universally either sufficient or necessary If they be nevertheless on your part it still remaineth to be better proved That the Form of Discipline which ye intitle Apostolical was in the Apostles time exercised For of this very thing ye fail even touching that which ye make most account of as being Matter of Substance in Discipline I mean the Power of your Lay-Elders and the difference of your Doctors from the Pastors in all Churches So that in faith we may be bold to conclude That besides these last times which for insolency pride and egregious contempt of all good order are the worst there are none wherein ye can truly affirm that the compleat Form of your Discipline or the Substance thereof was practised The evidence therefore of Antiquity failing you ye flie to the judgments of such Learned men as seem by their Writings to be of opinion that all Christian Churches should receive your Discipline and abandon ours Wherein as ye heap up the names of a number of men not unworthy to be had in honor so there are a number whom when ye mention although it serve ye to purpose with the ignorant and vulgar sort who measure by tale and not by weight yet surely they who know what quality and value the men are of will think ye draw very near the dregs But were they all of as great account as the best and chiefest amongst them with us notwithstanding neither are they neither ought they to be of such reckoning that their opinion or conjecture should cause the Laws of the Church of England to give place much less when they neither do all agree in that opinion and of them which are at agreement the most part through a courteous enducement have followed one man as their Guide finally that one therein not unlikely to have swerved If any chance to say it is probable that in the Apostles times there were Lay-Elders or not to mislike the continuance of them in the Church or to affirm that Bishops at the first were a name but not a power distinct from Presbyters or to speak any thing in praise of those Churches which are without Episcopal Regiment or to reprove the fault of such as abuse that Calling All these ye Register for Men perswaded as you are that every Christian Church standeth bound by the Law of God to put down Bishops and in their rooms to erect an Eldership so authorized as you would have it for the Government of each Parish Deceived greatly they are therefore who think that all they whose names are cited amongst the Favorers of this Cause are on any such verdict agreed Yet touching some material points of your Discipline a kinde of agreement we grant there is amongst many Divines of Reformed Churches abroad For first To do as the Church of Geneva did the Learned in some other Churches must needs be the more willing who having used in like manner not the slow and tedious help of proceeding by publick Authority but the peoples more quick endeavor for alteration in such an exigent I see not well how they could have staid to deliberate about any other Regiment then that which already was devised to their hands that which in like case had been taken that which was easiest to be established without delay that which was likeliest to content the people by reason of some kinde of sway which it giveth them When therefore the example of one Church was thus at the first almost through a kinde of constraint or necessity followed by many their concurrence in perswasion about some material points belonging to the same polity is not strange For we are not to marvel greatly if they which have all done the same thing do easily embrace the same opinion as concerning their own doings Besides mark I beseech you that which Galen in matter of Philosophy noteth for the like falleth out even in Questions of higher knowledge It fareth many times with mens opinions as with rumors and reports That which a credible person telleth is easily thought probable by such as are well perswaded of him But if two or three or four agree all in the same tale they judge it then to be out of Controversie and so are many times overtaken for want of due consideration either some common cause leading them all into error or one mans oversight deceiving many through their too much credulity and easiness of belief Though ten persons be brought to give testimony in any cause yet if the knowledge they have of the thing whereunto they come as witnesses appear to have grown from some one amongst them and to have spred it self from hand to hand they all are in force but as one testimony nor is it otherwise here where the Daughter Churches do speak their Mothers Dialect here where so many sing one Song by reason that he is the Guide of the Quire concerning whose deserved authority amongst even the gravest Divines we have already spoken at large Will ye ask what should move those many Learned to be followers of one Mans judgment no necessity of Argument forcing them thereunto Your demand is answered by your selves Loth ye are to think that they whom ye judge to have attained as sound knowledge in all points of Doctrine as any since the Apostles time should mistake in Discipline Such is naturally our affection that whom in great things we mightily admire in them we are not perswaded willingly that any thing should be amiss The reason whereof is for that as dead Flies putrifie the ointment of the Apothecary so a little Folly him that is in estimation for wisdom This in every profession hath too much authorized the judgment of a few This with Germans hath caused Luther and with many other Churches Calvin to prevail in all things Yet are we not able to define whether the Wisdom of that God who setteth before us in holy Scripture so many admirable patterns of Vertue and no one of them without somewhat noted wherein they were culpable to the end that to him alone it might always be acknowledged Thou onely art holy thou onely art just might not permit those worthy Vessels of his Glory to be in some things blemished with the stain of humane frailty even for this cause lest we should esteem of any man above that which behoveth 5. Notwithstanding as though ye were able to say a great deal more then hitherto your Books have revealed to the World earnest Challengers ye are of tryal by some publick Disputation wherein if the thing ye crave be no more then onely leave to dispute openly about those Matters that are inquestion the Schools in Universities for any thing I know are open unto you They have their yearly Acts and Commencements besides other Disputations both ordinary and upon occasion wherein the several parts of our own Ecclesiastical Discipline are oftentimes offered unto that kinde of Examination the learnedst of you have been of late years
saith Cyprian that our Lord himself did elect Apostles but Deacons after his ascension into Heaven the Apostles ordained Deacons were Stewards of the Church unto whom at the first was committed the distribution of Church-goods the care of providing therewith for the Poor and the charge to see that all things of expeace might be religiously and faithfully dealt in A part also of their Office was attendance upon their Presbyters at the time of Divine Service For which cause Ignatius to set forth the dignity of their Calling saith that they are in such case to the Bishop as if Angelical Powers did serve him These onely being the uses for which Deacons were first made if the Church have sithence extended their Ministery further than the circuit of their labour at the first was drawn we are not herein to think the Ordinance of Scripture violated except there appear some prohibition which hath abridged the Church of that liberty Which I note chiefly in regard of them to whom it seemeth a thing so monstrous that Deacons should sometime be licensed to preach whose institution was at the first to another end To charge them for this as men not contented with their own Vocations and as breakers into that which appertaineth unto others is very hard For when they are thereunto once admitted it is part of their own Vocation it appertaineth now unto them as well as others neither is it intrusion for them to do it being in such sort called but rather in us it were temerity to blame them for doing it Suppose we the Office of Teaching to be so repugnant unto the Office of Deaconship that they cannot concurr in one and the same Person What was there done in the Church by Deacons which the Apostles did not first discharge being Teachers Yea but the Apostles found the burthen of Teaching so heavy that they judged it meet to cutt off that other charge and to have Deacons which might undertake it Be it so The multitude of Christians increasing in Ierusalem and waxing great it was too much for the Apostles to teach and to minister unto Tables also The former was not to be slacked that this latter might be followed Therefore unto this they appointed others Whereupon we may rightly ground this Axiom that when the subject wherein one man's labours of sundry kindes are imployed doth wax so great that the same men are no longer able to manage it sufficiently as before the most natural way to help this is by dividing their Charge into slipes and ordaining of Under-Officers as our Saviour under twelve Apostle seventy Presbyters and the Apostles by his example seven Deacons to be under both Neither ought it to seem less reasonable that when the same men are sufficient both to continue in that which they do and also to undertake somewhat more a combination be admitted in this case as well as division in the former We may not therefore disallow it in the Church of Geneva that Calvin and Beza were made both Pastors and Readers in Divinity being men so able to discharge both To say they did not content themselves with their Pastoral vocations but brake into that which belongeth to others to alledge against them He that exhorteth on exhortation as against us He that distributeth in simplicity is alledged in great dislike of granting licence for Deacons to preach were very hard The antient custome of the Church was to yield the poor much relief especially Widows But as poor people are always querulous and apt to think themselves less respected then they should be we see that when the Apostles did what they could without hindrance to their weightier business yet there were which grudged that others had too much and they too little the Grecian Widows shorter Commons than the Hebrews By means whereof the Apostles saw it meet to ordain Deacons Now tract of time having clean worn out those first occasions for which the Deaconship was then most necessary it might the better be afterwards extended to other Services and so remain as at this present day a Degree in the Clergy of God which the Apostles of Christ did institute That the first seven Deacons were chosen out of the seventy Disciples is an errour in Epiphanius For to draw men from places of weightier unto rooms of meaner labour had not been fit The Apostles to the end they might follow teaching with more freedom committed the ministery of Tables unto Deacons And shall we think they judged it expedient to chuse so many out of those seventy to be ministers unto Tables when Christ himself had before made them Teachers It appeareth therefore how long these three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order have continued in the Church of Christ the highest and largest that which the Apostles the next that which Presbyters and the lowest that which Deacons had Touching Prophets they were such men as having otherwise learned the Gospel had from above bestowed upon them a special gift of expounding Scriptures and of foreshewing things to come Of this sort Agabus was and besides him in Ierusalem sundry others who notwithstanding are not therefore to be reckoned with the Clergy because no man's gifts or qualities can make him a Minister of holy things unless Ordination do give him power And we nowhere since Prophets to have been made by Ordination but all whom the Church did ordain where either to serve as Presbyters or as Deacons Evangelists were Presbyters of principal sufficiency whom the Apostles sent abroad and used as Agents in Ecclesiastical affairs wheresoever they saw need They whom we finde to have been named in Scripture Evangelists Ananias Apollos Timothy and others were thus employed And concerning Evangelists afterwards in Trajans dayes the History Ecclesiastical noteth that many of the Apostle's Disciples and Scholars which were then alive and did with singular love of Wisdom affect the Heavenly Word of God to shew their willing mindes in executing that which Christ first of all requireth at the hands of men they sold their Possessions gave them to the Poor and betaking themselves to travel undertook the labour of Evangelists that is they painfully preached Christ and delivered the Gospel to them who as yet had never heard the Doctrine of Faith Finally whom the Apostle nameth Pastors and Teachers what other were they than Presbyters also howbeit settled in some certain charge and thereby differing from Evangelists I beseech them therefore which have hitherto troubled the Church with questions about Degrees and Offices of Ecclesiastical Calling because they principally ground themselves upon two places that all partiality laid aside they would sincerely weigh and examine whether they have not mis-interpreted both places and all by surmising incompatible Offices where nothing is meant but sundry graces gifts and abilities which Christ bestowed To them of Corinth his words are these God placed in the Church first of all some Apostles Secondly Prophets Thirdly Teachers after
the Antients termed usually an Arch-Presbyter weat this day name him Dean For most certain truth it is that Churches-Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and the course of the world hath brought For defence and maintenance of them we are most earnestly bound to strive even as the Jews were for their Temple and the High-Priest of God therein The overthrow and ruine of the one if ever the sacrilegious avarice of Atheists should prevail so farr which God of his infinite mercy forbid ought no otherwise to move us than the people of God were moved when having beheld the sack and combustion of his Sanctuary in most lamentable manner flaming before their eyes they uttered from the bottom of their grieved Spirits those voyces of doleful supplication Exsurge Domine miserearis Sion serve tui diligunt lapides ejus pulver is ejus miseret cos VIII How farr the power which Bishops had did reach what number of Persons was subject unto them at the first and how large their Territories were it is not for the question we have in hand a thing very greatly material to know For if we prove that Bishops have lawfully of old ruled over other Ministers it is enough how few soever those Ministers have been how small soever the circuit of Place which hath contained them Yet hereof somewhat to the end we may so farr forth illustrate Church-Antiquities A Law Imperial there is which sheweth that there was great care had to provide for every Christian City Biâ—hop as near as might be and that each City had some Territory belonging unto it which Territory was also under the Bishop of the same City that because it was not universally thus but in some Countrys one Bishop had subject unto him many Cities and their Territories the Law which provided for establishment of the other Orders should not prejudice those Churches wherein this contrary Custom had before prevailed Unto the Bishop of every such City not only the Presbyters of the same City but also of the Territory thereunto belonging were from the first beginning subject For we must note that when as yet there were in Cities no Parish Churches but only Colledges of Presbyters under their Bisâ—ops Regiment yet smaller Congregations and Churches there were even then abroad in which Churches there was but some one only Presbyter to perform amongst them Divine duties Towns and Villages abroad receiving the Faith of Christ from Cities whereunto they were adjacent did as Spiritual and Heavenly Colonies by their subjection honour those antient Mother Churches out of which they grew And in the Christian Cities themselves when the mighty increase of Believers made it necessary to have them divided into certain several companies and over every of those companies one only Pastor to be appointed for the Ministry of holy things between the first and the rest after it there could not be but a natural inequality even as between the Temple and Synagogues in Ierusalem The Clergy of Cities were termed Urbici to shew a difference between them and the Clergies of Townes of Villages of Castles abroad And how many soever these Parishes or Congregations were in number which did depend on any one principal City-Church unto the Bishop of that one Church they and their several sole Presbyters were all subject For if so be as some imagine every petty Congregation or Hamlet had had his own particular Bishop what sense could there be in those words of Ierom concerning Castles Villages and other places abroad which having onely Presbyters to teach them and to minister unto them the Sacraments were resorted unto by Bishops for the Administration of that wherewith their Presbyters were not licensed to meddle To note a difference of that one Church where the Bishop hath his seat and the rest which depend upon it that one hath usually been termed Cathedral according to the same sense wherein Ignatius speaking of the Church of Antioch termeth it his Throne and Cyprian making mention of Euaristâ—s who had been Bishop and was now depoâ—ed termeth him Cathedrae extâ—rrem one that was thrust besides his Chair The Church where the Bishop is set with his Colledge of Presbyters about him we call a See the Local compass of his Authority we term a Diocess Unto a Bishop within the compass of his own both See and Diocess it hath by right of his place evermore appertained to ordain Presbyters to make Deacons and with judgement to dispose of all things of weight The Apostle St. Paul had Episcopal Authority but so at large that we cannot assign unto him any one certain Diocess His positive Orders and Constitutions Churches every where did obey Yea a charge and care saith he I have even of all the Churches The walks of Titus and Timothy was limited within the bounds of a narrow Precinct As for other Bishops that which Chrysostom hath concerning them If they be evil could not poâ—â—ibly agreâ— unto them unless their Authority had reached farther than to some one only Congregation The danger being so great at it is to him that scandalizeth one Soul What shall he saith Chrisostom speaking of a Bishop what shall he deserve by whom so many Souls yea even whole Cities and Peoples Men Women and Children Citizens Peasants Inhabitants both of his own City and of other Towns subject unto it are offended A thing so unusual it was for a Bishop not to have ample Jurisdiction that Theophilus Patriark of Alexandria for making one a Bishop of a small Town is noted a proud Despiser of the commendable Orders of the Church with this censure Such Novelties Theophilus presumed every where to begin taking upon him as it had been another Moses Whereby is discovered also their Errour who think that such as in Ecclesiâ—stical Writings they finde termed Chorepiscopos were the same in the Country which the Bishop was in the City Whereas the old Chorepiscopi are they that were appointed of the Bishops to have as his Vicegerents some over-sight of those Churches abroad which were subject unto his See in which Churches they had also power to make Sub-deacons Readers and such like petty Church-Officers With which power so stâ—nted they not contenting themselves but adventuring at the length to Orâ—â—in even Deacons and Presbyters also as the Bishop himself did their presumption herein was controlled and stayed by the antient Edict of Councils For example that of Antioch It hath seemed good to the holy Synod that such in Towns and Countrys as are called Chorepiscopi do know their limits and govern the Churches under them contenting themselves with the charge thereof and with Authority to make Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and to be Leaders or Guiders of them but not to meddle with the Ordination either of
and meer Human invention a thing which was never drawn our of Scripture where all Pastors are found they say to have one and the same power both of Order and Jurisdiction Secondly by gathering together the differences between that power which we give to Bishops and that which was given them of old in the Church So that albeit even the antient took more than was warrantable yet so farr they swerved not as ours have done Thirdly by endeavouring to prove that the Scripture directly forbiddeth and that the judgement of the wisest the holyest the best in all Ages condemneth utterly the inequality which we allow XI That inequality of Pastors is a meer Humane invention a thing not found in the Word of God they prove thus 1. All the places of Scripture where the word Bishop is used or any other derived of that name signifie an Oversight in respect of some particular Congregation only and never in regard of Pastors committed unto his Oversight For which cause the names of Bishops and Presbyters or Pastoral Elders are used indifferently to signifie one and the self-same thing Which so indifferent and common use of these words for one and the self-same office so constantly and perpetually in all places declareth that the word Bishop in the Apostles Writing importeth not a Pastor of higher Power and Authoritie over other Pastors 2. All Pastors are called to their Office by the same means of proceeding the Scripture maketh no difference in the manner of their Tryal Election Ordination which proveth their Office and Power to be by Scripture all one 3. The Apostles were all of equal power and all Pastors do alike succeed the Apostles in their Ministery and Power the Commission and Authority whereby they succeed bring in Scripture but one and the same that was committed to the Apostles without any difference of committing to one Pastor more or to another less 4. The power of the Censures and Keyes of the Church and of Ordaining and ordering Ministers in which two points especially this Superiority is challenged is not committed to any one Pastor of the Church more than to another but the same is committed as a thing to be carried equally in the guidance of the Church Whereby it appeareth that Scripture maketh all Pastors not only in the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments but also in all Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction and Authority equal 5. The Council of Nice doth attribute this difference not unto any Ordination of God but to an antient Custom used in former times which judgement is also followed afterward by other Councils Concil Antioch cap. 9. 6. Upon these Premises their summary collection and conclusion is That the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven and of God Joh. I. 23. that if they be of God and from Heaven then are they set down in the Word of God that if they be not in the Word of God as by the premises it doth appear they say that our kinds of Bishops are not it followeth they are invented by the brain of men and are of the Earth and that consequently they can do no good in the Church of Christ but harm Our Answer hereunto is first that their proofs are unavailable to shew that Scripture affordeth no evidence for the inequality of Pastors Secondly That albeit the Scripture did no way insinuate the same to be God's Ordinance and the Apostles to have brought it in albeit the Church were acknowledged by all men to have been the first beginner thereof a long time after the Apostles were gone yet is not the Authority of Bishops hereby disannulled it is not hereby proved unfit or unprofitable for the Church 1. That the Word of God doth acknowledge no inequality of power amongst Pastors of the Church neither doth it appear by the signification of this word Bishop nor by the indifferent use thereof For concerning signification first it is clearly untrue that no other thing is thereby signified but only an oversight in respect of a particular Church and Congregation For I beseech you of what Parish or particular Congregation was Matthias Bishop His Office Scripture doth term Episcopal which being no other than was common unto all the Apostles of Christ forasmuch as in that number there is not any to whom the oversight of many Pastors did not belong by force and vertue of that Office it followeth that the very Word doth sometimes even in Scripture signifie oversight such as includeth charge over Pastors themselves And if we look to the use of the Word being applyed with reference unto some one Church as Ephesus Philippi and such like albeit the Guides of those Churches be interchangeably in Scripture termed sometime Bishops sometime Presbyters to signifie men having oversight and charge without relation at all unto other than the Christian Laity alone yet this doth not hinder but that Scripture may in some place have other names whereby certain of those Presbyters or Bishops are noted to have the oversight and charge of Pastors as out of all peradventure they had whom St. Iohn doth intitle Angels 2. As for those things which the Apostle hath set down concerning Tryal Election and Ordination of Pastors that he maketh no difference in the manner of their Calling this also is but a silly Argument to prove their Office and their Power equal by the Scripture The form of admitting each sort unto their Offices needed no particular Instruction There was no fear but that such matters of course would easily enough be observed The Apostle therefore toucheth those things wherein Judgement Wisdom and Conscience is required he carefully admonisheth of what quality Ecclesiastical Persons should be that their dealing might not be scandalous in the Church And forasmuch as those things are general we see that of Deacons there are delivered in a manner the self-same Precepts which are given concerning Pastors so farr as concerneth their Tryal Election and Ordination Yet who doth hereby collect that Scripture maketh Deacons and Pastors equal If notwithstanding it be yet demanded Wherefore he which teatcheth what kinde of Persons Deacons and Presbyters should be hath nothing in particular about the quality of chief Presbyters whom we call Bishops I answer briefly that there it was no fit place for any such discourse to be made inasmuch as the Apostle wrote unto Timothy and Titus who having by Commission Episcopal Authority were to exercise the same in ordaining not Bishops the Apostles themselves yet living and retaining that power in their own hands but Presbyters such as the Apostles at the first did create throughout all Churches Bishops by restraint only Iames at Ierusalem excepted were not yet in being 3. About equality amongst the Apostles there is by us no Controversie moved If in the rooms of the Apostles which were of equal Authority all Pastors do by Scripture succeed alike where shall we finde a Commission in Scripture which they speak
