflect on them as Bad Governours but in general as persons that did not walk worthy of Christ These things so plainly shew your mistake that you will not I believe review your Criticism with any great satisfaction For an example of one that was better at Preaching than at Ruling and was a first Presbyter you produce the President mention'd by Justin Martyr And 't is true that Preaching was the work of that President for so it appears from Justin And it is as true that he govern'd in chief For he was a Bishop as Grotius will inform you whose Learning you with so much reason admire But of what use this can be to you unless it be to overthrow what you would establish by
to be acquainted with those Gentlemen to whom he dedicates his Book But if I am not mistaken in their Character they are of more Judgment than to believe that if others were as Candid as themselves this Idea which he so much magnifies would be of Infinite Advantage They will rather perceive that it would not otherwise put an end to the Fatal Controversies that have perplext the Church than Poison would cure Diseases that is by the death of the Patients For 't is evident that the design of it is to abrogate the Authority which Christ bestow'd on his Ecclesiastical Officers and consequently our Author instead of Intitling his Book The Nature of Church-Government Freely Discussed might more fitly have call'd it A Treatise of Church-Anarchy or Church-Confusion I know not whether the Applause of his Performances be continued to him in his own Person which he first receiv'd by Proxy from the neighbouring Dissenters But sure I am that he contradicts the avowed Principles of their Party and the sense of their Writers He contends that the Pastors of the Church have no Authority but what they derive from the State He makes Church-Government a meer Prudential Thing and Alterable in the Form of it according to the various Forms of the Civil Government and argues that it ought to take its Model from the appointment of the Civil Magistrate Whereas their other Writers tell us That a Spiritual Extraction of a Legitimate Ecclesiastical Power cannot be made from a Secular Root That the Introduction of Humane Authority into the Rule of the Church of Christ in any kind destroyeth the Nature of it That there is but one Form of Government laid down in the Word and that Unchangeable and that to think Church-Government must be fram'd according to the Common-wealth or Civil Government is as if one should fashion his House according to his Hangings But that his Friends may not resent the matter too highly when they find how they have been impos'd on by him I can assure them that in contradicting their Authors he uses them no worse than he does himself For having formerly concluded from 2 Thess 2.15 that it was the duty of Christians to preserve the same Government in the Churches after the Apostles days that was appointed and practis'd in them he now comes to prove that let the Government in those days be what it will it is but a Prudential and Ambulatory Thing and lyable to Changes according to the difference of Times and Occasions And that his Friends may not for the future expect to find him any more fix'd or steady he professes in his Epistle Dedicatory that he hath nothing of fondness in him for any Opinions He hath as little fondness in him for the Authority of the Apostles as he hath for his own Opinions For however he takes Diocesan Prelacy to be a Degeneracy or Defection from an Apostolical Constitution yet he boasts of his Vindication of it upon Prudential grounds He represents Episcopacy as a Corruption and yet he supposes that it is of Divine Right when it is by Law established The truth is he hath confusedly jumbl'd together the Notions of the Dissenters and the Principles of Hobbes and Erastus and with this odd kind of mixture he thinks himself sufficiently qualified to heal the Breaches of Christendom Before him one Peter Cornelius Van Zurick-zee set up for a Reconciler General and his Project for Union was that in every City and in every County there should be appointed a General Meeting-place in which the Christians of all Persuasions should be requir'd to assemble together that they might hear the Scriptures read and afterwards talk about them and give their Interpretations of them according to their various Sentiments Of this Device he had such a conceit that leaving his Family and Native Country he cross'd the Seas that he might reveal it in England expecting that here it would receive a kind entertainment and from hence break forth as a Light into all other Countries and Nations But whether this Man or the Free Discusser hath furnish'd us with a better Plan of an Universal Peace or whether Prudential Reason hath been more happy than a Freak of Enthusiasm in proposing a Method of Union or Scheme of Ecclesiastical Polity I leave you to determine In the mean time I am of opinion that the way of governing Churches which is agreeable to the will of God was not to be invented or first discover'd fifteen or sixteen hundred years after the Birth of our Saviour I suppose a thing of such use must needs have been known to the Primitive Christians And they generally believ'd 1. That our Saviour Christ who was the Founder of Church-Government bestow'd on his Officers such Authority as qualified them for the Administration of it 2. That this Government was Episcopal from the beginning On these two things I have chiefly insisted in this Discourse but far more copiously on the last against which I met with the greatest opposition By which opposition I do not only mean That which hath been made by my Adversary for I have considerd the utmost that I could find