to keep the wound of Contrition bleeding they unfold the circumstances of their Transgressions and endeavour to leave nothing which may be heavy against themselves Yet do what they can they are still fearful lest herein also they do not that which they ought and might Come to Prayer their coldnesse taketh all heart and courage from them with fasting albeit their Flesh should be withered and their Blood clean dryed up would they ever the lesse object What is this to David's humiliation Wherein notwithstanding there was not any thing more than necessary In works of Charity and Alms-deed It is not all the World can perswade them they did ever reach the poor bounty of the Widdow's two Mites or by many millions of Leagues come near to the mark which Cornelius touched so farr they are off from the proud surmise of any Penitential Supererrogation in miserable wretched Wormes of the Earth Notwithstanding for as much as they wrong themselves with over-rigorous and extreme Exactions by means whereof they fall sometimes into such Perplexities as can hardly be allayed It hath therefore pleased Almighty God in tender commiseration over these imbecillities of men to ordain for their Spiritual and Ghostly comfort consecrated Persons which by Sentence of Power and Authority given from above may as it were out of his very mouth ascertain timerous and doubtful mindes in their own particular ease them of all their scrupulosities leave them settled in Peace and satisfied touching the Mercy of God towards them To use the benefit of this help for the better satisfaction in such cases is so natural that it can be forbidden no man but yet not so necessary that all men should be in case to need it They me of the two the happier therefore that can content and satisfie themselves by judging discreetly what they perform and soundly what God doth require of them For having that which is most material the substance of Penitency rightly bred touching signes and tokens thereof we may affirm that they do boldly which imagine for every offence a certain proportionable degree in the Passions and Griefs of Minde whereunto whosoever aspireth not repenteth in vain That to frustrate mens Confession and Considerations of Sinne except every Circumstance which may aggravate the same be unript and laid in the Ballance is a mercilesse extremity although it be true that as near as we can such Wounds must be searched to the very bottom Last of all to set down the like stint and to shut up the doors of Mercy against Penitents which come short thereof in the devotion of their Prayers in the continuance of their Falls in the largeness and bounty of their Almes or in the course of any other such like Duties is more than God himself hath thought meet and consequently more than mortal men should presume to do That which God doth chiefly respect in mens penitency is their Hearts The Heart is it which maketh Repentance sincere Sincerity that which findeth favour in God's sight and the favour of God that which supplyeth by Gracious acceptation whatsoever may seem defective in the faithful hearty and true Offices of his Servants Take it saith Chrysostome upon my credit Such is God's merciful inclination towards men that repentance offered with a single and sincere minde he never refuseth no not although we be come to the very top of Iniquity If there be a will and desire to return he receiveth imbraceth and omitteth nothing which may restore us to former happiness yea that which is yet above all the rest albeit we cannot in the duty of satisfying him attain what we ought and would but come farre behinde our mark he taketh neverthelesse in good worth that little which we doe be it never so mean we lose not our labour therein The least and lowest step of Repentance in Saint Chrysostome's Judgement severeth and setteth us above them that perish in their Sinne I therefore will end with Saint Augustine's Conclusion Lord in thy Booke and Volume of Life all shall be written as well the Least of thy Saints as the Chiefest Let not therefore the Unperfect fear Let them onely proceed and go forward OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK VII Their Sixth Assertion That there ought not to be in the Church Bishops indued with such Authority and Honour as ours are The Matter contained in this Seventh Book 1. THe state of Bishops although sometime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seems to please God yet by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author 2. What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong unto his office as he is a Bishop 3. In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority and in is the first thing condemned their superiority over other Ministers what kinde of superiority in Ministers it â—â— which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful 4. From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops 5. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint 6. What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had 7. After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them 8. How far the power of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of territory or local compass 9. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius 10. In what respect Episcopal Regiment is gainsaid by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day 11. Their arguments in disgrace of Regiment by Bishops as being a meer invention of man and not found in Scripture answered 12. Their arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church 13. The fore-alleadged Arguments answered 14. An answer unto those things which are objected concerning the difference between that Power which Bishops now have and that which ancient Bishops had more then other Presbyters 15. Concerning the civil Power and Authority which our Bishops have 16. The Arguments answered whereby they would prove that the Law of God and the judgement of the best in all ages condemneth the ruling superiority of our Minister over another 17. The second malicious thing wherein the state of Bishops suffereth oblaquy is their Honour 18. What good doth publickly grow from the Prelacy 19. What kinds of Honor be due unto Bishops 20. Honor in Title Place Ornament Attendance and Priviledge 21. Honor by endowment with Lands and Livings 22. That of Ecclessiastical Goods and consequently of the Lands and Livings which Bishops enjoy the propriety belongs unto God alone 23. That Ecclesiastical persons are receivers of Gods Rents and that the honour of Prelates is to be thereof his chief Receivers not without liberty from him granted of converting the same unto their own use even in large manner 24. That for their unworthiness to deprive both them and their
there is found no restraint of that name but only a general use whereby it reacheth unto all spiritual Governors and Overseers But to let go the name and to come to the very nature of that thing which is thereby signified in all kindes of Regiment whether Ecclesiastical or Civil as there are sundry operations publique so likewise great inequality there is in the same operations some being of principal respect and therefore not fit to be dealt in by every one to whom publique actions and those of good importance are notwithstanding well and â—itly enough committed From hence have grown those different degrees of Magistrates or publique persons even Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Amongst Ecclesiastical Persons therefore Bishops being chief ones a Bishops function must be defined by that wherein his Chiefty consisteth A Bishop is a Minister of God unto whom with permanent continuance there is given not only power of administring the Word and Sacraments which power other Presbyrers have but also a further power to ordain Ecclesiastical persons and a power of Chiefty in Government over Presbyters as well as Lay men a power to be by way of jurisdiction a Pastor even to Pastors themselves So that this Office as he is a Presbyter or Pastor consisteth in those things which are common unto him with other Pastors as in ministring the Word and Sacraments But those things incident unto his Office which do properly make him a Bishop cannot be common unto him with other Pastors Now even as Pastors so likewise Bishops being principal Pastors are either at large or else with restraint At large when the subject of their Regiment is indefinite and not tyed to any certain place Bishops with restraint are they whose Regiment over the Church is contained within some definite local compass beyond which compass their jurisdiction reacheth not Such therefore we always mean when we speak of that Regiment by Bishops which we hold a thing most lawful divine and holy in the Church of Christ. III. In our present regiment by Bishops two things there are complained of the one their great Authority and the other their great Honor. Touching the Authority of our Bishops the first thing which therein displeaseth their Adversaries is the Superiority which Bishops have over other Ministers They which cannot brook the Superiority which Bishops have do notwithstanding themselves admit that some kind of difference and inequality there may be lawfully amongst Ministers Inequality as touching gifts and graces they grant because this is so plain that no mist in the world can be cast before mens eyes so thick but that they needs must discern thorow it that one Minister of the Gospel may be more learneder holier and wiser better able to instruct more apt to rule and guide them then another Unless thus much were confest those men should lose their fame and glory whom they themselves do entitle the Lights and grand Worthies of this present age Again a priority of Order they deny not but that there may be yea such a priority as maketh one man amongst many a principal Actor in those things whereunto sundry of them must necessarily concur so that the same be admitted only during the time of such actions and no longer that is to say just so much superiority and neither more nor less may be liked of then it hath pleased them in their own kind of regiment to set down The inequality which they complain of is That one Minister of the Word and Sacraments should have a permanent superiority above another or in any sort a superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over other Ministers By us on the contrary side inequality even such inequality as unto Bishops being Ministers of the Word and Sacraments granteth a superiority permanent above Ministers yea a permanent superiority of power mandatory judicial and coercive over them is maintained a thing allowable lawful and good For superiority of power may be either above them or upon them in regard of whom it is termed superiority One Pastor hath superiority of power above another when either some are authorised to do things worthier then are permitted unto all some are preferred to be principal Agents the rest Agents with dependency and subordination The former of these two kinds of superiority is such as the High-Priest had above other Priests of the Law in being appointed to enter once a year the holy place which the rest of the Priests might not do The latter superiority such as Presidents have in those actions which are done by others with them they nevertheless being principal and chief therein One Pastor hath superiority of power not only above but upon another when some are subject unto others commandment and judicial controlment by vertue of publique jurisdiction Superiority in this last kinde is utterly denied to be allowable in the rest it is only denied that the lasting continuance and settled permanency thereof is lawful So that if we prove at all the lawfulness of superiority in this last kind where the same is simply denied and of permanent superiority in the rest where some kind of superiority is granted but with restraint to the term and continuance of certain actions with which the same must as they say expire and cease If we can show these two things maintainable we bear up sufficiently that which the adverse party endeavoureth to overthrow Our desire therefore is that this issue may be strictly observed and those things accordingly judged of which we are to alleadge This we boldly therefore set down as a most infallible truth That the Church of Christ is at this day lawfully and so hath been sit hence the first beginning governed by Bishops having permanent superiority and ruling power over other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments For the plainer explication whereof let us briefly declare first The birth and original of the same power whence and by what occasion it grew Secondly What manner of power antiquity doth witness Bishops to have had more then Presbyters which were no Bishops Thirdly After what sort Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches under them according to the like testimonial evidence of antiquity Fourthly How far the same Episcopal power hath usually extended unto what number of persons it hath reached what bounds and limits of place it hath had This done we may afterwards descend unto those by whom the same either hath been heretofore or is at this present hour gainsaid IV. The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were his blessed Apostles for the Office whereunto Matthias was chosen the sacred History doth term ' E 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Episcopal Office Which being spoken expresly of one agreeth no less unto them all then unto him For which cause St. Cyprian speaking generally of them all doth call them Bishops They which were termed Apostles as being sent of Christ to publish his Gospel throughout the world and were named likewise
calling been always so eminent above the rest in the same Church And what need we to seek far for proofs that the Apostles who began this order of Regiment by Bishops did it not but by divine instinct when without such direction things of far less weight and moment they attemdted not Paul and Barnabas did not open their mouths to the Gentiles till the Spirit had said Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them The Eunuch by Philip was neither baptized nor instructed before the Angel of God was sent to give him notice that so it pleased the most High In Asia Paul and the rest were silent because the Spirit forbad them to speak When they intended to have seen Bythinia they stayed their journey the spirit not giving them leave to go Before Timothy was imployed in those Episcopal affairs of the Church about which the Apostle St. Paul used him the Holy Ghost gave special charge for his Ordination and prophetical intelligence more then once what success the same would have And shall we think that Iames was made Bishop of Ierusalem Evodius Bishop of the Church of Antioch the Angels in the Churches of Asia Bishops that Bishops every where were appointed to take away factions contentions and Schisms without some like divine instigation and direction of the Holy Ghost Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory That if any thing in the Churches Government surely the first institution of Bishops was from Heaven was even of God the Holy Ghost was the Author of it VI. A Bishops saith St. Augustine is a Presbyter's Superior but the question is now wherein that superiority did consist The Bishops pre-eminence we say therefore was twofold First he excelled in latitude of the power of Order secondly in that kind of power which belongeth unto Iurisdiction Priests in the law had authority and power to do greater things then Levites the high Priest greater then inferiour Priests might do therefore Levites were beneath Priests and Priests inferior to the High Priest by reason of the very degree of dignity and of worthiness in the nature of those functions which they did execute and not only for that the one had power to command and controul the other In like sort Presbyters having a weightier and a worthier charge then Deacons had the Deacon was in this sort the Presbyters inferior and where we say that a Bishop was likewise ever accompted a Presbyters superior even according unto his very power of Order we must of necessity declare what principal duties belonging unto that kind of power a Bishop might perform and not a Presbyter The custom of the primitive Church in consecrating holy Virgins and Widows unto the service of God and his Church is a thing not obscure but easie to be known both by that which St. Paul himself concerning them hath and by the latter consonant evidence of other mens writings Now a part of the pre-eminence which Bishops had in their power of Order was that by them onely such were consecrated Again the power of ordaining both Deacons and Presbyters the power to give the power of order unto others this also hath been always peculiar unto Bishops It hath not been heard of that inferiour presbyters were ever authorized to ordein And concerning Ordination so great force and dignity it hath that whereas Presbyters by such power as they have received for Administration of the Sacraments are able only to beget Children unto God Bishops having power to Ordain do by vertue thereof create Fathers to the people of God as Epiphanius fitly disputeth There are which hold that between a Bishop and a Presbyter touching power of Order there is no difference The reason of which conceipt is for that they see Presbyters no less then Bishops authorized to offer up the prayers of the Church to Preach the Gospel to Baptize to Administer the holy Eucharist but they considered not with all as they should that the Presbyters authority to do these things is derived from the Bishops which doth ordain him thereunto so that even in those things which are common unto both yet the power of the one is as it were a certain light borrowed from the others lamp The Apostles being Bishops at large â—deined every where Presbyters Titus and Timothy having received Episcopal power as Apostolique Embassadors or Legates the one in Greece the other in Ephesus they both did by vertue thereof likewise ordein throughout all Churches Deacons and Presbyters within the circuits allotted unto them As for Bishops by restraint their power this way incommunicable unto Presbyters which of the ancients do not acknowledge I make not Confirmation any part of that power which hath always belonged only unto Bishops because in some places the custom was that Presbyters might also confirm in the absence of a Bishop albeit for the most part none but onely Bishops were thereof the allowed Ministers Here it will be perhaps Objected that the power of Ordination it self was not every where peculiar and proper unto Bishops as may be seen by 2 Council of Carthage which sheweth their Churches Order to have been That Presbyters should together with the Bishop lay hands upon the ordained But the answer hereunto is easie For doth it hereupon follow that the power of Ordination was not principally and originally in the Bishop Our Saviour hath said unto his Apostles With me ye shall sit and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel yet we know that to him alone it belongeth to judge the World and that to him all judgement is given With us even at this day Presbyters are licensed to do as much as that Council speaketh of if any be present Yet will not any man thereby conclude that in this Church others than Bishops are allowed to ordain The association of Presbyters is no sufficient proof that the power of Ordination is in them but rather that it never was in them we may hereby understand for that no man is able to shew either Deacon or Presbyter ordained by Presbyters only and his Ordination accounted lawful in any ancient part of the Church every where examples being found both of Deacons and of Presbyters ordained by Bishops alone oftentimes neither ever in that respect thought unsufficient Touching that other chiefty which is of Jurisdiction amongst the Jews he which was highest through the worthiness of peculiar duties incident into his function in the legal service of God did bear alwaies in Ecclesiastical jurisdiction the chiefest sway As long as the glory of the Temple of God did last there were in it sundry orders of men consecrated unto the service thereof one sort of them inferior unto another in dignity and degree the Nathiners subordinate unto the Levites the Levites unto the Priests the rest of the Priests to those twenty four which were chief Priests and they all to the High Priest If any
man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of power and not in this latter of jurisdiction are not the words of the Law manifest which make Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest chief Captain of the Levites and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed Again at the commandment of Aaron and his Sons are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge belonging unto the Gersonites being inferiour Priests as Aaron and his Sons were High Priests Did not Iehoshaphat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Ierusalem Priests saith Josephus worship God continually and the eldest of the stock are governours over the rest He doth sacrifice unto God before others he hath care of the Laws judgeth controversies correcteth offenders and whosoever obeyeth him not is convict of impiety against God But unto this they answer That the reason thereof was because the High-Priest did prefigure Christ and represent to the people that chiefty of our Saviour which was to come so that Christ being now come there is no cause why such preheminence should be given unto any one Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellions spirits that they all seek to shroud themselves under it Tell the Anabaptist which holdeth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man that God himself did allow his people to make wars they have their answer round and ready Those ancient Wars were figures of the spiritual Wars of Christ. Tell the Barrowist what sway David and others the Kings of Israel did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs the same answer again serveth namely That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ. Tell the Martinist of the High-Priests great authority and jurisdiction amongst the Jews what other thing doth serve this Turn but the self-same shift By the power of the High-Priest the universal supreme Authority of our Lord Iesus Christ was shadowed The thing is true that indeed High-Priests were figures of Christ yet this was in things belonging unto their power of Order they figured Christ by entring into the holy place by offering for the sins of all the people once a year and by other the like duties But that to govern and to maintain order amongst those that were subject to them is an office figurative and abrogated by Christs coming in the Ministry that their exercise of jurisdiction was figurative yea figurative in such sort that it had no other cause of being instituted but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them this Article is such as must be confirmed if any way by miracle otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men why the High-Priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge then in being whatsoever he might be besides St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as was given to the High-Priest among the Jews and to urge the law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it St. Ierom likewise thought it an argument sufficient to ground the Authority of Bishops upon To the end saith he we may understand Apostolical traditions to have been taken from the Old Testament that which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves In the Office of a Bishop Ignatius observeth these two functions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the one such is the prehemince of a Bishop that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God committed originally unto him so that otherwise than by his Ordination and by authority received from him others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of Gods Church And touching the other part of their sacred Function wherein the power of their jurisdiction doth appear first how the Apostles themselves and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rule and jurisdiction over Presbyters no man is ignorant And had not Christian Bishops afterward the like power Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being ready by blessed martyrdom to end his life writeth unto his Presbyters the Pastors under him in this sort O◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the death of Fabian Bishop of Rome there growing some trouble about the receiving of such persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution and did now repent their fall the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof signifying That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things Much we read of extraodinary fasting usually in the Church And in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the chiefty of Bishops The custome is saith Tertullian that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast Yea it is not a matter left to our own free choice whether Bishops shall rule or no but the will of our Lord and Saviour is saith Cyprian that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops An Argument it is of the Bishops high preheminence rule and government over all the rest of the Clergy even that the Sword of persecution did strike especially always at the Bishop as at the Head the rest by reason of their lower estate being more secure as the self-same Cyprian noteth the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe when himself then Bishop was driven into exile argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them By these letters saith he I both exhort and COMMAND that ye whose presence there is not envied at nor so much beset with dangers supply my room in doing those things which the exercise of Religion doth require Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in Gods Clergy if they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law the Bishop they compare unto Aaron the High Priest if they compare the one with the Apostles the other they compare although in a lower proportion sometime to Christ and sometime to God himself evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling authority and power above other Presbyters Ignatius comparing Bishops with Deacons and with such Ministers of the word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters and had no Authority over Presbyters What is saith he the Bishop but one which hath all principality and power over all so far forth as man may have it being to his power a follower even of Gods own Christ Mr. Calvin himself
though an enemy unto Regiment by Bishops doth notwithstanding confess that in old time the Ministers which had charge to teach chose of their Company one in every City to whom they appropriated the Title of Bishop lest equality should bread dissention He addeth farther that look what duty the Roman Consuls did execute in proposing matters unto the Senate in asking their opinions in directing them by advice admonition exhortation in guiding actions by their Authority and in seeing that performed which was with common consent agreed on the like charge had the Bishop in the assembly of other Ministers Thus much Calvin being forced by the evidence of truth to grant doth yet deny the Bishops to have been so in Authority at the first as to bear rule over other Ministers Wherein what rule he doth mean I know not But if the Bishops were so farr in dignity above other Ministers as the Consuls of Rome for their year above other Senators it is as much as we require And undoubtedly if as the Consuls of Rome so the Bishops in the Church of Christ had such authority as both to direct other Ministers and to see that every of them should observe tâ—at which their common consent had agreed on how this could be done by the Bishop not bearing rule over them for mine own part I must acknowledge that my poor concept is not able to comprehend One objection there is of some force to make against that which we have hither to endeavoured to prove if they mistake it not who alledge it St. Ierom comparing other Presbyters with him unto whom the name of Bishop was tâ—en appropriate asketh What a Bishop by vertue of his place and calling may do more then a Presbyter except it be only to Ordain In like sort Chrysostome having moved a question wherefore St. Paul should give Timothy precept concerning the quality of Bishops and descend from them to Deacons omiting the Order of Presbyters between he maketh thereunto this answer What things he spake concerning Bishops the same are also meet for Presbyters whom Bishops seem not to excell in any thing but only in the power of Ordination Wherefore seeing this doth import no ruling superiority it follows that Bishops were as then no rulers over that part of the Clergy of God Whereunto we answer that both S. Ierom and S. Chrysostom had in those their speeches an eye no farther then only to that function for which Presbyters and Bishops were consecrated unto God Now we know that their Consecration had reference to nothing but only that which they did by force and vertue of the power of Order wherein fithe Bishops received their charge only by that one degree to speak of more ample then Presbyters did theirs it might be well enough said that Presbyters were that way authorized to do in a manner even as much as Bishops could do if we consider what each of them did by vertue of solemn consecration for as concerning power of regiment and jurisdiction it was a thing withal added unto Bishops for the necessary use of such certain persons and people as should be thereunto subject in those particular Churches whereof they were Bishops and belonged to them only as Bishops of such or such a Church whereas the other kind of power had relation indefinitely unto any of the whole society of Christian men on whom they should chance to exercise the same and belonged to them absolutely as they were Bishops wheresoever they live St. Ieroms conclusion thereof is that seeing in the one kind of power there is no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop Bishops should not because of their preeminence in the other too much lift up themselves above the Presbyters under them St. Chrysostom's collection that whereas the Apostle doth set down the qualities whereof regard should be had in the Consecration of Bishops there was no need to make a several discourse how Presbyters ought to be qualified when they are Ordained because there being so little difference in the functions whereunto the one and the other receive Ordination the same precepts might well serve for both at least-wise by the vertues required in the greater what should need in the less might be easily understood As for the difference of jurisdiction the truth is the Apostles yet living and themselves where they were resident exercising the jurisdiction in their own persons it was not every where established in Bishops When the Apostles prescribed those laws and when Chysostom thus spake concerning them it was not by him at all respected but his eye was the same way with Ieroms his cogitation was wâ—olly fixed on that power which by Consecration is given to Bishops more then to Presbyters and not on that which they have over Presbyters by force of their particular accessory jurisdiction Wherein if any man suppose that Ierom and Chrysostom knew no difference at all between a Presbyter and a Bishop let him weigh but one or two of their sentences The pride of insolent Bishops hath not a sharper enemy then Ierom for which cause he taketh often occasions most severely to inveigh against them sometimes for shewing disdain and contempt of the Clergy under them sometimes for not suffering themselves to be told of their faults and admonished of their duty by inferiours sometime for not admitting their Presbyters to teach if so be themselves were in presence sometimes for not voucâ—â—sasing to use any conference with them or to take any counsel of them Howbeit never doth he in such wise bend himself against their disorders as to deny their Rule and Authority over Presbyters Of Vigilantius being a Presbyter he thus writeth Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus Parochia Presbyter esse dicitur acquiescere surori ejus non virga Apostolica virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile I marvel that the holy Bishop under whom Vigilantius is said to be a Presbyter doth yield to his fury and not break that unprofitable Vessel with his Apostolick and iron rod. With this agreeth most fitly the grave advice he giveth to Nepotian Be thou subject unto thy Bishop and receive him as the Father of thy Soul This also I say that Bishops should know themselves to be Priests and not Lords that they ought to honour the Clergy as becometh the Clergy to be honoured to the end their Clergy may yield them the honour which as Bishops they ought to have That of the Orator Domitius is famous Wherefore should I esteem of thee as of a Prince when thou makest not of me that reckoning which should in reason be made of a Senator Let us know the Bishop and his Presbyters to be the same which Aaron sometimes and his Sons were Finally writing against the Hereticks which were name Luciferians The very safety of the Church saith he dependeth on the dignity of the Chief Priest to whom unless men grant an exceeding and an eminent power there