objected on That side And upon the whole I am satisfied that it requires no great Abilities to defend Episcopacy and that it proceeds from the Goodness of the Cause that the more Learned the Opposers of it are the more ready have they been to let fall such things as may serve for the Vindication of it and answer their own Objections This was the Case of Blondel and Salmasius but more particularly of the last who hath so many things that favour my Hypothesis that of all Modern Authors none has been more useful to me than Walo Messalinus But all the assistance I have receiv'd from him has been only to confirm the Notions which I had before grounded on the Holy Scriptures the Testimony of the Ancients from which I have prov'd That Episcopacy was of Divine Institution and that meer Presbyters were generally subordinate to Superior Pastors in the Apostles days and afterwards in the best and purest Ages And if so there can be no doubt concerning the succeeding Times or of the Truth of what was affirm'd by the Lord Falkland in a warm Speech which he made against some of the Bishops that the Order of the Bishops hath always remain'd in the Churches from Christ to Calvin What I have said on this subject fastens an Imputation of Novelty on the Dissenters but I cannot help it and they have no reason to be offended at it For their own Friends the Elders and Messengers of the Congregational Churches who met at the Savoy confess that it is true in respect of the publick and open profession either of Presbytery or Independency this Nation hath been a stranger to each way it 's possible ever since it hath been Christian And I will adventure to add that the Nation may be
mention he makes of his power to use sharpness if his directions were not observ'd and his challenging obedience from them to whom he ow'd obedience could not but be very surprizing and his threatning that he would come with his Rod if they did not prevent it by their Reformation and that then he would not spare must needs have appear'd very strange language to his good Masters the Corinthians Another Argument by which you pursue the design of the Leviathan in opposing Ecclesiastical Authority is taken from the inconsistence you conceive it hath with the Civil Government if it be not deriv'd from it You conclude there can be no Jurisdiction at all unless it be in the Magistrate or proceeds from him because as you tell me in one Kingdom there can be but one spring or fountain of it But if this be at all pertinent and by Jurisdiction you do not only mean that which is Secular your Objection makes as much against the Ruling Power of the Apostles as of other Spiritual Pastors Yet is this some of that stuff which you so highly extol and I suppose that in your Epistle Dedicatory you had it particularly in your eye where you say that were your Idea of Church-Government receiv'd by all others with the same degree of candour as you assure your self it shall by your Noble Friends it would be of infinite advantage to end those fatal controversies that for many Ages have perplexed and in this last almost destroy'd the Church What your Noble Friends think of your performance I cannot tell For my own part I am not surpriz'd to find you ascribing Infinite Advantage to the Exploits of your own Pen nor convinced but that if your Principles about Ecclesiastical Polity were generally embraced they might be of more pernicious consequence than the Collection which as Lactantius informs us Vlpian made of the impious Rescripts of Princes that he might shew what punishments should be inflicted on those who professed themselves Worshippers of God The Justice of this Charge will be manifest from hence that the Church cannot subsist without Government nor Government without Authority If therefore as you contend there be no Ecclesiastical Government or Authority but what proceeds from the Magistrate this would put it into the power of a Julian to destroy the Church by dissolving that Government and abrogating that Authority And to this he might be the more inclin'd did he believe that the Hierarchy could not be tolerated with safety to himself or were so dangerous a thing as you have represented it Had the Apostles you say own'd any pretensions of a design to erect a National much more an Vniversal Hierarchy or Form of External Government in the Church or had they done any thing to occasion a just suspicion of such a Design it would have much obstructed the true design and end of their Mission which was the planting and spreading Christianity For then Magistrates and Rulers in their own defence and for the preservation of their own inherent Prerogatives and Rights must have always oppos'd it That is they would have been obliged to restrain the Apostles or oppose their Attempts if they acted by other Principles or advanced other Notions than you have embraced And this may a little discover the tendency of your Letters of Church-Government There can be no question amongst those that believe the Gospel but that our Saviour might have established an Vniversal Hierarchy Nor can there be any doubt but if he enjoin'd his Apostles to erect an external form of Church-government it had been their duty to obey his Command And what must then the Kings and Rulers of the Earth have done If you have stated the Case right they might lawfully have taken counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed They might and ought to have resisted his Design and Constitution or in your words They must in their own defence and for the preservation of their own inherent Prerogatives have always oppos'd it A passage which one would think you should hardly reflect on without something of Confusion It will deserve the severer Censure if it be true that such a Hierarchy as you condemn was indeed erected and that by the appointment of Christ himself And this I take to be certain For the Apostles to whom he committed the Government of all the Church Militant were not invisible Rulers nor were the people under their charge invisible Subjects They admitted not persons into the Christian Society by any secret Rite but by Baptism Nor did they expel them from it by any hidden practice but in a publick manner The Faithful were united to them and other Pastors ordain'd by them as also amongst themselves not only in Love or Charity as they were to all Mankind but in that mutual relation which they had as visible Members of the same Body and as such they were obliged to meet and communicate in the Assemblies that were held for the putting up of solemn Prayers and Praises to Heaven for the Celebration of the Eucharist and other external Acts of Worship And whosoever had Right to Communion in one of those Assemblies he had so in all provided his demand of it was no way irregular And whosoever was expell'd for his Offences from one particular Church he was virtually excluded from the Communion of all other Churches He could not rescind the Sentence against himself by shifting of places Nor could he be kept bound and loos'd on Earth unless he might have been absolv'd and condemn'd in Heaven at the same time After the Apostles days an universal and external Form of Church-Government was kept up and appear'd in great vigor notwithstanding the disturbance it receiv'd from without You your self confess that the Notion of Catholick Vnity then obtain'd which was not understood you say to be internal and spiritual but to consist in something external relating unto Order and Discipline as being an Vnity that was to be maintain'd by Communicatory and other Letters and by Orders and that was intended to support the Notion of but one Bishoprick in the Church and that every Bishop participated of that one Bishoprick in solidum A Notion that was of great use to make the Discipline and Power the more pointed for if but one Church then to be cast out of any part of the Church was indeed to be ejected out of the whole and if but one Bishoprick to be participated by all the Bishops what was done by one was done by all All did censure if one did The Expulsion made by one Bishop out of any Church was in effect an Expulsion from all Churches and so a cutting off entirely from Christianity and all Communion of Saints Yet useful as you think this Notion was and early as it obtain'd you take it to be intolerable The Authority which you acknowledge S. Cyprian approv'd and which was exercis'd by him and other excellent Men in his
and Astonishment like the Inchanters of Egypt when they beheld the Finger of God But neither was it afterwards always requisite that there should be just seven Deacons however some religiously adher'd to that number nor was it necessary that they should always be adorn'd with Gifts that were Extraordinary and Miraculous for otherwise when Miracles ceas'd their Office must have ceas'd with them The Circumstances of the first Presbyters were also Extraordinary They were qualified for their Ordination with Extraordinary Gifts and Directions were given about it by Extraordinary Indications They could pray with the Spirit and preach by Inspiration They could speak Languages which they had never learn'd and perform other things as Miraculous Yet when all those Extraordinaries ceas'd the Order and Mission of Presbyters did not so but still remain'd and ought to remain to the end of the World From these Instances it is manifest that some things might be requisite for the beginning of an Office and for some that were vested with it a repetition of which is not always necessary for its preservation nor for all that are advanced to it However therefore the Apostles had some Prerogatives to which none at this time have any just pretence however it was very fit that they that were the first Planters of the Gospel should be able to recommend their Doctrine which was then new to the World with Miracles which we may call the Seals of that Commission which they receiv'd from Christ yet the Authority they had as Supreme Visible Pastors of the Church might descend to others who have no need of new Seals or Credentials for what may be sufficiently confirm'd by the same Let us now suppose if you please that the Apostles did more Miracles than any others or that the working of some was peculiar to them yet if Miracles as such hinder not a Succession to them the number and quality of their Miracles cannot do it without some declaration that they were intended for that purpose They may rather seem to concur with other things in signifying the pleasure of the Almighty to preserve that Office or Order which he so highly approv'd and which he had established in so wonderful a manner VI. I grant that the Charge of the Apostles was of great extent yet this hinders not but that they might have Successors in their Office or Authority They had a large Sphere of Action when they were sent to disciple all Nations But then no Apostle had sole Commission to do this Neither were the Apostles wont to act as in a Common Council by Majority of Voices but dispers'd themselves that they might better propagate the Doctrine of Christ They did not all travel together into the same Country but some went into Asia some into Scythia and others into other Nations says Didymus as they were directed by the Holy Spirit The Armenian Historian in Galanus tells us that having received the Holy Ghost they divided the Countries by Lot But certain it is that