will grow in Churches even as many Schisms as there are Persons which have authority Touching Chrysostom to shew that by him there was also acknowledged a ruling superiority of Bishops over Presbyters both then usual and in no respect unlawful what need we alledge his Words and Sentences when the History of his own Episcopal actions in that very kinde is till this day extant for all men to read that will For St. Chrysostom of a Presbyter in Antioch grew to be afterwards Bishop of Constantinople and in process of time when the Emperors heavy displeasure had through the practise of a powerful faction against him effected his banishment Innocent the Bishop of Rome understanding thereof wrote his Letters unto the Clergy of that Church That no Successour ought to be chosen in Chrysostom's room Nec ejus clerum alii parere Pontisici Nor his Clergy OBEY any other Bishop than him A fond kinde of speech if so be there had been as then in Bishops no ruling superiority over Presbyters When two of Chrysostom's Presbyters had joyned themselves to the faction of his mortal enemy Theophilus Patriarch in the Church of Alexandria the same Theophilus and other Bishops which were of his Conventicle having sent those two amongst others to cite Chrysostom their lawful Bishop and to bring him into Publick judgement he taketh against this one thing special exception as being contrary to all order That those Presbyters should come as Messengers and call him to Judgment who were a part of that Clergy whereof himself was Ruler and Judge So that Bishops to have had in those times a ruling superiority over Presbyters neither could Ierom nor Chrysostom be ignorant and therefore hereupon it were superfluous that we should any longer stand VII Touching the next point How Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them It is by Zonaras somewhat plainly and at large declared that the Bishop had his Seat on high in the Church above the residue which were present that a number of Presbyters did alwayes there assist him and that in the oversight of the Poeple those Presbyters were after a sort the Bishops Coadjutors The Bishops and Presbyters who together with him governed the Church are for the most part by Ignatius joyntly mentioned In the Epistle to them of Trallis he saith of Presbyters that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Counsellors and Assistants of the Bishop and concludeth in the end He that should disobey these were a plain Atheâ—t and an irreligious Person and one that did set Christ himself and his own Ordinances at nought Which Orders making Presbyters or Priests the Bishop's Assistants doth not import that they were of equal authority with him but rather so adjoyned that they also were subject as hath been proved In the Writings of Saint Cyprian nothing is more usual than to make mention of the Colledge of Presbyters subject unto the Bishop although in handling the common affairs of the Church they assisted him But of all other places which open the antient order of Episcopal Presbyters the most clear is that Epistle of Cyprian unto Cernelius concerning certain Novatian Heretiques received again upon their conversion into the unity of the Church After that Urbanus and Sidonius Confessors had come and signified unto our Presbyters that Maximus a Consessor and Presbyter did together with them desire to return into the Church it seemed meet to hear from their own mouths and confessions that which by message they had delivered When they were come and had been called to account by the Presbyters touching those things they had committed Their answer was That they had been deceived and did request that such things as there they were charged with might be forgotten It being brought unto me what was done I took order that the Presbytery might be assembled There were also present five Bishops that upon setled advice it might be with consent of all determined what should be done about their Persons Thus farr St. Cyprian Wherein it may be peradventure demanded Whether he and other Bishops did thus proceed with advice of their Presbyters in all such Publick affairs or the Church as being thereunto bound by Ecclesiastical Canons or else that they voluntarily so did becuase they judged it in discretion as then most convenient Surely the words of Cyprian are plain that of his own accord he chose this way of proceeding Unto that saith he which Donatus and Fortunatus and Novatus and Gordius our Compresbyters have written I could by my self alone make no answer forasmuch as at the very first entrance into my Bishoprick I resolutely determined not to do any thing of mine own private judgment without your counsel and the peoples consent The reason whereof he rendreth in the same Epistle saying When by the grace of God my self shall come unto you for St. Cyprian was now in exile of things which either have been or must to done we will consider sicut honor mutous poseit as the Law of courtesie which one doth owe to another of us requireth And at this very mark doth St. Ierom evermore aim in telling Bishops that Presbyters were at the first their Equals that in some Churches for a long time no Bishop was made but only such as the Presbyters did chuse out amongst themselves and therefore no cause why the Bishop should disdain to consult with them and in weighty affairs of the Church to use their advice sometime to countenance their own Actions or to repress the boldness of proud and insolent Spirits that which Bishops had in themselves sufficient authority and power to have done notwithstanding they would not do alone but craved therein the aid and assistance of other Bishops as in the case of those Novatian Hereticks before alledged Cyprian himself did And in Cyprian we finde of others the like practise Ragatian a Bishop having been used contumelously by a Deacon of his own Church wrote thereof his complaint unto Cyprian and other Bishops In which case their answer was That although in his own cause he did of humility rather shew his grievance than himself take revenge which by the rigor of his Apostolical Office and the authority of his Chair he might have presently done without any further delay Yet if the Party should do again as before their Judgements were Fungaris circa â—um potestate honoris tui cum vel deponas vel abstineas Use on him that power which the honour of thy Place giveth thee either to depose him or exclude him from access unto holy things The Bishop for his assistance and ease had under him to guide and direct Deacons in their charge his Archdeacon so termed in respect of care over Deacons albeit himself were not Deacon but Presbyter For the guidance of Presbyters in their Function the Bishop had likewise under him one of the self-same Order with them but above them an authority one whom
a Presbyter or of a Deacon without the Bishop of that City whereunto the Chorepiscopus and his Territory also is subject The same Synod appointeth likewise that those Chorepiscopi shall be made by none but the Bishop of that City under which they are Much might hereunto be added if it were further needful to prove that the local compass of a Bishop's authority and power was never so straightly lifted as some men would have the World to imagine But to go forward degrees of these are and have been of old even amongst Bishops also themselves One sort of Bishops being Superiours unto Presbyters only another sort having preheminence also above Bishops It cometh here to be considered in what respect inequality of Bishops was thought at the first a thing expedient for the Church and what odds there hath been between them by how much the power of one hath been larger higher and greater then of another Touching the causes for which it hath been esteâ—med meet that Bishops themselves should not every way be Equals they are the same for which the wisdom both of God and Man hath evermore approved it as most requisite that where many Governours must of necessity concurr for the ordering of the same affairs of what nature soever they be one should have some kinde of sway or stroke more than all the residue For where number is there must be order or else of force there will be confusion Let there be divers Agents of whom each hath his private inducements with resolute puâ—pose to follow them as each may have unless in this case some had preheminence above the rest a Chance it were if ever any thing should be either began proceeded in or brought unto any Conclusion by them Deliberations and Counsels would seldom go forward their Meetings would alwayes be in danger to break up with jarrs and contradictions In an Army a number of Captains all of equal power without some higher to over-sway them what good would they do In all Nations where a number are to draw any one way there must be some one principal Mover Let the practise of our very Adversaries themselves herein be considereâ— Are the Presbyters able to determine of Church-affairs unless their Pastors do strike the chiefest stroke and have power above the rest Can their Pastoral Synod do any thing unless they have some President amongst them In Synods they are forced to give one Pastor preheminence and superiority above the rest But they answer That he who being a Pastor according to the Order of their Discipline is for the time some little deal mightier than his Brethren doth not continue so longer than only during the Synod Which Answer serveth not to help them out of the bryars for by their practise they confirm our Principle touching the necessity of one man's preheminence wheresoever a concurrency of many is required unto any one solemn action this Nature teacheth and this they cannot chuse but acknowledge As for the change of his Person to whom they give this preheminence if they think it expedient to make for every Synod a new Superiour there is no Law of God which bindeth them so to do neither any that telleth them that they might suffer one and the same man being made President even to continue so during life and to leave his preheminence unto his Successours after him as by the antient Order of the Church Archbishops Presidents amongst Bishops have used to do The ground therefore of their preheminence above Bishops is the necessity of often concurrency of many Bishops about the Publick affairs of the Church as consecrations of Bishops consultations of remedy of general disorders audience judicial when the actions of any Bishop should be called in question or Appeals are made from his Sentence by such as think themselves wronged These and the like affairs usually requiring that many Bishops should orderly assemble begin and conclude somewhat it hath seemed in the eyes of Reverend Antiquity a thing most requisite that the Church should not only have Bishops but even amongst Bishops some to be in Authority chiefest Unto which purpose the very state of the whole World immediately before Christianity took place doth seem by the special providence of God to have been prepared For we must know that the Countrys where the Gospel was first planted were for the most part subject to the Roman Empire The Romans use was commonly when by warr they had subdued Foreign Nations to make them Provinces that is to place over them Roman Governors such as might order them according to the Laws and Customs of Rome And to the end that all things might be the more easily and orderly done a whole Country being divided into sundry parts there was in each part some one City whereinto they about did resort for Justice Every such part was termed a Diocess Howbeit the name Diocess is sometime so generally taken that it containeth not only mo such parts of a Province but even moe Provinces also than one as the Diocess of Asia contained eight the Diocess of Africa seven Touching Diocesses according unto a stricter sense whereby they are taken for a part of a Province the words of Livy do plainly shew what Orders the Romans did observe in them For at what time they had brought the Macedonians into subjection the Roman Governor by order from the Senat of Rome gave charge that Macedonia should be divided into four Regions or Diocesses Capita Regionum ubi concilia fierent primae Sedis Amphipolim secundae Thessalonicen tertiae Pellam quartae Pelagoniam fecit Eo Concilia sua cujusque Regionis indici pecuniam conferri ibi Magistratus creari jussit This being before the dayes of the Emperors by their appointment Thessalonica was afterwards the chiefest and in it the highest Governor of Macedonia had his Seat Whereupon the other three Dioceses were in that respect inferiour unto it as Daughters unto a Mother City for not unto every Town of Justice was that Title given but was peculiar unto those Cities wherein principal Courts were kept Thus in Macedonia the Mother City was Thessalonica In Asia Ephesus in Africa Carthage For so Iustinian in his time made it The Governors Officers and Inhabitants of those Mother-Cities were termed for difference-sake Metropolites that is to say Mother-city-men than which nothing could possibly have been devised more fit to suit with the nature of that form of Spiritual Regiment under which afterwards the Church should live Wherefore if the Prophet saw cause to acknowledge unto the Lord that the light of his gracious providence did shine no where more apparently to the eye than in preparing the Land of Canaan to be a Receptacle for that Church which was of old Thou hast brought a Vine out of Egypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it thou madest room for it and when it had taken root it filled the Land How much more ought we to
much concerning that Local Compass which was antiently set out to Bishops within the bounds and limits whereof we finde that they did accordingly exercise that Episcopal Authority and power which they had over the Church of Christ. IX The first whom we read to have bent themselves against the Superiority of Bishops were Aerius and his Followers Aerius seeking to be made a Bishop could not brook that Eustathius was thereunto preferred before him Whereas therefore he saw himself unable to rise to that greatness which his ambitious pride did affect his way of revenge was to try what Wit being sharpned with envy and malice could do in raising a new seditious opinion that the Superiority which Bishops had was a thing which they should not have that a Bishop might not ordain and that a Bishop ought not any way to be distinguished from a Presbyter For so doth St. Augustin deliver the opinion of Aerius Epiphanius not so plainly nor so directly but after a more Rhetorical sort His Speech was rather furious than convenient for man to use What is saith he a Bishop more than a Presbyter The one doth differ from the other nothing For their Order as one their Honour one one their Dignity A Bishop imposeth his hands so doth a Presbyter A Bishop baptizeth the like doth a Presbyter The Bishop is a Minister of Divine Service a Presbyter is the same The Bishop sitteth as a Iudge in a Throne even the Presbyter fitteth also A Presbyter therefore doing thus far the self-same thing which a Bishop did it was by Aerius inforced that they ought not in any thing to differ Are we to think Aerius had wrong in being judged an Heretick for holding this opinion Surely if Heresie be an error falsely fathered upon Scriptures but indeed repugnant to the truth of the Word of God and by the consent of the universal Church in the Councils or in her contrary uniform practice throughout the whole world declared to be such and the opinion of Aerius in this point be a plain error of that nature there is no remedy but Aerius so schismatically and stifly maintaining it must even stand where Epiphanius and Augustin have placed him An error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God is held by them whosoever they be that stand in defence of any Conclusion drawn erroneously out of Scripture and untruely thereon fathered The opinion of Aerius therefore being falsely collected out of Scripture must needs be acknowledged an error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God His opinion was that there ought not to be any difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter His grounds and reasons for this Opinion were Sentences of Scripture Under pretence of which Sentences whereby it seemed that Bishops and Presbyters at the first did not differ it was concluded by Aerius that the Church did ill in permitting any difference to be made The Answer which Epiphanius maketh unto some part of the proofs by Aerius alleged was not greatly studied or labored for through a contempt of so base an error for this himself did perceive and profess yieldeth he thereof expresly this reason Men that have wit do evidently see that all this is meer foolishness But how vain and ridiculous soever his opinion seemed unto wise men with it Aerius deceived many for which cause somewhat was convenient to be said against it And in that very extemporal slightness which Epiphanius there useth albeit the answer made to Aerius be in part but raw yet ought not hereby the Truth to finde any less favour than in other Causes it doth where we do not therefore judge Heresie to have the better because now and then it alledgeth that for it self which Defenders of Truth do not always so fully answer Let it therefore suffice that Aerius did bring nothing unanswerable The weak Solutions which the one doth give are to us no prejudice against the Cause as long as the others oppositions are of no greater strength and validity Did not Aerius trow you deserve to be esteemed as a new Apollos mighty and powerful in the Word which could for maintenance of his Cause bring forth so plain Divine Authorities to prove by the Apostles own Writings that Bishops ought not in any thing to differ from other Presbyters For example where it is said that Presbyters made Timothy Bishop is it not clear that a Bishop should not differ from a Presbyter by having power of Ordination Again if a Bishop might by Order be distinguished from a Presbyter would the Apostle have given as he doth unto Presbyters the Title of Bishops These were the invincible demonstrations wherewith Aerius did so fiercely assault Bishops But the Sentence of Aerius perhaps was only that the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter hath grown by the order and custom of the Church the Word of God not appointing that any such difference should be Well let Aerius then finde the favour to have his Sentence so construed yet his fault in condemning the order of the Church his not submitting himself unto that Order the Schism which he caused in the Church about it who can excuse No the truth is that these things did even necessarily ensue by force of the very opinion which he and his followers did hold His conclusion was That there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop His proofs those Scripture-sentences which make mention of Bishops and Presbyters without any such distinction or difference So that if between his Conclusion and the Proofs whereby he laboured to strengthen the same there be any shew of coherence at all we must of necessity confess that when Aerius did plead There is by the Word of God no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop his meaning was not only that the Word of God it self appointeth nor but that it enforceth on us the duty of not appointing nor allowing that any such difference should be made X. And of the self-same minde are the Enemies of Government by Bishops even at this present day They hold as Aerius did that if Christ and his Apostles were obeyed a Bishop should not be permitted to ordain that between a Presbyter and a Bishop the Word of God alloweth not any inequality or difference to be made that their Order their Authority their Power ought to be one that it is but by usurpation and corruption that the one sort are suffered to have rule of the other or to be any way superiour unto them Which opinion having now so many Defenders shall never be able while the World doth stand to finde in some believing Antiquity as much as one which hath given it countenance or born any friendly affection towards it Touching these men therefore whose desire is to have all equal three ways there are whereby they usually oppugn the received Order of the Church of Christ. First by disgracing the inequality of Pastors as a new
the most unfit to judge who bend themselves purposely against whatsoever the Church useth except it pleasie themselves to give it the grace and countenance of their favourable approbation which they willingly do not yield unto any part of Church-Policy in the forehead whereof there is not the mark of that new devised stamp But howsoever men like or dislike whether they judge things necessary or needless in the House of God a Conscience they should have touching that which they boldly affirm or deny 1. In the Primitive Church no Bishops no Pastor having power over other Pastors but all Equals every man Supreme Commander and Ruler within the Kingdom of his own Congregation or Parish The Bishops that are spoken of in the time of the Primitive Church all such as Persons or Rectors of Parishes are with in It thus it have been in the prime of the Church the question is how farr they will have that prime to extend and where the latter spring of that neâ—-supposed disorder to begin That Primitive Church wherein they hold that amongst the Fathers all which had Pastoral charge were Equal they must of necessity so farr enlarge as to contain some hundred of years because for proof hereof they alledge boldly and confidently Saint Cyprian who suffered Martyrdom about two hundred and threescore years after our blessed Lord's Incarnation A Bishop they say such as Cyprian doth speak of had only a Church or Congregation such as they Ministers and Pastors with us which are appointed unto several Towns Every Bishop in Cyprian's time was Pastor of one only Congregation assembled in one place to be taught of one man A thing impertiment although it were true For the Question is about Personal inequality amongst Governors of the Church Now to shew there was no such thing in the Church at such time as Cyprian lived what bring they forth Forsooth that Bishops had then but a small circuit of place for the exercise of their Authority Be it supposed that no one Bishop had more than one only Town to govern one only Congregation to rule Doth it by Cyprian appear that in any such Town of Congregation being under the cure and charge of someone Bishops there were not besides that one Bishop others also Ministers of the Word and Sacraments yet subject to the power of the same Bishop If this appear not how can Cyprian be alledged for a Witness that in those times there were no Bishops which did differ from other Ministers as being above them in degree of Ecclesiastical power But a gross and a palpable untruth it is That Bishops with Cyprian were as Ministers are with us in Parish-Churches and that each of them did guide some Parish without any other Pastors under him St. Cyprian's own Person may serve for a manifest disproof hereof Pomius being Deacon under Cyprian noteth that his admirable vertues caused him to be Bishop with the soonest which advancement therefore himself endeavoured for a while to avoid It seemed in his own eyes too soon for him to take the title of so great Honor in regard whereof a Bishop is tenned Pourisex Sacerdos Antistes Dei Yet such was his quality that whereas others did hardly perform that duty whereunto the Discipline of their Order togetherwith the Religion of the Oath they took at their entrance into the Office even constrained them him the Chair did not make but receive such a one as behoved that a Bishop should be But soon after followed that Prescription whereby being driven into exile and continuing in that estate for the space of some two years he ceased not by Letters to deal with his Clergy and to direct them about the Publick affairs of the Church They unto whom those Epistles were written he commonly entituleth the Presbyters and Deacons of that Church If any man doubt whether those Presbyters of Carthage were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments or no let him consider but that one only place of Cyprian where he giveth them this careful advice how to deal with circumspection in the perilous times of the Church that neither they which were for the truths sake imprisoned might want those Ghostly comforts which they ought to have nor the Church by ministring the same unto them incurr unnecessary danger and peril In which Epistle it doth expresly appear that the Presbyters of whom he speaketh did offer that is to say administer the Eucharist and that many there were of them in the Church of Carthage so as they might have every day change for performance of that duty Nor will any man of sound Judgement I think deny that Cyprian was in Authority and Power above the Clergy of that Church above those Presbyters unto whom he gave direction It is apparently therefore untrue that in Cyprian's time Ministers of the Word and Sacraments were all equal and that no one of them had either Title more excellent than the rest or Authority and Government over the rest Cyprian Bishop of Carthage was clearly Superiour unto all other Ministers there Yea Cyprian was by reason of the Dignity of his See an Archbishop and so consequently Superiour unto Bishops Bishops we say there have been alwayes even as long as the Church of Christ it self hath been The Apostles who planted it did themselves rule as Bishops over it neither could they so well have kept things in order during their own times but that Episcopal Authority was given them from above to exercise far and wice over all other Guides and Pastors of God's Church The Church indeed for a time continued without Bishops by restraint every where established in Christian Cities But shall we thereby conclude that the Church hath no use of them that without them it may stand and flourish No the cause wherefore they were so soon universally appointed was for that it plainly appeared that without them the Church could not have continued long It was by the special Providence of God no doubt so disposed that the evil whereof this did serve for remedy might first be felt and so the reverend Authority of Bishops be made by so much the more effectual when our general experience had taught men what it was for Churches to want them Good Laws are never esteemed so good not acknowledged so necessary as when precedent crimes are as seeds out of which they grow Episcopal Authority was even in a manner sanctified unto the Church of Christ by that little bitter experience which it first had of the pestilent evil of Schismes Again when this very thing was proposed as a remedy yet a more suspicions and fearful acceptance it must needs have found if the self-same provident Wisdom of Almighty God had not also given before-hand sufficient tryal thereof in the Regiment of Ierusalem a Mother-Church which having received the same order even at the first was by it most peaceably governed when other Churches without it had trouble So that by all means the necessary use of Episcopal
they answer it By the sixth and the fourteenth of the Acts say they it doth appear that the people had the chiefest power of chusing Howbeit that as unto me it seemeth was dine upon special cause which doth not so much concern us neither ought it to be drawn unto the ordinary and perpetual form of governing the Church For as in establishing Common-weals not only if they be popular but even being such as are ordered by the power of a few the chiefest or as by the sole Authority of one till the same he established the whole sway is in the Peoples hands who voluntarily appoint those Magistrates by whose Authority they may be governed so that afterward not the multitude it self but those Magistrates which were chosen by the multitude have the ordering of Publick Affairs After the self-same manner is fared in establishing also the Church When there was not as yet any placed over the People all Authority was in them all but when they all had chosen certain to whom the Regiment of the Church was committed this power is not now any longer in the hands of the whole multitude but wholly in theirs who are appointed Guides of the Church Besides in the choyce of Deacons there was also another special cause wherefore the whole Church as that time should chuse them For inasmuch as the Grecians murmured against the Hebrews and complained that in the duly distribution which was made for relief of the poor they were not indifferently respected nor such regard had of their Widows as was meet this made it necessary that they all should have to deal in the choyce of those unto whom that care was afterwards to be committed to the end that all occasion of jealousies and complaints might be removed Wherefore that which was done by the People for certain Causes before the Church was sully settled may not be drawn out and applyed unto a constant and perpetual form of ordering the Church Let them cast the Discipline of the Church of England into the same scales where they weigh their own let them give us the same measure which here they take and our strifes shall soon be brought to a quiet end When they urge the Apostles as Precedents when they condemn us of Tyranny because we do not in making Ministers the same which the Apostles did when they plead That with us one alone doth ordain and that our Ordinations are without the Peoples knowledge contrary to that example which the blessed Apostles gave We do not request at their hands allowance as much as of one word we speak in our own defence if that which we speak be of our own but that which themselves speak they must be content to listen unto To exempt themselves from being over-farr prest with the Apostles example they can answer That which was done by the People once upon special Causes when the Church was not yet established is not to be made a rule for the constant and continual ordering of the Church In defence of their own Election although they do not therein depend on the People so much as the Apostles in the choyce of Deacons they think it a very sufficient Apology that there were special considerations why Deacons at that time should be chosen by the whole Church but not so now In excuse of dissimilitudes between their own and the Apostles Discipline they are contented to use this Answer That many things were done in the Apostles times before the settling of the Church which afterward the Church was not tyed to observe For countenance of their own proceedings wherein their Governors do more than the Apostles and their People less than under the Apostles the first Churches are found to have done at the making of Ecclesiastical Officers they deem it a marvellous reasonable kinde of Pleading to say That even as in Common-wealt when the multitude have once chosen many or one to rule over them the right which was at the first in the whole body of the People is now derived into those many or that one which it so chosen and that this being done it is not the whole multitude to whom the administration of such Publick affairs any longer appertaineth but that which they did their Rulers may now do lawfully without them After the self-same manner it slandeth with the Church also How easie and plain might we make our defence how clear and allowable even unto them it we could but obtain of them to admit the same things consonant unto equity in our mouths which they require to be so taken from their own If that which is truth being uttered in maintenance of Scotland and Geneva do not cease to be truth when the Church of England once alledgeth it this great crime of Tyranny wherewith we are charged hath a plain and an easie defence Yea But we do not at all aske the Peoples approbation which they do whereby they shew themselves more indifferent and more free from taking away the Peoples right Indeed when their Lay-Elders have chosen whom they think good the Peoples consent thereunto is asked and if they give their approbation the thing standeth warranted for sound and good But if not is the former choyce overthrown No but the People is to yield to reason and if they which have made the choyce do so like the Poeples reason as to reverse their own deed at the hearing of it then a new election to be made otherwise the former to stand notwithstanding the Peoples negative and dislike What is this else but to deal with the People as those Nurses do with Infants whose mouths they besmear with the backside of the spoon as though they had fed them when they themselves devour the food They cry in the ears of the People that all mens consent should be had unto that which concerns all they make the People believe we wrong them and deprive them of their right in making Ministers whereas with us the People have commonly farr more sway and force then with them For inasmuch as there are but two main things observed in every Ecclesiastical function Power to exercise the duty it self and some charge of People whereon to exercise the same the former of these is received at the hands of the whole visible Catholick Church For it is not any one particular multitude that can give power the force whereof may reach farr and wide indefinitely as the power of Order doth which whoso hath once received there is no action which belongeth thereunto but he may exercise effectually the same in any part of the World without iterated Ordination They whom the whole Church hath from the beginning used as her Agents in conferring this power are not either one or moâ— of the Laity and therefore it hath not been heard of that ever any such were allowed to ordain Ministers Onely Persons Ecclesiastical and they in place of Calling Superiours both unto Deacons and unto Presbyters only such Persons
Ecclesiastical have been authorized to ordain both and to give them the power of Order in the name of the whole Church Such were the Apostles such was Timothy such was Titus such are Bishops Not that there is between these no difference but that they all agree in preheminence of Place above both Presbyters and Deacons whom they otherwise might not ordain Now whereas hereupon some do inferr that no Ordination can stand but only such as is made by Bishops which have had their Ordination likewise by other Bishops before them till we come to the very Apostles of Christ themselves In which respect it was demanded of Beza at Poissie By what Authority he could administer the holy Sacraments being not thereunto ordained by any other than Calvin or by such as to whom the power of Ordination did not belong according to the antient Orders and Customs of the Church sith Calvin and they who joyned with him in that action were no Bishops And Athanasius maintaineth the fact of Macarius a Presbyter which overthrew the holy Table whereat one Ischyras would have ministred the blessed Sacrament having not been consecrated thereunto by laying on of some Bishops hands according to the Ecclesiastical Canons as also Epiphanius inveigheth sharply against divers for doing the like when they had not Episcopal Ordination To this we answer That there may be sometimes very just and sufficient reason to allow Ordination made without a Bishop The whole Church visible being the true original subject of all power it hath not ordinarily allowed any other than Bishops alone to ordain Howbeit as the ordinary course is ordinarily in all things to be observed so it may be in some cases not unnecessary that we decline from the ordinary wayes Men may be extraordinarily yet allowably two wayes admitted unto Spiritual Functions in the Church One is when God himself doth of himself raise up any whose labour be useth without requiring that men should Authorize them But then he doth ratifie their Calling by manifest signes and tokens himself from Heaven And thus even such as believed not our Saviours teaching did yet acknowledge him a lawful Teacher sent from God Thou art a Teacher sent from God otherwise none could do those things which thou dost Luther did but reasonably therefore in declaring that the Senate of Mulheuse should do well to ask of Muncer From whence he received power to teach who it was that had called him And if his answer were that God had given him his Charge then to require at his hands some evident sign thereof for men's satisfaction because so God is wont when he himself is the Author of any extraordinary Calling Another extraordinary kinde of Vocation is when the exigence of necessity doth constrain to leave the usual wayes of the Church which otherwise we would willingly keep Where the Church must needs have some ordained and neither hath nor can have possibly a Bishop to ordain in case of such necessity the ordinary Institution of God hath given oftentimes and may give place And therefore we are not simply without exception to urge a lineal descent of power from the Apostles by continued succession of Bishops in every effectual Ordination These cases of inevitable necessity excepted none may ordain but only Bishops By the imposition of their hands it is that the Church giveth power of Order both unto Presbyters and Deacons Now when that power so received is once to have any certain Subject whereon it may work and whereunto it is to be tyed here cometh in the Peoples consent and not before The power of Order I may lawfully receive without asking leave of any multitude but that power I cannot exercise upon any one certain People utterly against their wills Neither is there in the Church of England any man by order of Law possessed with Pastoral charge over any Parish but the People in effect do chuse him thereunto For albeit they chuse not by giving every man personally his particular voyce yet can they not say that they have their Pastors violently obtruded upon them in as much as their antient and original interest therein hath been by orderly means derived into the Patron who chuseth for them And if any man be desirous to know how Petrons came to have such interest we are to consider that at the first erection of Churches it seemed but reasonable in the eyes of the whole Christian World to pass that right to them and their Successors on whose soyl and at whose charge the same were founded This all men gladly and willingly did both in honor of so great Piety and for encouragement of many others unto the like who peradventure else would have been as slow to erect Churches or to endow them as we are forward both to spoyl them and to pull them down It s no true assertion therefore in such sort as the pretended Reformers mean it That all Ministers of God's Word ought to be made by consent of many that is to say by the Peoples saffrages that antient Bishops neither did nor might or dain otherwise and that ours do herein usurp a farr greater power than was or then lawfully could have been granted unto Bishops which were of old Furthermore as touching Spiritual Jurisdiction our Bishops they say do that which of all things is most intollerable and which the Antient never did Our Bishops excommunicate and release alone whereas the Censures of the Church neither ought nor were want to be administred otherwise then by consent of many Their meaning here when they speak of Many is not as before it was When they hold that Ministers should be made with consent of many they understand by Many the Multitude or Common People but in requiring that many should evermore joyn with the Bishop in the administration of Church-censures they mean by Many a few Lay-Elders chosen out of the rest of the People to that purpose This they say is ratified by antient Councils by antient Bishops this was practised And the reason hereof as Beza supposeth was Because if the power of Ecclesiastical Censures did belong unto any one there would this great inconvenience follow Ecclesiastical Regiment should be changed into mere Tyranny or else into a Civil Royalty Therefore no one either Bishop or Presbyter should or can alone exercise that Power but with his Ecclesiastical Consistâ—ry he ought to do it as may appear by the old Discipline And is it possible that one so grave and judicious should think it in earnest Tyranny for a Bishop to excommunicate whom Law and Order hath authorized so to do or be perswaded that Ecclesiastâ—cal Regiment degenerateth into Civil Regality when one is allowed to do that which hath been at any time the deed of moe Surely farr meaner-witted men than the World accounteth Mr. Reza do easily perceive that Tyranny is Power violently exercised against Order against Law and that the difference of these two Regiments Ecclesiastical and Civil
most willingly thereunto even of reverence to the Most High with the Flower of whose sanctified Inheritance as it were with a kinde of Divine presence unless their Chiefest Civil Assemblies were so farr forth beautified as might be without any notable impediment unto their Heavenly Fâ—nctions they could not satisfie themselves as having showed towards God an Affection most duâ—iful Thus first in defect of other Civil Magistrates Secondly for the ease and quietness of Scholastical Societies Thirdly by way of Political necessity Fourthly in regard of quality care and extraordinancy Fifthly For countenance into the Ministry And lastly even of Devotion and Reverence towards God himself there may be admitted at leastwise in some Particulars well and lawfully enough a conjunction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Power except there be some such Law or Reason to the contrary as may prove it to be a thing simply in it self naught Against it many things are objected as first That the matters which are noted in the holy Scripture to have belonged unto the ordinary Office of any Minister of God's holy Word and Sacraments are these which follow with such like and no other namely The watch of the Sanctuary the business of God the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments Oversight of the House of God Watching over his Flock Prophesie Prayer Dispensations of the Mysteries of God Charge and care of mens Souls If a man would shew what the Offices and Duties of a Chirurgion or Physician are I suppose it were not his part so much as to mention any thing belonging to the one or the other in case either should be also a Souldier or a Merchant or an House-keeper or a Magistrate Because the Functions of these are different from those of the former albeit one and the same man may happily be both The Case is like when the Scripture teacheth what Duties are required in an Ecclesiastical Minister in describing of whose Office to touch any other thing than such as properly and directly toucheth his Office that way were impertinent Yea But in the Old Testament the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastical were distinguished not onely in Nature but also in Person the one committed unto Moses and the Magistrates joyned with him the other to Aaron and his Sons Jehosophat in his Reformation doth not onely distinguish Causes Ecclesiastical from Civil and erecteth divers Courts for them but appointeth also divers Iudges With the Jews these two Powers were not so distinguished but that sometimes they might and did concâ—â— in one and the same Person Was not Ely both Priest and Judge After their return from captivity Esâ—â—as a Priest and the same their Chief Governour even in Civil Affairs also These men which urge the necessity of making always a Personal distinction of these two Powers as if by Iehosaphat's example the same Person ought not to deal in both Causes yet are not scrupulous to make men of Civil Place and Calling Presbyters and Ministers of Spiritual Jurisdiction in their own Spiritual Consistories If it be against the Jewish Precedents for us to give Civil Power unto such as have Ecclesiastical is it not as much against the same for them to give Ecclesiastical Power unto such as have Civil They will answer perhaps That their Position is onely against conjunction of Ecclesiastical Power of Order and the Power of Civil Jurisdiction in one Person But this Answer will not stand with their Proofs which make no less against the Power of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in one Person for of these two Powers Iehosaphat's example is Besides the contrary example of Heli and of Ezra by us alledged do plainly shew that amongst the Jewes even the power of Order Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction were sometimes lawfully united in one and the same Person Pressed further we are with our Lord and Saviour's example who denyeth his Kingdom to be of this Wold and therefore as not standing with his Calling refused to be made a King to give sentence in a criminal Cause of Adultery and in a Civil of dividing an Inheritance The Jews imagining that their Messiah should be a Potent Monarch upon Earth no marvail though when they did otherwise wonder at Christ's greatness they sought forthwith to have him invested with that kinde of Dignity to the end he might presently begin to reign Others of the Jewes which likewise had the same imagination of the Messiah and did somehat incline to think that peradventure this might be He thought good to try whether he would take upon him that which he might do being a King such as they supposed their true Messiah should be But Christ refused to be a King over them because it was no part of the Office of their Messiah as they did falsely conceive and to intermeddle in those Acts of Civil Judgement be refused also because he had no such Jurisdiction in that Common-wealth being in regard of his Civil Person a man of mean and low Calling As for repugnancy between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power or any inconvenience that these two Powers should be united it doth not appear that this was the cause of his resistance either to reign or else to judge What say we then to the blessed Apostles who teach That Souldiers intangle not themselves with the businesses of this life but leave them to the end they may please him who hath chosen them to serve and that so the good Souldiers of Christ â—ught to do The Apostles which taught this did never take upon them any Place or Office of Civil Power No they gave over the Ecclesiastical care of the Poor that they might wholly attend upon the Word and Prayer St. Paul indeed doth exhort Timothy after this manner Suffer thou evil as a noble Souldier of Iesus Christ No man warring is entangled with the affairs of Life because he must serve such as have pressed him unto Warfare The sense and meaning whereof is plain that Souldiers may not be nice and tender that they must be able to endure hardnesse that no man betaking himself unto Wars continueth entangled with such kinde of Businesses as tend only unto the ease and quiet felicity of this Life but if the service of him who hath taken them under his Banner require the hazard yea the losse of their Lives to please himâ— they must be content and willing with any difficulty any peril be it never so much against the natural desire which they have to live in safety And at this point the Clergy of God must always stand thus it behoveth them to be affected as oft as their Lord and Captain leadeth them into the field whatsoever conflicts perils or evils they are to endure Which duty being not such but that therewith the Civil Dignities which Ecclesiastical Persons amongst us do enjoy may enough stand the Exhortation of Paul to Timothy is but a slender Allegation against them As well might we gather out of this place that Men having Children or Wives
which that surcease were likely to draw after it Let the Lord Maior of London or any other unto whose Office Honor belongeth be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit force and countenance of his Office It hath not without the singular wisdom of God been provided that the ordinary outward tokens of Honor should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that beneficial vertue whereunto they are due it behoved them to be of such nature that to himself no man might over-eagerly challenge them without blushing not any man where they are due withhold them but with manifest appearance of too great malice or pride Now forasmuch as according to the Antient Orders and Customs of this Land as of the Kingdom of Israel and of all Christian Kingdoms through the World the next in degree of Honor unto the Chief Soveraign are the Chief Prelates of God's Church what the reason hereof may be it resteth next to be enquired XVIII Other reason there is not any wherefore such Honor hath been judged due saving only that publick good which the Prelates of God's Clergy are Authors of For I would know which of these things it is whereof we make any question either that the favour of God is the chiefest Pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States or that true Religion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God or that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue If these three be grented then cannot the publick benefit of Prelacy be dissembled And of the first or second of these I look not for any profest denyal The World at this will blush not to grant at the leastwise in word as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged concerning the force of Divine Grace in upholding Kingdoms Again though his mercy doth so farr strive with mens ingratitude that all kinde of Publick iniquities deserving his indignation their safety is through his gracious Providence many times neverthelesse continued to the end that amendment might if it were possible avert their Envy so that as well Common-weals as particular Persons both may and do endure much longer when they are careful as they should be to use the most effectual means of procuring His favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth Yet this point no man will stand to argue no man will openly arm himself to enter into set Disputation against the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface Decere arbitramur nostrum Imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere Ita enim plenicrem adquiri Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse existimamus si quando nos pro viribus ipsi placere studuerimus nostros subditos ad eam rem instituerimus Or against the Emperor Iustinian for that he also maketh the like Profession Per sanctissimas Ecclessias nostrum Imperium sustineri communes res elementissimi Dei gratia muniri credimus And in another place Certissimè credemus quia Sacerdotum puritas deâ—â—â—â— ad Dominum Deum Salvatorem nostrum Iesuis Christum fervor ab ipsis missa perpetua preces maltum favorem nostra Reipublica incrementum praebent Wherefore onely the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove for no man feareth now to make it a question Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion Amongst the principal Blessings wherewith God enriched Israel the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one Thou didst lead thy People like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron That which Sheep are if Pastors be wanting the same are the people of God if so be they want Governors And that which the principal Civil Governors are in comparison of Regents under them the same are the Prelates of the Church being compared with the rest of God's Clergy Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses he being their Principal Civil Governor even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally he being in the other kinde of their principal Rector although even herein subject to the Soveraign Dominion of Moses For which cause these two alone are named as the Heads and Well-springs of all As for the good which others did in service either of the Common-wealth or of the Sanctuary the chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their cue Order Bishops are now is High-Priests were then inregard of power over other Priests and in respect of subjection unto High-Priests What Priests were then the same now Presbyters are by way of their place under Bishops The ones Authority therefore being so profitable how should the others be thought unnecessary Is there any man professing Christian Religion which holdeth it not as a Maxim That the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apostolical Regiment not only for other respects but even in regard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church Preciates are herein the Apostles Successors as hath been proved Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church and yet for more perspicuities sake it shall not be pains superstuously taken if the manner how be also declared at large For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher Powers not only Ecclesiastical but Civil whom when proud men have disgraced and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of minde the usual Apologies which they make for themselves are these What more vertue in these Great ones than in others we see no such eminent good which they do above other mon. We grant indeed that the good which Higher Governors do is not so immediate and near unto every of us as many times the meane labours of others under them and this doth make it to be less esteemed But we must note that it is in this Case as in a Ship he that fitteth at the Stern is quiet he moveth not he seemeth in a manner to do little or Nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together The influence of the Heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of
These Seeds of Piety were so seasonably planted and so continually watered with the daily dew of Gods Blessed Spirit that his Infant-vertues grew into such holy Habits as did make him grow daily into more and more favor both with God and Man which with the great Learning that he did attain to hath made Richard Hooker honored in this and will continue him to be so to succeeding Generations This good School-master whose name I am not able to recover and am sorry for that I would have given him a better Memorial in this humble Monument dedicated to the memory of his Scholar was very sollicitous with Iohn Hooker then Chamberlain of Exeter and Uncle to our Richard to take his Nephew into his care and to maintain him for one year in the University and in the mean time to use his Endeavors to procure an Admission for him into some Colledge still urging and assuring him that his Charge would not continue long for the Lads Learning and Manners were both so remarkable that they must of necessity be taken notice of and that God would provide him some second Patron that would free him and his Parents from their future care and charge These Reasons with the affectionate Rhetorick of his good Master and Gods blessing upon both procured from his Uncle a faithful promise that he would take him into his care and charge before the expiration of the year following which was performed This Promise was made about the Fourth year of the Reign of Queen Mary and the Learned Iohn Iewel after Bishop of Salisbury having been in the first of this Queens Reign expelled out of Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford of which he was a Fellow for adhering to the truth of those Principles of Religion to which he had assented in the days of Her Brother and Predecessor Edward the Sixth and he having now a just cause to fear a more heavy punishment then expulsion was forced by forsaking this to seek safety in another Nation and with that safety the enjoyment of that Doctrine and Worship for which he suffered But the Cloud of that Persecution and Fear ending with the Life of Queen Mary the Affairs of the Church and State did then look more clear and comfortable so that he and many others of the same judgment made a happy return into England about the first of Queen Elizabeth in which year this Iohn Iewel was sent a Commissioner or Visitor of the Churches of the Western parts of this Kingdom and especially of those in Devonshire in which County he was born and then and there he contracted a friendship with Iohn Hooker the Uncle of our Richard In the Third year of Her Reign this Iohn Iewel was made Bishop of Salisbury and there being always observed in him a willingness to do good and oblige his Friends and now a power added to it Iohn Hooker gave him a visit in Salisbury and besought him for Charities sake to look favorably upon a poor Nephew of his whom Nature had fitted for a Scholar but the estate of his Parents was so narrow that they were unable to give him the advantage of Learning and that the Bishop would therefore become his Patron and prevent him from being a Tradesman for he was a Boy of remarkable hopes And though the Bishop knew Men do not usually look with an indifferent eye upon their own children and Relations yet he assented so far to Iohn Hooker that he appointed the Boy and his School-master should attend him about Easter next following at that place which was done accordingly And then after some Questions and Observations of the Boys Learning and Gravity and Behavior the Bishop gave his School-master a Reward and took order for an Annual Pension for the Boys Parents promising also to take him into his care for a future preferment which was performed For about the Fourteenth year of his age which was Anno 1567. he was by the Bishop appointed to remove to Oxford and there to attend Dr. Cole then President of Corpus-Christi Colledge Which he did and Dr. Cole had according to a promise made to the Bishop provided for him both a Tutor which was said to be the Learned Dr. Iohn Reynolds and a Clerks place in that Colledge Which place though it were not a full maintenance yet with the contribution of his Uncle and the continued Pension of his Patron the good Bishop gave him a comfortable subsistence And in this condition he continued unto the Eighteenth year of his age still increasing in Learning and Prudence and so much in Humility and Piety that he seemed to be filled with the Holy Ghost and even like St. Iohn Baptist to be sanctified from his Mothers Womb who did often bless the day in which she bare him About this time of his age he fell into a dangerous Sickness which lasted two Moneths All which time his Mother having notice of it did in her hourly Prayers as earnestly beg his life of God as the Mother of St. Augustine did that he might become a true Christian And their Prayers were both so heard as to be granted Which Mr. Hooker would often mention with much joy and pray that he might never live to occasion any sorrow to so good Mother whom he would often say he loved so dearly that he would endeavor to be good even as much for her sake as for his own As soon as he was perfectly recovered from this Sickness he took a journey from Oxford to Exeter to satisfie and see his good Mother being accompanied with a Countreyman and Companion of his own Colledge and both on foot which was then either more in fashion or want of Money or their Humility made it so But on foot they went and took Salisbury in their way purposely to see the good Bishop who made Mr. Hooker and his Companion dine with him at his own Table which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his Mother and Friends And at the Bishops parting with him the Bishop gave him good Counsel and his Benediction but forgot to give him Money which when the Bishop had considered he sent a Servant in all hasle to call Richard back to him And at Richards return the Bishop said to him Richard I sent for you back to lend you a Horse which hath carried me many mile and I thank God with much ease And presently delivered into his hand a Walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany And he said Richard I do not give but lend you my Horse be sure you be honest and bring my Horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford And I do now give you Ten Groats to bear your charges to Exeter and here is Ten Groats more which I charge you to deliver to your Mother and tell her I send her a Bishops Benediction with it and beg the continuance of her Prayers for me And if you bring