some of them were more especially engaged to plant Christianity amongst the Gentiles some amongst those of the Circumcision Some in this Nation and some in that No single Person had the whole work of preaching the Gospel committed solely to him For as there ought to be no Oecumenical Bishop so there was no Oecumenical Apostle who had Jurisdiction over the rest It is also manifest that all the Bishops in the second and other Centuries had Power to govern all the Churches that were planted by all the Apostles and to propagate Christianity far and near so that the Charge of both in general was of equal extent And if the multitude of Pastors as well as of other Christians increasing particular Bishops were concluded within a narrower compass than the Apostles had been such Disproportion of Dioceses does not necessarily hinder the Title of Succession of one from another as may appear by the following Instances The Kings of Judah are mentioned in Scripture as sitting on the Throne of David when ten Tribes pay'd them no Obedience So that however they had not his Dominions intire it was enough to preserve their Succession to him in Royal Authority that they retained it in such parts of them as remain'd under their subjection Eutropius says of Severus that he left his Sons Bassianus and Geta his Successors And Constantine he tells us left his three Sons his Successors none of which singly could have all the Dominions of their Father in which the other Brothers had their share And not to mention other Examples I find in Plutarch's Life of Demetrius the Great Men who divided amongst them the Empire of Alexander twice styled his Successors and once the Successors by way of Eminence yet no one of them had either the personal Courage and Conduct or all the Dominions of that Mighty Conqueror Perhaps it will be said that this is a mere Dispute about Words for that is the Reflection which a Learned Foreiner was pleas'd to cast on it when it had been managed by an incomparable hand But when Salmasius whom others have followed argues against the Succession to the Apostles from his own mistake of a Word to give its true Interpretation and to confute that which is erroneous is the best way I think to shew the weakness of his reasoning VII I grant That other Pastors of the Church are commonly under an Obligation to a more constant Residence in some particular Places than the Apostles were yet this hinders not the Bishops from succeeding the Apostles in their Office or Authority For 1. It is not Essential to the Office of a Bishop that he reside in a Place as a Local Pastor of a particular Church nor is it always necessary as you suggest that he should be ordain'd to a certain People They that with us are advanc'd to the Episcopal Chair are constituted Bishops in the Church of God But that they are limited to a certain Diocese proceeds from such Rules of Government as are not always of necessary Obligation The Council of Chalcedon declar'd that none should be ordain'd at large yet this Rule says Grotius was not of Divine and Perpetual but Positive Right and it may admit of many Exceptions Before that Council S. Paulinus was ordained Absolutely in Sacerdotiam tantùm Domini non in locum Ecclesiae dedicatus as himself speaks in an Epistle to Severus And when S. Jerom was made a Presbyter he had no peculiar Church or Title assign'd to him And to come nearer to the matter Photius tells us that Caius who flourished in the beginning of the Third Century was constituted Bishop of the Gentiles that is of the Heathen at large that by his Labours amongst them he might draw them to the Christian Faith Indeed where Ecclesiastical Government is setled and Christianity flourishes however persecuted by the Civil Power it is requisite for the most part that the Jurisdiction of
is consistent enough with his setled Residence in his Diocese when the Church of Ephesus was committed to his Administration I do not remember any other material Objection against what I have said concerning this subject So that I make no doubt still to affirm that Timothy was an Ordinary Pastor of the Church and thus much in effect is acknowledged by some Learned Presbyterians who say he was the first Presbyter or President of the Presbytery And if they would allow such Presidents as have the full Power of Ordination which he had Presidents with Authority equal to his and which as Cameron gathers from 1 Tim. 5.19 was greater than was consistent with the Office of other Presbyters Presidents that are so for life as Ludovicus Cappellus thinks they originally were Then if they please they may call them Presidents still and I shall not contend about the Name if we are agreed about the Thing But since you and many others have not made the Concessions I have mention'd I shall farther prove that the Office of Timothy was such as I have describ'd by the following Arguments 1. If it had been intended that the Authority committed to Timothy and others of his Rank should be temporary either this may appear from the nature of the thing or it might have been expected that we should have had some notice of it in the Scripture For if we may take the liberty without any grounds to fasten on it the Title of Temporary or Extraordinary we may by the same means soon put an end to any Constitutions whatsover But there is nothing in the nature of this Authority that may hinder its continuance nothing in the Scripture that declares it to be abrogated We may conclude therefore that as it is fit to be continued so it was design'd to be so in all succeeding times 2. We have no reason to believe that S. Paul would alter his own Constitutions without a cause or that without any necessity