opinion trenches upon the Honor and Justice of our Merciful God How he justified this I will not undertake to declare but it was not excepted against as Mr. Hooker declares in an Occasional Answer to Mr. Travers by Iohn Elmer then Bishop of London at this time one of his Auditors and at last one of his Advocates too when Mr. Hooker was accused for it But the justifying of this Doctrine did not prove of so bad consequence as the kindness of Mistress Churchmans curing him of his late distemper and cold for that was so gratefully apprehended by Mr. Hooker that he thought himself bound in conscience to belive all that she said So that the good man came to be perswaded by her That he was a man of a tender constitution and that it was best for him to have a Wife that might prove a Nurse to him such an one as might both prolong his life and make it more comfortable and such a one she could and would provide for him if he thought fit to marry And he not considering that the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation then the Children of Light But like a true Nathaniel fearing no guile because he meant none did give her such a power as Eleazar was trusted with when he was sent to chuse a wife for Isaac for even so he trusted her to chuse for him Promising upon a fair Summons to return to London and accept of her choice and he did so in that or the year following Now the Wife provided for him was her Daughter Ioan who brought him neither Beauty nor Portion and for her Conditions they were too like that Wife 's which is by Solomon compared to a Dripping House So that he had no reason to rejoyce in the Wife of his Youth but rather to say with the Holy Prophet Wâ— is me that I am constrained to have my habitation in the Tents of Kedar This choice of Mr. Hookers if it were his choice may be wondered at but let us consider that the Prophet Ezekiel says There is a Wheel within a Wheel a secret Sacred Wheel of Providence especially in Marriages guided by his hand that allows not the Race to the swift nor Bread to the wise not good Wives to good Men And he that can bring good out of evil for Mortals are blinde to such Reasons onely knows why this Blessing was denied to patient Iob and as some think to meek Moses and to our as meek and patient Mr. Hooker But so it was and let the Reader cease to wonder for Affliction is a Divine Diet which though it be not pleasing to mankinde yet Almighty God hath often very often imposed it as good though bitter Physick to those Children whose Souls are dearest to him And by this means the good man was drawn from the tranquillity of his Colledge From that Garden of Piety of Pleasure of Peace and a sweet Conversation into the Thorny Wilderness of a busie World into those corroding cares that attend a Married Priest and a Countrey-Parsonage which was Draiton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire not far from Alesbury and in the Diocess of Lincoln to which he was presented by Iohn Cheny Esquire then Patron of it the Nineth of December 1584. where he behaved himself so as to give no occasion of evil but as St. Paul adviseth a Minister of God in much patience in afflictions in anguishes in necessities in poverty and no doubt in long-suffering yet troubling no man with his discontents and wants And in this condition he continued about a year in which time his two Pupils Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer were returned from Travel and took a journey to Draiton to see their Tutor where they found him with a Book in his hand it was the Odes of Horace he being then tending his small allotment of Sheep in a common Field which he told his Pupils he was forced to do for that his Servant was then gone home to Dine and assist his Wife to do some necessary houshould business When his Servant returned and released him his two Pupils attended him unto his House where their best entertainment was his quiet company which was presently denied them for Richard was called to rock the Cradle and the rest of their welcome was so like this that they staid but till next morning which was time enough to discover and pitty their Tutors condition And having in that time remembred and paraphrased on many of the innocent Recreations of their younger days and by other such like diversions given him as much present pleasure as their acceptable company and discourse could afford him they were forced to leave him to the company of his Wife and seek themselves a quieter Lodging But at their parting from him Mr. Cranmer said Good Tutor I am sorry your lot is faln in no better Ground as to your Parsonage And more sorry your Wife proves not a more comfortable Companion after you have wearied your thoughts in your restless Studies To whom the good man replied My dear George if Saints have usually a double share in the miseries of this life I that am none ought not to repine at what my Wise Creator hath appointed for me but labor as indeed I do daily to submit to his Will and possess my Soul in Patience and Peace At their return to London Edwin Sandys acquaints his Father then Bishop of London and after Archbishop of York with his Tutors sad condition and sollicites for his removal to some Benefice that might give him a more comfortable subsistence Which his Father did most willingly grant him when it should next fall into his power And not long after this time which was in the year One thousand five hundred eighty and five Mr. Alvy Master of the Temple died who was a man of a strict Life of great Learning and of so venerable Behavior as to gain such a degree of love and reverence from all men that knew him that he was generally known by the name of Father Alvy At the Temple Reading next after the death of this Father Alvy the Archbishop of York being then at Dinner with the Judges the Reader and Benchers of that Society he met there with a Condolement for the Death of Father Alvy an high commendation of his Saint-like Life and of his great Merit both to God and Man and as they bewail'd his Death so they wisht for a like Pattern of Virtue and Learning to succeed him And here came in a fair occasion for the Bishop to commend Mr. Hooker to Father Alvies Place which he did with so effectual an earnestness and that seconded with so many other Testimonies of his worth that Mr. Hooker was sent for from Draiton Beauchamp to London and there the Mastership of the Temple proposed unto him by the Bishop as a greater freedom from his Country Cares the advantage of a better Society and a more liberal Pension than his Parsonage did afford him But these
When I lost the freedom of my Cell which was my Colledge yet I found some degree of it in my quiet Countrey Personage But I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place and indeed God and Nature did not intend me for Contentions but for Study and Quietness And My Lord my particular Contests here with Mr. Travers have prov'd the more unpleasant to me because I believe him to be a good Man and that beliefe hath occasioned me to examine mine own Conscience concerning his opinions and to satisfie that I have consulted the holy Scripture and other Laws both Humane and Divine Whether the the Conscience of him and others of his Iudgment ought to be so far complied with us as to alter our Frame of Church-Government our manner of Gods worship our praising and praying to him and our establishe Ceremonies as often as their tender Consciences shall require us And in this Examination I have not onely satisfied my self but have begun a Treatise in which I intend the satisfaction of others by a demonstration of the reasonableness of our Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy and therein laid a hopeful foundation for the Churches Peace and so as not to provoke your Adversarie Mr. Cartwright nor Mr. Travers whom I take to be mine but not my enemy God knows this to be my meaning To which end I have searched many Books and spent many thoughtful hours and I hope not in vain for I write to reasonable men But My Lord I shall never be able to finish what I have begun unless I be remov'd into some quiet Countrey Parsenage where I may see Gods Blessings Spring out of my Mother Earth and eat mine own Bread in peace and privaty A place where I may without disturbance Meditate my approaching Mortality and that great account which all flesh must at the great day give to the God of all Spirits this is my design and as these are the desires of my heart so they shall by Gods assistance be the constant indevors of the uncertain remainder of my life And therefore if your Grace can think me and my poor labors worthy such a favour Let me beg it that I may perfect what I have begun which is a blessing I cannot hope for in this place About the time of this request to the Bishop the Parsonage or Rectory of Boscom in the Diocess of Sarum and six miles from that City became void The Bishop of Sarum is Patron of it but in the vacancy of that See which was three years betwixt the death of Bishop Peirce and Bishop Caldwells admission into it the disposal of that and all Benefices belonging to it during the time of this said vacancy came to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury and he presented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591. And Richard Hooker was also in this said year Instituted Iuly 17. to be a minor Prebend of Salisbury the Corps to it being nether-Havin about ten miles from that City which Prebend was of no great value but intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preferment in that Church In this Boscum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and these were enter'd into the Register Book in Stationers-Hall the 9th of March 1592. but not printed till the year 1594. and then with the beforementioned large and affectionate Preface which he directs to them that seek as they term it the Reformation of the laws and orders Ecclesiastical in the Church of England of which Books I shall yet say nothing more but that he continued his laborious diligence to finish the remaining four during his life of all which more properly hereafter but at Boscum he finisht and publisht but only the first four being then in the 39 year of his Age. He left Boscum in the year 1595. by a surrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell and he presented Benjamin Russel who was Instituted into it 23 of Iune in the same year The Parsonage of Bishops Borne in Kent three miles from Canterbury is in that Archbishops gift but in the latter end of the year 1594. Doctor William Redman the Rector of it was made Bishop of Norwich by which means the power of presenting to it was pro ca vice in the Queen and she presented Richard Hooker whom she loved well to this good living of Borne the 7 of Iuly 1595. in which Living he continued till his Death without any addition of Dignity or Profit And now having brought our Richard Hooker from his Birth-place to this where he found a Grave I shall only give some account of his Books and of his behaviour in this Parsonage of Borne and then give a rest both to my self and my Reader His first four Books and large Epistle have been declared to be printed at his being at Boscum Anno 1594. Next I am to tell that at the end of these four Books there is printed this Advertisement to the Reader I have for some causes thought it at this time more fit to let go these first four Books by themselves than to stay both them and the rest till the whole might together be published Such generalities of the cause in question as are here handled it will be perhaps not amiss to consider apart by way of Introduction unto the Books that are to follow concerning particulars in the mean time the Reader is requested to mend the Printers errors as noted underneath And I am next to declare that his fifth Book which is larger than his first four was first also printed by it self Anno 1597. and dedicated to his Patron for till them he chose none the Archbishop These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in This and their just same spread it self into forain Nations And I have been told more than forty years past that Cardinal Alen or learned Doctor Stapleton both English men and in Italy when Mr. Hookers four Books were first printed meeting with this general fame of them were desirous to read an Author that both the Reformed and the Learned of their own Church did so much magnifie and therefore caused them to be sent for and after reading them boasted to the Pope which then was Clement the eighth that though he had lately said he never met with an English Book whose Writer deserved the name of an Author yet there now appear'd a wonder to them and it would be so to his Holiness if it were in Latin for a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and church Polity and in a Style that exprest so Grave and such Humble Majesty with clear demonstration of Reason that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him and this begot in the Pope an earnest desire that Doctor Stapleton should bring the said four Books and looking on the English read a part of them to
fancy which is cast towards them and proceedeth from other Causes For there are divers Motives drawing men to favor mightily those Opinions wherein their Perswasions are but weakly setled and if the Passions of the Minde be strong they easily sophisticate the Understanding they make it apt to believe upon very slender warrant and to imagine infallible Truth where scarce any probable shew appeareth Thus were those poor seduced Creatures Hacquet and his other two adherents whom I can neither speak nor think of but with much commisseration and pity Thus were they trained by fair ways first accompting their own extraordinary love to his Discipline a token of Gods more then ordinary love towards them From hence they grew to a strong conceit that God which had moved them to love his Discipline more then the common sort of men did might have a purpose by their means to bring a wonderful work to pass beyond all mens expectation for the advancement of the Throne of Discipline by some Tragical Execution with the particularities whereof it was not safe for their Friends to be made acquainted of whom they did therefore but covertly demand what they thought of extraordinary Motions of the Spirit in these days and withal request to be commended unto God by their Prayers whatsoever should be undertaken by Men of God in meer Zeal to his Glory and the good of his distressed Church With this unusual and strange course they went on forward till God in whose heaviest worldly Judgments I nothing doubt but that there may lie hidden Mercy gave them over their own Inventions and left them made in the end an example for Head-strong and Inconsiderate Zeal no less fearful then Achitophel for Proud and Irreligious Wisdom If a spark of Error have thus far prevailed falling even where the Wood was green and farthest off to all mens thinking from any inclination unto furious Attempts must not the peril thereof be greater in men whose mindes are of themselves as dry sewel apt beforehand unto Tumults Seditions and Broyls But by this we see in a Cause of Religion to how desperate adventures men will strain themselves for relief of their own part having Law and Authority against them Furthermore Let not any man think that in such Divisions either part can free it self from inconveniencies sustained not onely through a kinde of Truce which Vertue on both sides doth make with Vice during War between Truth and Error but also in that there are hereby so fit occasions ministred for men to purchase to themselves welwillers by the colour under which they oftentimes prosecute quarrels of Envy or Inveterate Malice and especially because Contentions were as yet never able to prevent two Evils The one a mutual exchange of unseemly and unjust disgraces offered by men whose Tongues and Passions are out of rule the other a common hazard of both to be made a prey by such as study how to work upon all Occurents with most advantage in private I deny not therefore but that our Antagonists in these Controversies may peradventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius who mightily bending himself by all means against the Heresie of Priscillian the hatred of which one Evil was all the Vertue he had became so wise in the end That every man careful of Vertuous Conversations studious of Scripture and given unto any abstinence in Diet was set down in his Kalender of suspected Priscillianists for whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of Faith by a more licencious and loose behavior Such Proctors and Patrons the Truth might spare Yet is not their grossness so intolerable as on the contrary side the scurrilous and more then Satyrical immodesty of Martinism the first published Schedules whereof being brought to the hands of a grave and a very Honorable Knight with signification given that the Book would refresh his spirits he took it saw what the Title was read over an unsavory sentence or two and delivered back the Libel with this Answer I am sorry you are of the minde to be solaced with these sports and sorrier you have herein thought mine affection to be like your own But as these sores on all hands lie open so the deepest wounds of the Church of God have been more softly and closely given It being perceived that the Plot of Discipline did not onely bend it self to reform Ceremonies but seek farther to erect a popular authority of Elders and to take away Episcopal Jurisdiction together with all other Ornaments and means whereby any difference or inequality is upheld in the Ecclesiastical Order towards this destructive part they have found many helping hands divers although peradventure not willing to be yoked with Elderships yet contented for what intent God doth know to uphold opposition against Bishops not without greater hurt to the course of their whole proceedings in the business of God and Her Majesties service then otherwise much more weighty Adversaries had been able by their own power to have brought to pass Men are naturally better contented to have their commendable actions supprest then the contrary much divulged And because the Wits of the multitude are such that many things they cannot lay hold on at once but being possest with some notable either dislike or liking of any one thing whatsoever sundry other in the mean time may escape them unperceived Therefore if men desirous to have their Vertues noted do in this respect grieve at the same of others whose glory obscureth and darkness theirs it cannot be chosen but that when the ears of the people are thus continually beaten with exclamations against abuses in the Church these tunes come always most acceptable to them whose odious and corrupt dealings in secular affairs both pass by that mean the more covertly and whatsoever happen do also the least feel that scourge of vulgar imputation which notwithstanding they most deserve All this considered as behoveth the sequel of duty on our part is onely that which our Lord and Saviour requireth harmless Discretion the wisdom of Serpents tempered with the innocent meekness of Doves For this World will teach them wisdom that have capacity to apprehend it Our wisdom in this case must be such as doth not propose to it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our own particular the partial and immoderate desire whereof poysoneth wheresoever it taketh place But the scope and mark which we are to aim at is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick and common good of all for the easier procurement whereof our diligence must search out all helps and furtherances of direction which Scriptures Counsels Fathers Histories the Laws and Practices of all Churches the mutual Conference of all Mens Collections and Observations may afford Our industry must even anatomize every Particle of that Body which we are to uphold sound and because be it never so true which we teach the World to believe yet if once their affections begin to be alienated a
Iudges in that Court to be their Ministers others of the people annually chosen twice so many in number as they to be Iudges together with them in the same Court These two sorts to have the care of all Mens manners power of determining of all kinde of Ecclesiastical Causes and authority to Convent to Controll to Punish as far as with Excommunication whom soever they should think worthy none either small or great excepted This device I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered if we duly consider what the present State of Geneva did then require For their Bishop and his Clergy being as it is said departed from them by Moon-light or howsoever being departed to chuse in his room any other Bishop had been a thing altogether impossible And for their Ministers to seek that themselves alone might have coercive power over the whole Church would perhaps have been hardly construed at that time But when so frank an offer was made that for every one Minister there should be two of the people to sit and give voice in the Ecclesiastical Consistory what inconvenience could they easily finde which themselves might not be able always to remedy Howbeit as ever more the simpler sort are even when they see no apparent cause jealous notwithstanding over the secret intents and purposes of wiser men this Proposition of his did somewhat trouble them Of the Ministers themselves which had staid behinde in the City when Calvin was gone some upon knowledge of the peoples earnest intent to recal him to his place again had beforehand written their Letters of Submission and assured him of their alleâ—giance for ever after if it should like him to hearken unto that Publick Suit But yet misdoubting what might happen if this Discipline did go forward they objected against it the example of other Reformed Churches living quietly and orderly without it Some of the chiefest place and countenance amongst the Laity professed with greater stomach their judgments that such a Discipline was little better then Popish Tyranny disguised and tendered unto them under a new Form This sort it may be had some fear that the filling up of the Seats in the Consistory with so great a member of Laymen was but to please the mindes of the people to the end they might think their own sway somewhat but when things came to tryal of practice their Pastors learning would be at all times of force to over-perswade simple men who knowing the time of their own Presidentship to be but short would always stand in fear of their Ministers perpetual authority And among the Ministers themselves one being so far in estimation above the rest the voices of the rest were likely to be given for the most part respectively with a kinde of secret dependency and aw So that in shew a marvellous indifferently composed Senate Ecclesiastical was to govern but in effect one onely man should as the Spirit and Soul of the residue do all in all But what did these vain surmises boot Brought they were now to so strait an issue that of two things they must chuse one Namely Whether they would to their endless disgrace with ridiculous lightness dismiss him whose restitution they had in so impotent manner desired or else condescend unto that demand wherein he was resolute either to have it or to leave them They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home then for ever abroad discredited Wherefore in the end those Orders were on all sides assented unto with no less alacrity of minde then Cities unable to hold out longer are wont to shew when they take conditions such as liketh him to offer them which hath them in the narrow streights of advantage Not many years were over passed before these twice-sworn men adventured to give their last and hottest assault to the Fortress of the same Discipline childishly granting by common consent of their whole Senate and that under their Town-Seal a Relaxation to one Bertelier whom the Eldership had Excommunicated Further also decreeing with strange absurdity that to the same Senate it should belong to give final judgment in Matter of Excommunication and to absolve whom it pleased them clean contrary to their own former Deeds and Oaths The report of which Decree being fortwith brought unto Calvin Before saith he this Decree take place either my Blood or Banishment shall sign it Again two days before the Communion should be celebrated this speech was publickly to like effect Kill me if ever this hand do teach forth the things that are holy to them whom the Church hath judged despisers Whereupon for fear of tumult the forenamed Bertelier was by his friends advised for that time not to use the liberty granted him by the Senate nor to present himself in the Church till they saw somewhat further what would ensue After the Communion quietly ministred and some likelihood of peaceable ending of these troubles without any more aâ—â— that very day in the afternoon besides all mens expectation concluding his ordinary Sermon he telleth them That because he neither had learned nor taught to strive with such as are in Authority therefore saith he the case so standing as now it doth let me use these words of the Apostle unto you I commend you unto God and the Word of his Grace and so bad them heartily Adieu It sometimes cometh to pass that the readiest way which a wise man hath to conquer is to flie This voluntary and unexpected mention of sudden departure caused presently the Senate for according to their wonted manner they still continued onely constant in unconstancy to gather themselves together and for a time to suspend their own Decree leaving things to proceed as before till they had heard the judgment of Four Helvetian Cities concerning the matter which was in strife This to have done at the first before they gave assent unto any order had shewed some wit and discretion in them but now to do it was as much as to say in effect That they would play their parts on a stage Calvin therefore dispatcheth with all expedition his Letters unto some Principal Pastor in every of those Cities craving earnestly at their hands to respect this Cause as a thing whereupon the whole State of Religion and Piety in that Church did so much depend That God and all good men were now inevitably certain to be trampled under foot unless those Four Cities by their good means might be brought to give sentence with the Ministers of Geneva when the Cause should be brought before them yea so to give it that two things it might effectually contain The one an Absolute Approbation of the Discipline of Geneva as consonant unto the Word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands the other an earnest Admonition not to innovate or charge the same His vehement request herein as touching both points was satisfied For albeit the said Helvetian Churches did never as yet
in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws Are those reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities onely An Argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any man and understood she minde cannot chase but invardly assent Any one such reason dischargeth I grant the Gonscience and setteth it at full liberty For the publick approbation given by the Body of this whole Church unto those things which are established doth make it but probable that they are good And therefore unto a necessary proofe that they are not good it must give place But if the skilfullest amongst you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities What thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made It is meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place General Obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open Protostation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught In which case your answer will be That concerning the Laws of our Church they are not onely condemned in the opinion of a private man but of thousands year and even of those amongst which divers are in publick charge and authority At though when publick consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgment being thereunto compared were not private howsoever his calling be to some kinde of publick charge So that of Peace and Quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over-rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth That God being Author of Peace and not of Confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of decreeth till they see necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary 7. Nor is mine own intent any other in these several Books of discourse then to make it appear unto you that for the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land we are led by great reason to observe them and ye by no necessity bound to impugne them It is no part of my secret meaning to draw you hereby into hatred or to set upon the face of this cause any fairer gloss then the naked truth doth afford but my whole endeavor is to resolve the Conscience and to shew as near as I can what in this Controversie the Heart is to think if it will follow the light of sound and sincere judgment without either cloud of prejudice or mist of passionate affection Wherefore seeing that Laws and Ordinances in particular whether such as we observe or such as your selves would have established when the minde doth sift and examine them it must needs have often recourse to a number of doubts and questions about the nature kindes and qualities of Laws in general whereof unless it be throughly informed there will appear no certainty to stay our perswasion upon I have for that cause set down in the first place an Introduction on both sides needful to be considered declaring therein what Law is how different kindes of Laws there are and what force they are of according unto each kinde This done because ye suppose the Laws for which ye strive are found in Scripture but those not against which we strive And upon this surmise are drawn to hold it as the very main Pillar of your whole cause That Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all our actions and consequently that the Church Orders which we observe being not commanded in Scripture are offensive and displeasant unto God I have spent the second Book in sifting of this point which standeth with you for the first and chiefest principle whereon ye build Whereunto the next in degree is That as God will have always a Church upon Earth while the World doth continue and that Church stand in need of Government of which Government it behoveth himself to be both the Author and Teacher So it cannot stand with duty That man should ever presume in any wise to change and alter the same and therefore That in Scripture there must of necessity be found some particular Form of Ecclesiastical Polity the Laws whereof admit not any kinde of alteration The first three Books being thus ended the fourth proceedeth from the general Grounds and Foundations of your cause unto your general Accusations against us as having in the orders of our Church for so you pretend Corrupted the right Form of Church Polity with manifold Popish Rites and Ceremonies which certain Reformed Churches have banished from amongst them and have thereby given us such example as you think we ought to follow This your Assertion hath herein drawn us to make search whether these be just Exceptions against the Customs of our Church when ye plead that they are the same which the Church of Rome hath or that they are not the same which some other Reformed Churches have devised Of those four Books which remain and are bestowed about the Specialties of that Cause which little in Controversie the first examineth the causes by you alledged wherefore the publick duties of Christian Religion as our Prayers our Sacraments and the rest should not be ordered in such sort as with us they are nor that power whereby the persons of men are consecrated unto the Ministry be disposed of in such manner as the Laws of this Church do allow The second and third are concerning the power of Iurisdiction the one Whether Laymen such as your Governing Elders are ought in all Congregations for ever to be invested with that power The other Whether Bishops may have that power over other Pastors and therewithal that honor which with us they have And because besides the Power of Order which all consecrated persons have and the Power of Iurisdiction which neither they all nor they onely have There is a third power a Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion communicable as we think unto persons not Ecclesiastical and most fit to be restrained unto the Prince our Soveraign Commander over the whole Body Politick The eighth Book we have allotted unto this Question and have sifted therein your Objections against those preeminences Royal which thereunto appertain Thus have I laid before you the Brief of these my Travels and presented under your view the Limbs of that Cause litigious between us the whole intire Body whereof being thus compact it shall be no troublesome thing for any man to finde each particular Controversies resting place
regard the present State of the highest Governor placed over us if the quality and disposition of our Nobles if the Orders and Laws of our famous Universities if the Profession of the Civil or the Practice of the Common Law amongst us if the mischiefs whereinto even before our eyes so many others have faln head-long from no less plausible and fair beginnings then yours are There is in every of these Considerations most just cause to fear lest our hastiness to embrace a thing of so perilous consequence should cause Posterity to feel those evils which as yet are more easie for us to prevent then they would be for them to remedy 9. The best and safest way for you therefore my dear Brethren is To call your Deeds past to a new reckoning to re-examine the cause ye have taken in hand and to try it even point by point argument by argument with all the diligent exactness ye can to lay aside the Gall of that Bitterness wherein your mindes have hitherto ever-abounded and with meekness to search the Truth Think ye are Men deem it not impossible for you to err sift unpartially your own hearts whether it be force of Reason or vehemency of Affection which hath bred and still doth feed these Opinions in you If Truth do any where manifest it self seek not to smother it with gloâ—ing Delusion acknowledge the greatness thereof and think it your best Victory when the same doth prevail over youâ— That ye have been earnest in speaking or writing again and again the contrary way should be noblemish or discredit at all unto you Amongst so many so huge Volumes as the infinite pains of St. Augustine have brought forth what one hath gotten him greater love commendation and honor then the Book wherein he carefully collecteth his own over-sights and sincerely condemneth them Many speeches there are of Jobs whereby his Wisdom and other Vertues may appear but the glory of an ingenuous minde he hath purchased by these words onely Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth I have spoken once yet will I not therefore maintain Argument yea twice howbeit for that cause further I will not proceed Far more comfort it were for us so small is the joy we take in these strises to labor under the same yoke as men that look for the same eternal reward of their labors to be enjoyned with you in Bands of indissoluble Love and Amity to live as if our persons being many our souls were but one rather than in such dismembred sort to spend our few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting of wearisome contentions the end whereof if they have not some speedy end will be heavy even on both sides Brought already we are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzen mournfully describeth saying My minde leadeth me sith there is no other remedy to flie and to convey my self into some corner out of sight where I may scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousness whereby all parts are entred into a deadly war amongst themselves and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godliness we glory in is to finde out somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly Each others faults we observe as matter of exprobration and not of grief By these means we are grown hateful in the eyes of the Heathens themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply able we are not to deny but that we have deserved their hatred With the better sort of our own our fame and credit is clean lost The less we are to marvel if they judge vilely of us who although we did well would hardly allow thereof On our backs they also build that are leud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorn and disgrace of us all This we have gained by our mutual home-dissentions This we are worthily rewarded with which are more forward to strive then becometh men of vertuous and milde disposition But our trust in the Almighty is that with us Contentions are now at the highest flote and that the day will come for what cause of despair is there when the Passions of former Enmity being allayed we shall with ten times redoubled tokens of our unfeignedly reconciled love shew our selves each towards other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their enterview in Egypt Our comfortable expectation and most thirsty desire whereof what man soever amongst you shall any way help to satisfie as we truly hope there is no one amongst you but some way or other will The blessings of the God of Peace both in this World and in the World to come be upon him more then the Stars of the Firmament in number WHAT THINGS ARE HANDLED In the following BOOKS BOOK I. COncerning LAWS in General BOOK II. Of the use of Divine Law contained in Scripture Whether that be the onely Law which ought to serve for our Direction in all things without exception BOOK III. Of Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Polity Whether the Form thereof be in Scripture so set down that no Addition or Charge is lawful BOOK IV. Of General Exceptions taken against the Laws of our Polity as being Popish and banished out of certain Reformed Churches BOOK V. Of our Laws that concern the Publick Religious Duties of the Church and the manner of bestowing that Power of Order which enableth Men in sundry Degrees and Callings to execute the same BOOK VI. Of the Power of Iurisdiction which the Reformed Platform claimeth unto Lay-Elders with others BOOK VII Of the Power of Iurisdiction and the Honor which is annexed thereunto in Bishops BOOK VIII Of the Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion or Supream Authority which with us the highest Governor or Prince hath as well in regard of Domestical Iurisdictions as of that other Foreignly claimed by the Bishop of Rome OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK I. Concerning Laws and their several kindes in general The Matter contained in this First Book 1. THe cause of Writing this General Discourse concerning Laws 2. Of that Law which God from before the beginning hath set for himself to do all things by 3. The Law which Natural Agents observe and their necessary manner of keeping it 4. The Law which the Angels of God obey 5. The Law whereby Man is in his Actions directed to the Imitation of God 6. Mens first beginning to understand that Law 7. Of Mans Will which is the first thing that Laws of Action are made to guide 8. Of the Natural finding out of Laws by the Light of Reason to guide the Will unto that which is good 9. Of the benefit of keeping that Law which Reason teacheth 10. How Reason doth lead Men unto the making of Humane Laws whereby Politick Societies are governed and to agreement about Laws whereby the Fellowship or Communion of Independent Societies stanoeth 11. Wherefore God hath by Scripture
descend to a more distinct explication of Particulars wherein those Rules have their special efficacy 11. Solemne Duties of Publick Service to be done unto God must have their places set and prepared in such sort as beseemeth actions of that regard Adam even during the space of his small continuance in Paradise had where to present himself before the Lord. Adam's Sons had out of Paradise in like sort whither to bring their Sacrifices The Patriarks used Altars and Mountains and Groves to the self-same purpose In the vast Wilderness when the People of God had themselves no settled Habitation yet a movable Tabernacle they were commanded of God to make The like Charge was given them against the time they should come to settle themselves in the Land which had been promised unto their Fathers Te shall seek that Place which the Lord your God shall chuse When God had chosen Ierusalem and in Ierusalem Mount Moriah there to have his standing Habitation made it was in the chiefest of Davids desires to have performed so good a work His grief was no less that he could not have the honour to builde God a Temple than their anger is at this day who bite asunder their own tongues with very wrath that they have not as yet the Power to pull down the Temples which they never built and to level them with the ground It was no mean thing which he purposed To perform a work so majestical and stately was no small Charge Therefore he incited all men unto bountiful Contribution and procured towards it with all his Power Gold Silver Brass Iron Wood Precious Stones in great abundance Yea moreover Because I have saith David a joy in the House of my God I have of my own Gold and Silver besides all that I have prepared for the House of the Sanctuary given to the House of my God three thousand Talents of Gold even the Gold of Ophir seven thousand Talents of fined Silver After the overthrow of this first House of God a second was instead thereof erected but with so great odds that they went which had seen the former and beheld how much this later came behinde it the beauty whereof notwithstanding was such that even This was also the wonder of the whole World Besides which Temple there were both in other parts of the Land and even in Ierusalem by process of time no small number of Synagogues for men to resort unto Our Saviour himself and after him the Apostles frequented both the one and the other The Church of Christ which was in Ierusalem and held that Profession which had not the Publick allowance and countenance of Authority could not so long use the exercise of Christian Religion but in private only So that as Jews they had access to the Temple and Synagogues where God was served after the Custom of the Law but for that which they did as Christians they were of necessity forced other where to assemble themselves And as God gave increase to his Church they sought out both there and abroad for that purpose not the fittest for so the times would not suffer them to do but the safest places they could In process of time some whileâ— by sufferance some whiles by special leave and favour they began to erect to themselves Oratories not in any sumptuous or stately manner which neither was possible by reason of the poor estate of the Church and had been perilous in regard of the World's envy towards them At length when it pleased God to raise up Kings and Emperours favouring sincerely the Christian Truth that which the Church before either could not or durst not do was with all alacrity performed Temples were in all Places erected No cost was spared nothing judged too dear which that way should be spent The whole World did seem to exult that it had occasion of pouring out Gifts to so blessed a purpose That chearful Devotion which David this way did exceedingly delight to behold and wish that the same in the Jewish People might be perpetual was then in Christian People every where to be seen Their Actions till this day always accustomed to be spoken of with great honour are now called openly into question They and as many as have been followers of their Example in That thing we especially that worship God either in Temples which their hands made or which other men sithence have framed by the like pattern are in that respect charged no less then with the sin of Idolatry Our Churches in the foam of that good spirit which directeth such fiery tongues they term spitefully the Temples of Baal idle Synagogues abominable Styes 12. Wherein the first thing which moveth them thus to cast up their poysons are certain Solemnities usual at the first erection of Churches Now although the same should be blame-worthy yet this Age thanks be to God hath reasonably well for-born to incurr the danger of any such blame It cannot be laid unto many mens charge at this day living either that they have been so curious as to trouble the Bishops with placing the first Stone in the Churches they built or so scrupulous as after the erection of them to make any great ado for their Dedication In which kind notwithstanding as we do neither allow unmeet nor purpose the stiff defence of any unnecessary Custom heretofore received so we know no reason wherefore Churches should be the worse if at the first erecting of them at the making of them publick at the time when they are delivered as it were into God's own possession and when the use whereunto they shall ever serve is established Ceremonies sit to betoken such intents and to accompany such Actions be usual as in the purest times they have been When Constantine had finished an House for the Service of God at Ierusalem the Dedication he judged a matter not unworthy about the solemn performance whereof the greatest part of the Bishops in Christendom should meet together Which thing they did at the Emperors motion each most willingly setting forth that Action to their power some with Orations some with Sermons some with the sacrifice of Prayers unto God for the peace of the World for the Churches safety for the Emperour 's and his Childrens good By Athanasius the like is recorded concerning a Bishop of Alexandria in a work of the like devout magnificence So that whether Emperours or Bishops in those days were Church-founders the solemn Dedication of Churches they thought not to be a work in it self either vain or superstitious Can we judge it a thing seemly for any man to go about the building of an House to the God of Heaven with no other appearance than if his end were to rear up a Kitchen or Parlour for his own use Or when a work of such nature is finished remaineth there nothing but presently to use it and so an
what Christian Baptism had given them being newly born They lost saith St. Augustine the Grace of Baptism if we consider to what their Parents impiety did tend although the Mercy of God preserved them and will also in that dreadful day of account give them favorable audience pleading in their own behalf The harm of other mens perfidiousness it lay not in us to avoid After the same manner whatsoever we read written if it sound to the prejudice of Baptism through any either Moral or Ecclesiastical defect therein we construe it as Equity and Reason teacheth with restraint to the offender onely which doth as far as concerneth himself and them which wittingly concur with him make the Sacrament of Godfruitless St. Augustines doubtfulness Whether Baptism by a Lay man may stand or ought to be readministred should not be mentioned by them which presume to define peremptorily of that wherein he was content to profess himself unresolved Albeit in very truth his opinion is plain enough but the manner of delivering his judgment being modest they make of a vertue an imbecillity and impute his calmness of speech to an irresolution of minde His Disputation in that place is against Parmenian which held That a Bishop or a Priest if they fall into any Heresie do thereby lose the Power which they had before to Baptize and that therefore Baptism by Hereticks is meerly void For answer whereof he first denieth That Heresie can more deprive men of power to Baptize others then it is of force to take from them their own Baptism And in the second place he farther addeth That if Hereticks did lose the power which before was given them by Ordination and did therefore unlawfully usurp as oft as they took upon them to give the Sacrament of Baptism it followeth not That Baptism by them administred without Authority is no Baptism For then what should we think of Baptism by Laymen to whom Authority was never given I doubt saith St. Augustine whether any man which carrieth a vertuous and godly minde will affirm That the Baptism which Laymen do in case of necessity administer should be iterated For to do it unnecessarily is to execute another mans office necessity urging to do it is then either no fault at all much less so grievous a crime that it should deserve to be termed by the name of Sacriledge or if any a very pardonable fault But suppose it even of very purpose usurped and given unto any man by every man that listeth yet that which is given cannot possibly be denied to have been given how truly soever we may say it hath not been given lawfully Unlawful Usurpation a penitent Affection must redâ—ess If not the thing that was given shall remain to the hurt and detriment of him which unlawfully either administred or received the same yet so that in this respect it ought not to be reputed as if it had not at all been given Whereby we may plainly perceive that St. Augustine was not himself uncertain what to think but doubtful Whether any well-minded man in the whole World could think otherwise then he did Their Argument taken from a stoin Seal may return to the place out of which they had it for it helpeth their cause nothing That which men give or grant to others must appear to have proceeded of their own accord This being manifest their Gifts and Grants are thereby made effectual both to bar themselves from revocation and to assecure the right they have given Wherein for further prevention of mischiefs that otherwise might grow by the malice treachery and fraud of men it is both equal and meet that the strength of Mens Deeds and the Instruments which declare the same should strictly depend upon divers Solemnities whereof there cannot be the like reason in things that pass between God and us because sith we need not doubt lest the Treasures of his Heavenly Grace should without his consent be past by forged conveyances nor lest he should deny at any time his own acts and seek to revoke what hath been consented unto before As there is no such fear of danger through deceit and falshood in this case so neither hath the circumstance of mens persons that waight in Baptism which for good and just considerations in the custody of Seals of office it ought to have The Grace of Baptism cometh by Donation from God alone That God hath committed the Ministery of Baptism unto special men it is for orders sake in his Church and not to the end that their Authority might give being or add force to the Sacrament it self That Infants have right to the Sacrament in Baptism we all acknowledge Charge them we cannot as guilful and wrongful possessors of that whereunto they have right by the manifest will of the Donor and are not parties unto any defect or disorder in the manner of receiving the same And if any such disorder be we have sufficiently before declared That delictum cum capite semper ambulat mens own faults are their own harms Wherefore to countervail this and the like mischosen resemblances with that which more truly and plainly agreeth the Ordinance of God concerning their Vocation that minister Baptism wherein the Mystery of our Regeneration is wrought hath thereunto the same Analogy which Laws of Wedlock have to our first Nativity and Birth So that if Nature do effect procreation notwithstanding the wicked violation and breach even of Natures Law made that the entrance of all mankinde into this present World might be without blemish may we not justly presume that Grace doth accomplish the other although there be faultiness in them that transgress the Order which our Lord Jesus Christ hath established in his Church Some Light may be borrowed from Circumcision for Explication of what is true in this question of Baptism Seeing then that even they which condemn Zipporah the Wife of Moses for taking upon her to Circumcise her son a thing necessary at that time for her to do and as I think very hard to reprove in her considering how Moses because himself had not done it sooner was therefore stricken by the hand of God neither could in that extremity perform the Office whereupon for the stay of Gods indignation there was no choice but the action must needs fall into her hands whose fact therein whether we interpret as some have done that being a Midianite and as yet not so throughly acquainted with the Jewish Rites it much discontented her to see her self through her Husbands oversight in a Matter of his own Religion brought unto these perplexities and straights that either she must now endure him perishing before her eyes or else wound the flesh of her own Childe which she could not do but with seme indignation shewed in that she fumingly both threw down the foreskin at his feet and upbraided him with the cruelty of his Religion Or if we better like to follow their more judicious