he would put the Government of a Church into a new Model and divert the Course of Discipline from that Channel in which it ought to run in all Ages If therefore he sent Timothy as an Extraordinary Commissioner to interpose in the Affairs of Ephesus we may suppose this to have been either 1. Because there was some Extraordinary Work which none but Extraordinary Officers could perform or 2. Because there were no Ministers at Ephesus or such only as were unfit for Government But neither of these can well be imagin'd Not the first for the Work was no other than what hath or might have been perform'd by Bishops ever since Not the second for there were Presbyters at Ephesus of eminent Gifts such as the Holy Ghost had made Overseers It seems improbable then that these were constituted Supreme Standing Rulers of the Church or that the Work for which they were so well qualified was so soon taken out of their hands Particularly it seems improbable either that they had the Power of Ordination or that it would have been transfer'd from them to a Stranger who came to visit them but was not of their number and that without any ground or reason given or any notice taken of them as concern'd in the matter Flaminius did a thing acceptable to the Greeks when he gave them permission to live after their own Laws But if he had afterwards sent amongst them some Governour with Power and Commission to over-rule and controul their Magistrates and to disturb that Polity which had been established by his Concession by such Changes and Turns of Affairs he would have introduc'd and encouraged great Irregularities and put his former Admirers upon upbraiding his Levity or questioning his Veracity And let us now suppose if you please that such Elders were constituted by S. Paul at Ephesus as were inabled and obliged to perform the highest Acts of Ecclesiastical Authority as Supreme Ordinary Pastors and were design'd also to be a Pattern for following Ages Let us farther suppose that an Officer Extraordinary had afterwards been left amongst them with Commission from that Apostle to alter the measures they had taken and to suspend the exercise of a principal part of their Function by taking it wholly to himself and that without any Miscarriage laid to their Charge you may easily perceive what Reflections this might have occasioned and that such Proceedings would have been so far from setting things in order that one has reason to think they would have put them into greater confusion 3. If such eminent Presbyters as were at Ephesus and a Church so flourishing as that of Ephesus was had a Governour put over them this ought not to be esteemed an extraordinary thing for doubtless other Presbyters and Churches whose Exigences were greater had so too And if such a Subordination of Officers was necessary when the Apostles were alive I cannot imagine why an end should afterwards be put to it when there was more occasion of it than ever Some of the most Learned Opposers of Episcopacy grant that Timothy and others of his Rank govern'd Churches with the same Plenitude of Power as Bishops afterwards did who as they say were rais'd in the second Century for the Cure of Schism But if in the common sense of Christians Prelacy was useful to that purpose as 't is supposed this must have obliged them to preserve it when it had been introduced amongst them by such as were directed by the Spirit of God and it could be no great Argument of their Wisdom if they laid aside that which was of Divine Original and were very shortly afterwards put upon contriving how to restore it by a Humane Invention 4. It seems very improbable that the Apostle should write two Epistles to Timothy only to direct him in the temporary Administration of the Affairs of a Place where he was only to make a transient Visit But if from the Examples we have of Presbyters and the Rules that are laid down for them in Scripture we may gather that such ought to be continued Then may we also conclude from the Example of Timothy from the Authority he had and the Rules that were given to him for the exercise of it and which are of perpetual use that the Office with which he was vested ought to be preserv'd in the Church till the end of the World 5. As we learn from the Scripture that Timothy resided at Ephesus so it may something confirm what I have said of his relation to that Place if there he ended his days And this is what is testified by Sophronius who tells us that there he gloriously suffer'd Martyrdom But more fully by an Ancient Writer in Photius who acquaints us that he was put to death at the detestable Festival called the Catagogium which he would have abrogated 6. After his death we find Onesimus in his Place who is said to be Bishop of Ephesus by Ignatius his Co-temporary and by whom he is
to comprehend the High Priests whom he does not expresly mention And probably it was in imitation of the Hellenist Jews that many of the Primitive Christian Writers distinguish'd the Clergy into two Ranks and to make them speak consistent with themselves we need only grant that two different Orders by reason of some general agreement between them are contain'd in one of the Branches of the Distinctions which they use This one thing being consider'd may answer a great part of Blondel's Apology And it shews that if nothing else hinders Clemens might comprehend all the Ruling Officers of the Church under the Name of Bishops that being a word which at that time was of a general signification yet some of them might be Supreme and others Subordinate to them He might call them indifferently Bishops or Presbyters yet some of them might be Prelats and the rest of an inferior Rank and under their