lest the sense and signification we give unto it should burthen us as Authors of a new Gospel in the House of God not in respect of some cause which the Fathers had more then we have to use the same nor finally for any such offence or scandal as heretofore it hath been subject unto by Error now reformed in the mindes of Men. 66. The ancient Custom of the Church was after they had Baptized to add thereunto Imposition of Hands with effectual Prayer for the illumination of Gods most holy Spirit to confirm and perfect that which the Grace of the some Spirit had already begun in Baptism For our means to obtain the Graces which God doth bestow are our Prayers Our Prayers to that intent are available as well for others as for ourselves To pray for others is to bless them for whom we pray because Prayer procureth the blessing of God upon them especially the Prayer of such as God either most respecteth for their Piety and Zeal that way or else regardeth for that their place and calling bindeth them above others unto this duty as it doth both Natural and Spiritual Fathers With Prayers of Spiritual and Personal Benediction the manner hath been in all ages to use Imposition of Hands as a Ceremony betokening our restrained desires to the party whom we present unto God by Prayer Thus when Israel blessed Ephraim and Manasses Iosephs sons he imposed upon them his hands and prayed God in whose sight my Fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk God which hath fed me all my life long unto this day and the Angel which hath delivered me from all evil bless these Children The Prophets which healed diseases by Prayer used therein the self-same Ceremony And therefore when Elizeus willed Naaman to wash himself seven times in Iordan for cure of his foul disease it much offended him I thought saith he with my self Surely the man will come forth and stand and call upon the Name of the Lord his God and put his hand on the place to the end he may so heal the â—â—eprosie In Consecrations and Ordinations of Men unto Rooms of Divine Calling the like was usually done from the time of Moses to Christ. Their suits that came unto Christ for help were also tendred oftentimes and are expressed in such forms or phrases of speech as shew that he was himself an observer of the same custom He which with Imposition of Hands and Prayer did so great Works of Mercy for restauration of Bodily health was worthily judged as able to effect the infusion of Heavenly Grace into them whose age was not yet depraved with that malice which might be supposed a bar to the goodness of God towards them They brought him therefore young children to put his hands upon them and pray After the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that which he had begun continued in the daily practice of his Apostles whose Prayer and Imposition of Hands were a mean whereby thousands became partakers of the wonderful Gifts of God The Church had received from Christ a promise that such as believed in him these signs and tokens should follow them To cast one Devils to speak with Tongues to drive away Serpents to be free from the harm which any deadly poyson could work and to cure diseases by Imposition of Hands Which power common at the first in a manner unto all Believers all Believers had not power to derive or communicate unto all other men but whosoever was the instrument of God to instruct convert and baptize them the gift of miraculous operations by the power of the Holy Ghost they had not but onely at the Apostles own hands For which cause Simon Magus perceiving that power to be in none but them and presuming that they which had it might sell it sought to purchase it of them with money And as miraculous Graces of the Spirit continued after the Apostles times For saith Irenaus they which are truly his Disciples do in his Name and through Grace received from him such works for the benefit of other men as every of them is by him enabled to work Some cast one Devils in so much as they which are delivered from wicked spirits have been thereby won unto Christ and do constantly persevere in the Church and Society of Faithful Men Some excel in the knowledge of things to come in the grace of Visions from God and the gift of Prophetical Prediction Some by laying on their hands restore them to health which are grievously afflicted with sickness yea there are that of dead have been made alive and have afterwards many years conversed with us What should I say The gifts are innumerable wherewith God hath inriched his Church throughout the World and by vertue whereof in the Name of Christ crucified under Pontius Pilate the Church every day doth many wonders for the good of Nations neither fraudulently nor in any respect of lucre and gain to her self but as freely bestowing as God on her hath bestowed his Divine Graces So it no where appeareth that ever any did by Prayer and Imposition of Hands sithence the Apostles times make others partakers of the like miraculous gifts and graces as long as it pleased God to continue the same in his Church but onely Bishops the Apostles Successors for a time even in that power St. Augustine acknowledgeth That such gifts were not permitted to last always lest men should wax cold with the commonness of that the strangeness whereof at the first inflamed them Which words of St. Augustine declaring how the vulgar use of these Miracles was then expired are no prejudice to the like extraordinary Graces more rarely observed in some either then or of latter days Now whereas the Successors of the Apostles had but onely for a time such power as by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to bestow the Holy Ghost the reason wherefore Confirmation nevertheless by Prayer and Laying on of Hands hath hitherto always continued is for other very special benefits which the Church thereby enjoyeth The Fathers every where impute unto it that gift or Grace of the Holy Ghost not which maketh us first Christian men but when we are made such assisteth us in all vertue aimeth us against temptation and sin For after Baptism administred there followeth saith Tertullian Imposition of Hands with Invocation and Invitation of the Holy Ghost which willingly cometh down from the Father to rest upon the purified and blessed Bodies as it were acknowledging the Waters of Baptism a fit Seat St. Cyprian in more particular manner alluding to that effect of the Spirit which here especially was respected How great saith he is that power and force wherewith the minde is here he meaneth in Baptism enabled being not onely withdrawn from that pernicious hold which the World before had of it nor onely so purified and made clean that no stain or blemish of
the Enemies invasion doth remain but over and besides namely through Prayer and Imposition of Hands becometh yet greater yet mightier in strength so far as to raign with a kinde of Imperial Dominion over the whole Band of that roming and spoiling Adversary As much is signified by Eusebius Emissenus saying The Holy Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the Waters of Baptism doth there give that fulness which sufficeth for innocenty and afterwards exhibiteth in Confirmation an Augmentation of further Grace The Fathers therefore being thus perswaded held Confirmation as an Ordinance Apostolick always profitable in Gods Church although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those External Effects which gave it countenance at the first The cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism for most commonly they went together was sometimes in the Minister which being of inferior degree might Baptize but not Confirm as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and Iohn did confirm whereas Philip had before baptized them and in theirs of whom St. Ierome hath said I deny not but the Custom of the Churches is that the Bishop should go abroad and imposing his hands pray for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on them whom Presbyters and Deacons far off in lesser Cities have already â—aptized Which ancient Custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the example or Peter and Iohn in the Eighth of the Acts before alledged The faithful in Samaria saith he had already obtained Baptism onely that which was wanting Peter and John supplied by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to the end the Holy Ghost might be poured upon them Which also is done amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to obtain by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost By this it appeareth that when the Ministers of Baptism were persons of inferior degree the Bishops did after Confirm whom such had before Baptized Sometimes they which by force of their Ecclesiastical Calling might do as well the one as the other were notwithstanding Men whom Heresie had dis-joyned from the Fellowship of true Believers Whereupon when any Man by them Baptized and Confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce their Error there grew in some Churches very hot contention about the manner of admitting such into the Bosome of the true Church as hath been declared already in the question of Rebaptization But the generally received Custom was onely to admit them with Imposition of Hands and Prayer Of which Custom while some imagined the reason to be for that Hereticks might give Remission of Sins by Baptism but not the Spirit by Imposition of Hands because themselves had not Gods Spirit and that therefore their Baptism might stand but Confirmation must be given again The imbecillity of this ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the practice of the Church herein laboring many ways to prove That Hereticks could do neither and consequently that their Baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their Chrism for the manner of those times was in Confirming to use Anointing On the other side against Luciferians which ratified onely the Baptism of Hereticks but disannulled their Confirmations and Consecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been before specified Hereticks cannot give the Holy Ghost St. Ierome proveth at large That if Baptism by Hereticks be granted available to Remission of Sins which no man receiveth without the Spirit it must needs follow that the reason taken from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason wherefore the Church should admit Converts with any new Imposition of Hands Notwithstanding because it might be objected That if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always joyn it self with true Baptism the Church which thinketh the Bishops Confirmation after others Mens Baptism needful for the obtaining of the Holy Ghost should hold an error Saint Ierome hereunto maketh answer That the cause of this observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the Holy Ghost by the Sacrament of Baptism unless a Bishop add after it the Imposition of Hands but rather a certain congruity and fitness to honor Prelacy with such pre-eminences because the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her chief Superiors to whom if some eminent Offices of Power above others should not be given there would be in the Church as many Schisms as Priests By which answer it appeareth his opinion was That the Holy Ghost is received in Baptism that Confirmation is onely a Sacramental Complement that the reason why Bishops alone did ordinarily confirm was not because the benefit grace and dignity thereof is greater then of Baptism but rather for that by the Sacrament of Baptism Men being admitted into Gods Church it was both reasonable and convenient that if he Baptize them not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their Souls belongeth yet for honors sake and in token of his Spiritual Superiority over them because to bless is an act of Authority the performance of this annexed Ceremony should be sought for at his hands Now what effect their Imposition of Hands hath either after Baptism administred by Hereticks or otherwise St. Ierome in that place hath made no mention because all men understood that in Converts it tendeth to the fruits of Repentance and craveth in behalf of the Penitent such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of God in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which hath been before shewed Finally Sometime the cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism was in the parties that received Baptism being Infants at which age they might be very well admitted to live in the Family but because to fight in the Army of God to discharge the duties of a Christian man to bring forth the fruits and to do the Works of the Holy Ghost their time of ability was not yet come so that Baptism were not deferred there could by stay of their Confirmation no harm ensue but rather good For by this means it came to pass that Children in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of true Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their mindes a good foundation was laid betimes for direction of the course of their whole lives the Seed of the Church of God was preserved sincere and sound the Prelates and Fathers of Gods Family to whom the cure of their Souls belonged saw by tryal and examination of them a part of their own heavy burthen discharged reaped comfort by beholding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years glorified him whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every one Fatherly encouragement and exhortation Whereunto Imposition of Hands and Prayer being added our Warrant for the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarks Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and Men of God have had
them Powers then gifts of Cures Aides Governments kindes of Languages Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Is there power in all Have all grace to cure Do all speak with Tongues Can all interpret But be you desirous of the better graces They which plainly discern first that some one general thing there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches and do secondly conceive that general to be Church-Offices besides a number of other difficulties can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might concurr in one man and peradventure in some one all which mixture notwithstanding their form of discipline doth most shun On the other side admit that Communicants of special infused grace for the benefit of Members knit into one body the Church of Christ are here spoken of which was in truth the plain drift of that whole Discourse and see if every thing do not answer in due place with the fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meane For why are Apostles the first but because unto them was granted the Revelation of all Truth from Christ immediately Why Prophets the second but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner Teachers the next because whatsoever was known to them it came by hearing yet God withal made them able to instruct which every one could not do that was taught After Gifts of Edification there follow general abilities to work things above Nature Grace to cure men of bodily Diseases Supplies against occurrent defects and impediments Dexterities to govern and direct by counsel Finally aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues Which Graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and given were a cause why not onely they all did furnish up the whole Body but each benefit and help other Again the same Apostle other-where in like sort To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He therefore gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ. In this place none but gifts of Instruction are exprest And because of Teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by Revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach were farr beyond other Pastors they are as having received one way less than Prophets and another way more than Teachers set accordingly between both For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by Office or Power given them through Ordination but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost For in Christian Religion this being the ground of our whole Belief that the promises which God of old had made by his Prophets concerning the wonderful Gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Reign of the true Messias should be made glorious were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their Conversion to Christian Faith the Church had her Ministers chosen unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination Now because the Apostle in reckoning degrees and varieties of Grace doth mention Pastors and Teachers although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministery but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost divers learned and skilfull men have so taken it as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical Persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ which thing we are not to learn from thence but out of other parts of holy Scripture whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolick did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order at the first Apostles Presbyters and Deacons afterwards in stead of Apostles Bishops concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book There is an errour which beguileth many who doe much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature onely of their labours and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tyed by irrevocable Ordination we finde them alwayes exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders alone are natural parts Touching Widows of whom some men are perswaded that if such as Saint Paul describeth may be gotten we ought to retain them in the Church for ever Certain mean Services there were of Attendance as about Women at the time of their Baptism about the Bodies of the sick and dead about the necessities of Travellers Way-faring men and such like wherein the Church did commonly life them when need required because they lived of the Alms of the Church and were fittest for such purposes Saint Paul doth therefore to avoid scandal require that none but Women well-experienced and vertuously given neither any under threescore years of age should be admitted of that number Widows were never in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination to make them Ecclesiastical Persons were absurd The antientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order specified and no moe When your Captain saith Tertullian that is to say the Deacons Presbyters and Bishops fly who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant Again What should I mention Lay-men saith Optatus yea or divers of the Ministery it self To what purpose Deacons which are in the third or Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood when the very Heads and Princes of all even certain of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with the loss of Heaven Heaps of Allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless I may securely therefore conclude that there are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same Degrees of Ecclesiastical Order namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves As for Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates Arch-deacons
the birth of our Saviour Christ begin the distinction of the Church into Parishes Presbyters and Deacons having been ordained before to exercise Ecclesiastical Functions in the Church of Rome promiscuously he was the first that tyed them each one to his own station So that of the two indefinite Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons doth come more near the Apostles Example and the tying of them to be made onely for particular Congregations may more justly ground it self upon the Example of Evaristus than of any Apostle of Christ. It hath been the opinion of wise and good men heretofore that nothing was ever devised more singularly beneficial unto God's Church than this which our honourable Predecessors have to their endless praise found out by the erecting of such Houses of Study as those two most famous Universities do contain and by providing that choise Wits after reasonable time spent in contemplation may at the length either enter into that holy Vocation for which they have been so long nourished and brought up or else give place and suffer others to succeed in their rooms that so the Church may be alwayes furnished with a number of men whose ability being first known by publick tryal in Church-labours there where men can best judge of them their calling afterwards unto particular charge abroad may be accordingly All this is frustrate those worthy Foundations we must dissolve their whole device and religious purpose which did erect them is made void their Orders and Statutes are to be cancelled and disannulled in case the Church be forbidden to grant any power of Order unless it be with restraint to the Party ordained unto some particular Parish or Congregation Nay might we not rather affirm of Presbyters and of Deacons that the very nature of their Ordination is unto necessary local restraint a thing opposite and repugnant The Emperour Iustinian doth say of Tutors Certa rei vel causae tutor dari non potest quia personae non causae vel rei tutor datur He that should grant a Tutorship restraining his grant to some one certain thing or cause should do but idlely because Tutors are given for personal defence generally and not for managing of a few particular things or causes So he that ordaining a Presbyter or a Deacon should in the form of Ordination restrain the one or the other to a certain place might with much more reason be thought to use a vain and a frivolous addition than they reasonably to require such local restraint as a thing which must of necessity concurr evermore with all lawfull Ordinations Presbyters and Deacons are not by Ordination consecrated unto Places but unto Functions In which respect and in no other it is that sith they are by vertue thereof bequeathed unto God severed and sanctified to be imployed in his Service which is the highest advancement that mortal Creatures on Earth can be raised unto the Church of Christ hath not been acquainted in former Ages with any such propane and unnatural Custom as doth hallow men with Ecclesiastical Functions of Order onely for a time and then dismiss them again to the common Affairs of the World Whereas contrariwise from the Place or Charge where that Power hath been exercised we may be by sundry good and lawful occasions translated retaining nevertheless the self-same Power which was first given It is some grief to spend thus much labour in refuting a thing that hath so little ground to uphold it especially sith they themselves that teach it doe not seem to give thereunto any great credit if we may judge their mindes by their actions There are amongst them that have done the work of Ecclesiastical Persons sometime in the Families of Noblemen sometime in much more publick and frequent Congregations there are that have successively gone through perhaps seven or eight particular Churches after this sort yea some that at one and the same time have been some which at this present hour are in real obligation of Ecclesiastical duty and possession of Commodity thereto belonging even in sundry particular Churches within the Land some there are amongst them which will not so much abridge their liberty as to be fastened or tyed unto any place some which have bound themselves to one place onely for a time and that time being once expired have afterwards voluntarily given unto other places the like experience and tryal of them All this I presume they would not doe if their perswasion were as strict as their words pretend But for the avoiding of these and such other the like confusisions as are incident unto the cause and question whereof we presently treat there is not any thing more material than first to separate exactly the nature of the Ministery from the use and exercise thereof Secondly to know that the onely true and proper Act of Ordination is to invest men with that power which doth make them Ministers by consecrating their Persons to God and his Service in holy things during term of life whether they exercise that power or no Thirdly that to give them a Title or Charge where to use their Ministery concerneth not the making but the placing of God's Ministers and therefore the Lawes which concern onely their Election or Admission unto place of Charge are not applyable to infringe any way their Ordination Fourthly that as oft as any antient Constitution Law or Cannon is alledged concerning either Ordinations or Elections we forget not to examine whether the present case be the same which the antient was or else do contain some just reason for which it cannot admit altogether the same Rules which former Affairs of the Church now altered did then require In the question of making Ministers without a Title which to doe they say is a thing unlawful they should at the very first have considered what the name of Title doth imply and what affinity or coherence Ordinations have with Titles which thing observed would plainly have shewed them their own errour They are not ignorant that when they speak of a Title they handle that which belongeth to the placing of a Minister in some charge that the Place of Charge wherein a Minister doth execute his Office requireth some House of God for the People to resote unto some definite number of Souls unto whom he there administreth holy things and some certain allowance whereby to sustain life that the Fathers at the first named oratories and Houses of Prayer Titles thereby signifying how God was interessed in them and held them as his own Possessions But because they know that the Church had Ministers before Christian Temples and Oratories were therefore some of them understand by a Title a definite Congregation of People onely and so deny that any Ordination is lawful which maketh Ministers that have no certain Flock to attend forgetting how the Seventy whom Christ himself did ordain Ministers had their Calling in that manner whereas yet no certain Charge could be given them Others
why in all the projects of their Discipline it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the Key of Spiritual Authority out of the hands of former Governours and equally to possess therewith the Pastors of all several Congregations the people first for surer accomplishment and then for better defence thereof are pretended necessary Actors in those things whereunto their ability for the most part is as slender as their title and challenge unjust Notwithstanding whether they saw it necessary for them to perswade the people without whose help they could do nothing or else which I rather think the affection which they bear towards this new Form of Government made them to imagin it Gods own Ordinance Their Doctrine is that by the Law of God there must be for ever in all Congregations certain Lay-Elders Ministers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in as much as our Lord and Saviour by Testament for so they presume hath left all Ministers or Pastors in the Church Executors equally to the whole power of Spiritual Jurisdiction and with them hath joyned the people as Colleagues By maintenance of which Assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it as a matter of their own interest and for that if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them the colour of Divine Authority assumed for the Grace and Countenance of that Power in the vulgar sort furnisheth their Leaders with great abundance of matter behoveful of their encouragement to proceed alwaies with hope of fortunate success in the end considering their cause to be as David's was a just defence of power given them from above and consequently their Adversaries quarrel the same with Saul's by whom the Ordinance of God was withstood Now on the contrary side if this their surmise prove false if such as in Justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alledged as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial let them then consider whether those words of Corah Dathan and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron It is too much that ye take upon you seeing all the Congregation is holy be not the very true Abstract and abridgment of all their published Admonitions Demonstrations Supplications and Treatises whatsoever whereby they have laboured to void the rooms of their Spiritual Superiours before Authorized and to advance the new fancied Scepter of Lay Presbyterial Power The Nature of Spiritual Iurisdiction BUt before there can be any setled Determination whether Truth do rest on their part or on ours touching Lay-Elders we are to prepare the way thereunto by explication of some things requisite and very needful to be considered as first how besides that Spiritual Power which is of Order and was instituted for performance of those duties whereof there hath been Speech already had there is in the Church no less necessary a second kind which we call the Power of Jurisdiction When the Apostle doth speak of ruling the Church of God and of receiving accusations his words have evident reference to the Power of Jurisdiction Our Saviours words to the Power of Order when he giveth his Disciples charge saying Preach Baptize Do this in Remembrance of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn A Bishop saith Ignatius doth bear the Image of God and of Christ of God in ruling of Christ in administring holy things By this therefore we see a manifest difference acknowledged between the Power of Ecclesiastical Order and the power of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical The Spiritual Power of the Church being such as neither can be challenged by right of Nature nor could by humane Authority be instituted because the forces and effects thereof are Supernatural and Divine we are to make no doubt or question but that from him which is the Head it hath descended unto us that are the Body now invested therewith He gave it for the benefit and good of Souls as a mean to keep them in the path which leadeth unto endless felicity a bridle to hold them within their due and convenient bounds and if they do go astray a forcible help to reclaim them Now although there be no kind of Spiritual Power for which our Lord Iesus Christ did not give both commission to exercise and direction how to use the same although his Laws in that behalf recorded by the holy Evangelists be the only ground and foundation whereupon the practice of the Church must sustain it self yet as all multitudes once grown to the form of Societies are even thereby naturally warranted to enforce upon their own subjects particularly those things which publick wisdom shall judge expedient for the common good so it were absurd to imagine the Church it self the most glorious amongst them abridged of this liberty or to think that no Law Constitution or Canon can be further made either for Limitation or Amplification in the practice of our Saviours Ordinances whatsoever occasion be offered through variety of times and things during the state of this inconstant world which bringeth forth daily such new evills as must of necessity by new remedies be redrest did both of old enforce our venerable Predecessor and will alwaies constrain others sometime to make sometime to abrogate sometime to augment and again to abridge sometime in sum often to vary alter and change Customs incident unto the manner of exercising that Power which doth it self continue alwaies one and the same I therefore conclude that Spiritual Authority is a Power which Christ hath given to be used over them which are subject unto it for the eternal good of their Souls according to his own most Sacred Laws and the wholsome positive Constitutions of his Church In Doctrine referred unto Action and Practice as this is which concerns Spiritual Jurisdiction the first sound and perfect understanding is the knowledge of the End because thereby both Use doth frame and Contemplation judge all things Of Penitency the chiefest End propounded by Spiritual Iurisdiction Two kinds of Penitency the one a Private Duty toward God the other a Duty of external Discipline Of the vertue of Repentance from which the former Duty proceedeth and of Contrition the first part of that Duty SEeing that the chiefest cause of Spiritual Jurisdiction is to provide for the health and safety of Mens Souls by bringing them to see and Repent their grievous offences committed against God as also to reform all injuries offered with the breach of Christian Love and Charity toward their brethren in matters of Ecclesiastical Cognizance the use of this Power shall by so much the plainlier appear if first the nature of Repentance it self be known We are by Repentance to appease whom we offend by Sin For which cause whereas all Sin deprives us of the favour of Almighty God our way of Reconciliation with him is the inward secret Repentance of the heart which inward