Authority But supposing what for my part I am inclin'd to believe that all the Bishops mention'd by Clemens were mere Presbyters I know not what service this can do you For he intimates that there were Officers distinct from them and superior to them And only to these Renowned Men as he calls them and the Apostles whom he joyns with them he ascribes the Power of Ordination which hath been the Prerogative of the Bishops ever since his days 'T is true it may seem that there was no Bishop at Corinth when he sent this Epistle thither which was before the Destruction of Jerusalem But if the See was vacant at that time it might be fill'd before the first Century was expir'd Certain it is that about the middle of the following Age Primus was Bishop of Corinth by Succession as you may learn from Hegesippus And if you enquire into the Original of that Succession Tertullian will lead you to it for he places at Corinth one of the Chairs of the Apostles It was in another of them that S. Clemens himself sate who is the Author of this Epistle He was a Bishop or an Apostle as he is styl'd by Clemens Alexandrinus He is mentioned in the Table of the Roman Apostles which was taken by Mabillon out of a Book of Canons in the Abbey of Corbie and which amounts to the same thing he is reckon'd in all the Catalogues that are extant of the Roman Bishops S. Irenaeus who liv'd near his time informs us that he was Bishop of Rome The same is attested by Tertullian and Origen by Eusebius and Epiphanius by Optatus and Jerom by Augustin and many others So that we have as great certainty of it as there is that Clemens writ the Epistle which bears his Name And if there be no ground to doubt of it as I think there is not his silence concerning a Bishop of Corinth is not so cogent an Argument against Episcopacy as his own Example is for it there not being the least cause to believe that so Excellent a Person would have born an Office which himself condemn'd or believ'd to be sinful CHAP. XI After the Apostles Decease the Churches were govern'd by single Persons who were distinguish'd by the Name of Bishops IN what hath been already said of Episcopal Government I have for the most part limited my Discourse to the first Century and only touch'd on it incidentally as continued in succeeding times I come now more fully to shew that after the Apostles decease the Churches or Dioceses were govern'd by Single Persons who were then distinguish'd by the Name of Bishops This appears from many passages in the Epistles of S. Ignatius as also from the Fragments that remain of Hegesippus and Dionysius of Corinth of Polycrates and others who flourish'd in the second Century In the third Origen acquaints us it was the custom to have no more than One Bishop of a Church and this he plainly intimates where he tells us expresly that in every Church there were Two For according to him one of them was visible and the other invisible One of them a Man and the other an assisting Angel 'T is true near the beginning of that Age Narcissus had Alexander for his Colleague in the Government of the Church of Jerusalem But as he was the first we meet with in Ecclesiastical History that after the Apostles days admitted of a Coadjutor so his Case was Extraordinary not only by reason of his extreme Old Age but also because as Eusebius informs us his breach of the Churches Rule was dispenc'd with by Divine Revelation The Rule was that of One Church or Diocese there might be no more than one Bishop On which principle Cyprian and Cornelius argued against the Novatians And the Council of Nice meant the same thing in prohibiting a plurality of Bishops in one City and did not thereby introduce an Innovation but confirm an useful part of the Ancient Discipline It was high time to do this for when Epiphanius speaking of Alexandria says that it never had two Bishops as other Cities he intimates that in the days of Alexander who was present in the Nicene Council some Cities in Egypt had a plurality of Bishops and if so it was a thing fit to be repress'd as being contrary to the Primitive Custom a Custom so avow'd and which had been so well establish'd that when the Roman Confessors abandon'd the Schismaticks by whose arts they had been deluded and made their submission to Cornelius when they acknowledged their errors before him with great humility they profess'd they could not charge themselves with the ignorance of this That as there is one God one Christ and one Holy Spirit so there ought to be but one Bishop of a Catholick Church Yet a doubt still remains on what account it was that other Cities differ'd from Alexandria in such a manner as Epiphanius suggests And some are of opinion that the reason of it was because some Catholick Bishops assum'd Coadjutors after the example of Narcissus But I rather think it proceeded from the Meletians of whom he discourses in this place and who with a mighty industry set up their Schismatical Bishops and Assemblies At Alexandria it seems they could not carry on their designs so successfully as in other parts of Egypt till as Epiphanius relates the matter they took their advantage of the death of Alexander and the absence of Achillas his Successon and then in opposition to him they made Theonas their Bishop and at Alexandria it self erected Altar against Altar But if you are not mistaken these Meletians reform'd a great abuse at Alexandria by that action For there you say the departure from the Primitive Institution of having divers Bishops of one City began as we are told by Danaeus who citeth Epiphanius and might have cited others Thousands doubtless Sir he might have cited to as much purpose that is to testifie such things as never enter'd