cruel were a sinne most grievous considering that the people of God should be easie to relent as Joseph was towards his Brethren Finally if so it fall out that the death of him which was injured prevent his submission which did offend let him then for so they determine that he ought goe accompanied with ten others unto the Sepulchre of the Dead and there make confession of the Fault saying I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and against this man to whom I have done such or such injury and if Money be due let it be restored to his Heirs or in case he have none known leave it with the house of Iudgement That is to say with the Senators Ancients and Guides of Israel We hold not Christian people tyed unto Jewish Orders for the manner of Restitution but surely Restitution we must hold necessary as well in our own Repentance as theirs for Sinnes of wilful oppression and wrong Now although it suffices that the Offices wherewith we pacifie God or private men be secretly done yet in Cases where the Church must be also satisfied it was not to this end and purpose unnecessary that the antient Discipline did farther require outward signes of Contrition to be shewed Confession of Sinnes to be made openly and those Works to be apparent which served as Testimonies for Conversion before men Wherein if either Hypocrisie did at any time delude their Judgment they knew that God is he whom Maskes and Mockeryes cannot blinde that he which seeth mens hearts would judge them according unto his own evidence and as Lord correct the Sentence of his Servants concerning matters beyond their reach Or if such as ought to have kept the Rules of Canonical Satisfaction would by sinister means and practises undermine the same obtruding presumptuously themselves to the participation of Christ's most sacred Mysteries before they were orderly re-admitted thereunto the Church for contempt of holy things held them incapable of that Grace which God in the Sacrament doth impart to devout Communicants and no doubt but he himself did retain bound whom the Church in those cases refused to loose The Fathers as may appear by sundry Decrees and Canons of the Primitive Church were in matter specially of publick Scandal provident that too much facility of pardoning might not be shewed He that casteth off his lawful wife saith Saint Basil and doth take another it adjudged an Adulterer by the verdict of our Lord himself and by our Fathers it is Canonically ordained that such for the space of a year shall mourn for two years space hear three years be prostrate the seventh year assemble with the faithful in Prayer and after that be admitted to communicate if with tears they bewail their fault Of them which had fallen from their faith in the time of Emperour Licinius and were not thereunto forced by any extream usage the Nicene Synod under Constantine ordained that earnestly repenting they should continue three years Hearers seven years be prostrate and two years communicate with the people in prayer before they came to receive the oblation Which rigour sometimes they tempered nevertheless with lenity the self-same Synod having likewise defined That whatsoever the cause were any man desirous at the time of departure out of this life to receive the Eucharist might with examination and tryal have it granted him by the Bishop Yea besides this case of special commiseration there is a Canon more large which giveth always liberty to abridge or extend out the time as the Parties meek or sturdy disposition should require By means of which Discipline the Church having power to hold them many years in suspence there was bred in the mindes of the Penitents through long and daily practise of submission a contrary habit unto that which before had been their ruine and for ever afterwards wariness not to fall into those snares out of which they knew they could not easily winde themselves Notwithstanding because there was likewise hope and possibility of shortning the time this made them in all the Parts and Offices of their Repentance the more fervent In the first station while they onely beheld others passing towards the Temple of God whereunto for themselves to approach it was not lawful they stood as miserable forlorn men the very patterns of perplexity and woe In the second when they had the favour to wait at the doors of God where the sound of his comfortable word might be heard none received it with attention like to theirs Thirdly being taken and admitted to the next degree of Prostrates at the feet yet behinde the back of that Angel representing God whom the rest saw face to face their tears and entreaties both of Pastour and People were such as no man could resist After the fourth step which gave them liberty to hear and pray with the rest of the People being so near the haven no diligence was then flacked which might hasten admission to the Heavenly Table of Christ their last desire It is not therefore a thing to be marvelled at though Saint Cyprian took it in very ill part when open Back-sliders from the faith and sacred Religion of Christ laboured by sinister practise to procure from imprisoned Saints those requests for present absolution which the Church could neither yield unto with safety of Discipline nor in honour of Martyrdom easily deny For what would thereby ensue they needed not to conjecture when they saw how every man which came so commended to the Church by Letters thought that now he needed not to crave but might challenge of duty his peace taking the matter very highly if but any little forbearance or small delay was used He which is overthrown saith Cyprian menaceth them that stand the wounded them that were never toucht and because presently he hath not the body of our Lord in his foul imbrued hands nor the blood within his polluted lips the miscreant fumeth at God's Priests Such is thy madness O thou furious man thou art angry with him which laboureth to turn away God's anger from thee him thou threatnest which sueth unto God for grace and mercy on thy behalf Touching Martyrs he answereth That it ought not in this case to seem offensive though they were denied seeing God himself did refuse to yield to the piety of his own righteous Saints making suit for obdurate Iews As for the Parties in whose behalf such shifts were used to have their desire was in very truth the way to make them the more guilty Such peace granted contrary to the rigour of the Gospel contrary to the Law of our Lord and God doth but under colour of merciful relaxation deceive Sinners and by soft handling destroy them a grace dangerous for the Giver and to him which receiveth it nothing at all available The patient expectation that bringeth health is by this means not regarded recovery of soundness not sought for by the only medicine available which is
greater then the rest and that with common advice they ought to govern the Church To clear the sense of these words therefore as we have done already the former Laws which the Church from the beginning universally hath observed were some delivered by Christ himself with a charge to keep them till the worlds end as the Law of Baptizing and administring the holy Eucharist some brought in afterwards by the Apostles yet not without the special direction of the Holy Ghost as occasions did arise Of this sort are those Apostolical orders and laws whereby Deacons Widows Virgins were first appointed in the Church This answer to Saint Ierom seemeth dangerous I have qualified it as I may by addition of some words of restraint yet I satisfie not may self in my judgment it would be altered Now whereas Jerom doth term the Government of Bishops by restraint an Apostolical tradition acknowledging thereby the same to have been of the Apostles own institution it may be demanded how these two will stand together namely that the Apostles by divine instinct should be as Jerom confesseth the Authors of that regiment and yet the custome of the Church he accompted for so by Jerom it may seem to be in this place accompted the chiefest prop that upholdeth the same To this we answer That for as much as the whole body of the Church hath power to alter with general consent and upon necessary occasions even the positive law of the Apostles if there be no commandment to the contrary and it manifestly appears to her that change of times have clearly taken away the very reason of Gods first institution as by sundry examples may be most clearly proved what laws the universal Church might change and doth not if they have long continued without any alteration it seemeth that St. Jerom ascribeth the continuance of such positive laws though instituted by God himself to the judgemement of the Church For they which might abrogate a Law and do not are properly said to uphold to establish it and to give it being The Regiment therefore whereof Jerom speaketh being positive and consequently not absolutely necessary but of a changeable nature because there is no Divine voice which in express words forbiddeth it to be changed he might imagine both that it came by the Apostles by very divine appointment at the first and notwithstanding be after a sort said to stand in force rather by the custome of the Church choosing to continue in it than by the necessary constraint of any Commandment from the Word requiring perpetual continuance thereof So that St. Ieroms admonition is reasonable sensible and plain being contrived to this effect The ruling superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters in each Church is an Order descended from Christ to the Apostles who were themselves Bishops at large and from the Apostles to those whom they in their steads appointed Bishops over particular Countries and Cities and even from those antient times universally established thus many years it hath continued throughout the World for which cause Presbyters must not grudg to continue subject unto their Bishops unless they will proudly oppose themselves against that which God himself ordained by his Apostles and the whole Church of Christ approveth and judgeth most convenient On the other side Bishops albeit they may avouch with conformity of truth that their Authority had thus descended even from the very Apostles themselves yet the absolute and everlasting continuance of it they cannot say that any Commandment of the Lord doth injoyn And therefore must acknowledge that the Church hath power by universal consent upon urgent cause to take it away if thereunto she be constrained through the proud tyrannical and unreformable dealings of her Bishops whose Regiment she hath thus long delighted in because she hath found it good and requisite to be so governed Wherefore lest Bishops forget themselves as if none on earth had Authority to touch their states let them continually bear in mind that it is rather the force of custom whereby the Church having so long found it good to continue under the Regiment of her vertuous Bishops doth still uphold maintain and honour them in that respect than that any such true and heavenly Law can be showed by the evidence whereof it may of a truth appear that the Lord himself hath appointed Presbyters for ever to be under the Regiment of Bishops in what sort soever they behave themselves let this consideration be a bridle unto them let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their Presbyters but to use their authority with so much the greater humility and moderation as a Sword which the Church hath power to take from them In all this there is no leâ—â— why S. Ierom might not think the Authors of Episcopal Regiment to have been the very blessed Apostles themselves directed therein by the special mution of the Holy Ghost which the Ancients all before and besides him and himself also elsewhere being known to hold we are not without better evidence then this to think him in judgement divided both from himself and from them Another Argument that the Regiment of Churches by one Bishop over many Presbyters hath been always held Apostolical may be this We find that throughout all those Cities where the Apostles did plant Christianity the History of times hath noted succession of pastors in the seat of one not of many there being in every such Church evermore many Pastors and the first one in every rank of succession we find to have been if not some Apostle yet some Apostles Disciple By Epiphanius the Bishops of Ierusalem are reckoned down from Iames to Hilarion then Bishop Of them which boasted that they held the same things which they received of such as lived with the Apostles themselves Tertullian speaketh after this sort Let them therefore shew the beginnings of their Churches let them recite their Bishops one by one each in such sort succeeding other that the first Bishop of them have had for his Author and Predecessour some Apostle or at least some Apostolical Person who persevered with the Apostles For so Apostolical Churches are wont to bring forth the evidence of their estates So doth the Church of Smyrna having Polycarp whom Iohn did consecrate Catalogues of Bishops in a number of other Churches Bishops and succeeding one another from the very Apostles times are by Eusebius and Socrates collected whereby it appeareth so clear as nothing in the World more that under them and by their appointment this Order began which maketh many Presbyters subject unto the Regiment of some one Bishop For as in Rome while the civil ordering of the Common-wealth was joyntly and equally in the hands of two Consuls Historical Records concerning them did evermore mention them both and note which two as Collegues succeeded from time to time So there is no doubt but Ecclesiastical antiquity had done the very like had not one Pastors place and
wonder at the handy-work of Almighty God who to settle the Kingdom of his dear Son did not cast out any one People but directed in such sort the Politick Councils of them who ruled farr and wide overall that they throughout all Nations People and Countries upon Earth should unwittingly prepare the Field wherein the Vine which God did intend that is to say the Church of his dearly beloved Son was to take root For unto nothing else can we attribute it saving only unto the very incomprehensible force of Divine providence that the World was in so marvellous sit sort divided levelled and laid out before hand whose work could it be but his alone to make such provision for the direct implantation of his Church Wherefore inequality of Bishops being found a thing convenient for the Church of God in such consideration as hath been shewed when it came secondly in question which Bishops should be higher and which lower it seemed herein not to the civil Monarch only but to the most expedient that the dignity and celebrity of Mother-Cities should be respected They which dream that if Civil Authority had not given such preheminence unto one City more than another there had never grown an inequality among Bishops are deceived Superiority of one Bishop over another would be requisite in the Church although that Civil distinction were abolished other causes having made it necessary even amongst Bishops to have some in degree higher than the rest the civil dignity of place was considered only as a reason wherefore this Bishop should be preferred before that Which deliberation had been likely enough to have raised no small trouble but that such was the circumstance of place as being followed in that choyce besides the manifest conveniency thereof took away all show of Partiality prevented secret emulations and gave no man occasion to think his Person disgraced in that another was preferred before him Thus we see upon what occasion Metropolitan Bishops became Archbishops Now while the whole Christian World in a manner still continued under one Civil Government there being oftentimes within some one more large Territory divers and sundry Mother-Churches the Metropolitans whereof were Archbishops as for Order's sake it grew hereupon expedient there should be a difference also amongst them so no way seemed in those times more fit than to give preheminence unto them whose Metropolitan Sees were of special desert or dignity for which cause these as being Bishops in the chiefest Mother-Churches were termed Primates and at the length by way of excellency Patriarks For ignorant we are not how sometimes the Title of Patriark is generally given to all Metropolitan Bishops They are mightily therefore to blame which are so bold and confident as to affirm that for the space of above four hundred and thirty years after Christ all Metropolitan Bishops were in every respect equals till the second Council of Constantinople exalted certain Metropolitans above the rest True it is they were equals as touching the exercise of Spiritual power within their Dioceses when they dealt with their own flock For what is it that one of them might do within the compass of his own precinct but another within his might do the same But that there was no subordination at all of one of them unto another that when they all or sundry of them were to deal in the same Causes there was no difference of first and second in degree no distinction of higher and lower in authority acknowledged amongst them is most untrue The Great Council of Nice was after our Saviour Christ but three hundred twenty four years and in that Council certain Metropolitans are said even then to have had antient preheminence and dignity above the rest namely the Primate of Alexandria of Rome and of Antioch Threescore years after this there were Synods under the Emperour Theodosius which Synod was the first at Constantinople whereat one hundred and fifty Bishops were assembled at which Council it was decreed that the Bishop of Constantinople should not only be added unto the forme Primates but also that his Place should be second amongst them the next to the Bishop of Rome in dignity The same Decree again renewed concerning Constantinople and the reason thereof laid open in the Council of Chalcedon At the length came that second of Constantinople whereat were six hundred and thirty Bishops for a third confirmation thereof Laws Imperial there are likewise extant to the same effect Herewith the Bishop of Constantinople being over-much puffed up not only could not endure that See to be in estimation higher whereunto his own had preferment to be the next but he challenged more than ever any Christian Bishop in the World before either had or with reason could have What he challenged and was therein as then refused by the Bishop of Rome the same the Bishop of Rome in process of time obtained for himself and having gotten it by bad means hath both up-held and augmented it and upholdeth it by acts and practises much worse But Primates according to their first Institution were all in relation unto Archbishops the same by Prerogative which Archbishops were being compared unto Bishops Before the Council of Nice albeit there were both Metropolitans and Primates yet could not this be a means forcible enough to procure the peace of the Church but all things were wonderful tumultuous and troublesome by reason of one special practise common unto the Heretiques of those times which was That when they had been condemned and cast out of the Church by the Sentence of their own Bishops they contrary to the antient received Orders of the Church had a custom to wander up and down and to insinuate themselves into favour where they were not known imagining themselves to be safe enough and not to be clean cut off from the body of the Church if they could any where finde a Bishop which was content to communicate with them whereupon ensued as in that case there needs must every day quarrels and jarrs unappeasable amongst Bishops The Nicene Council for redress hereof considered the bounds of every Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions what they had been in former times and accordingly appointed unto each grand part of the Christian World some one Primate from whose Judgement no man living within his Territory might appeal unless it were to a Council General of all Bishops The drift and purport of which order was That neither any man opprest by his own particular Bishop might be destitute of a remedy through appeal unto the more indifferent Sentence of some other ordinary Judge not yet every man be lest at such liberty as before to shift himself out of their hands for whom it was most meet to have the hearing and determining of his cause The evil for remedy whereof this order was taken annoyed at that present especially the Church of Alexandria in Egypt where Arianism begun For which cause the state
of that Church is in the Nicene Canons concerning this matter mentioned before the rest The words of their sacred Edict are these Let those customs remain in force which have been of old the customs of Egypt and Libya and Pentapolis by which customs the Bishop of Alexandria hath authority over all these the rather for that this hath also been the use of the Bishop of Rome yea the same hath been kept in Antioch and in other Provinces Now because the custom likewise had been that great honour should be done to the Bishop of Alia or Ierusalem therefore lest their Decree concerning the Primate of Antioch should any whit prejudice the dignity and honour of that See special provision is made that although it were inferior in degree not only unto Antioch the chief of the East but even unto Cesaria too yet such preheminence it should retain as belonged to a Mother-City and enjoy whatsoever special Prerogative or Priviledge it had besides Let men therefore hereby judge of what continuance this Order which upholdeth degrees of Bishops must needs have been when a General Council of three hundred and eighteen Bishops living themselves within three hundred years after Christ doth reverence the same for Antiquity's sake as a thing which had been even then of old observed in the most renowned parts of the Christian World Wherefore needless altogether are those vain and wanton demands No mention of an Archbishop in Theophilus Bishop of Antioch none in Ignatius none in Clemens of Alexandria none in Iustin Martyr Ireneus Tertullian Cyprian none in all those old Historiographers out of which Eusebius gathereth his Story none till the time of the Council of Nice three hundred and twenty years after Christ As if the mention which is thereof made in that very Council where so many Bishops acknowledge Archiepiscopal dignity even then antient were not of farr more weight and value than if every of those Fathers had written large Discourses thereof But what is it which they will blush at who dare so confidently set it down that in the Councel of Nice some Bishops being termed Metropolitans no more difference is thereby meant to have been between one Bishop and another than is shewed between one Minister and another when we say such a one is a Minister in the City of London and such a one a Minister in the Town of Newington So that to be termed a Metropolitan Bishop did in their conceit import no more preheminence above other Bishops than we mean that a Girdler hath over others of the same trade if we term him which doth inhabit some Mother-City for difference-sake a Metropolitan Girdler But the Truth is too manifest to be eluded a Bishop at that time had power in his own Diocess over all other Ministers there and a Metropolitan Bishop sundry preheminences above other Bishops one of which preheminences was in the ordination of Bishops to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief power of ordering all things done Which preheminence that Council it self doth mention as also a greater belonging unto the Patriark or Primate of Alexandria concerning whom it is there likewise said that to him did belong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 authority and power over all Egypt Pentapolis and Libya within which compass sundry Metropolitan Sees to have been there is no man ignorant which in those Antiquities have any knowledge Certain Prerogatives there are wherein Metropolitans excelled other Bishops certain also wherein Primates excelled other Metropolitans Archiepiscopal or Metropolitan Prerogatives are those mentioned in the old Imperial constitutions to convocate the holy Bishops under them within the compass of their own Provinces when need required their meeting together for inquisition and redress of publick disorders to grant unto Bishops under them leave and faculty of absence from their own Dioceses when it seemed necessary that they should otherwhere converse for some reasonable while to give notice unto Bishops under them of things commanded by Supream Authority to have the hearing and first determining of such Causes as any man had against a Bishop to receive the appeals of the inferiour Clergy in case they found themselves over-born by the Bishop their immediate Judge And lest haply it should be imagined that Canons Ecclesiastical we want to make the self-same thing manifest In the Council of Antioch it was thus decreed The Bishop in every Province must know that he which is Bishop in the Mother-City hath not only charge of his own Parish or Diocess but even of the whole Province also Again it hath seemed good that other Bishops without him should do nothing more than only that which concerneth each one's Parish and the places underneath it Further by the self-same Council all Councils provincial are reckoned void and frustrate unless the Bishop of the Mother-City within that Province where such Councils should be were present at them So that the want of his presence and in Canons for Church-Government want of his approbation also did disannul them Not so the want of any others Finally concerning election of Bishops the Council of Nice hath this general rule that the chief ordering of all things here is in every Province committed to the Metropolitan Touching them who amongst Metropolitan were also Primates and had of sundry united Provinces the chiefest Metropolitan See of such that Canon in the Council of Carthage was eminent whereby a Bishop is forbidden to go beyond Seas without the license of the highest Chair within the same Bishop's own Country and of such which beareth the name of Apostolical is that antient Canon likewise which chargeth the Bishops of each NATION to know him which is FIRST amongst them and to esteem of him as an HEAD and to do no extraordinary thing but with his leave The chief Primates of the Christian World were the Bishop of Rome Alexandria and Antioch To whom the Bishop of Constantinople being afterwards added Saint Chrysostom the Bishop of that See is in that respect said to have had the care and charge◠not only of the City of Constantinople sed etiam totius Thracia que sex praefecturis est divisa Asiaetolius quae ab undecim praesidebus regitur The rest of the East was under Antioch the South under Alexandria and the West under Rome Whereas therefore Iohn the Bishop of Ierusalem being noted of Heresie had written an Apology for himself unto the Bishop of Alexandria named Theophilus Saint Ierom reproveth his breach of the Order of the Church herein saying Tu qui regular quaris Ecclesiasticas Nicend Concilii canonibus uteris responde mihi Ad Alexandrinum Episcopum Palastina quid pertinet Nifallor hoc ibi deçernitur at Palaeslinae Metropolie Casarea sit totius Orientis Antiochia Aut igitur ad Caesariensem Episcopuna referre debueras aut siprocul expetendum judiciam erat Antiochiam potius litera dirigenda Thus
of which appointed all to succeed in the self-same equality of power except that Commission which doth authorize to Preach and Baptise should be alledged which maketh nothing to the purpose for in such things all Pastors are still equal We must I fear me wait very long before any other will be shewed For howsoever the Apostles were Equals amongst themselves all other Pastors were not Equals with the Apostles while they lived neither are they any where appointed to be afterward each others Equals Apostles had as we know authority over all such as were no Apostles by force of which their Authority they might both command and judge It was for the singular good and benefit of those Disciples whom Christ left behinde him and of the Pastors which were afterwards chosen for the great good I say of all sorts that the Apostles were in power above them Every day brought forth somewhat wherein they saw by experience how much it stood them in stead to be under controulment of those Superiours and Higher Governours of Gods House Was it a thing so behoveful that Pastors should be subject unto Pastors in the Apostles own times and is there any commandment that this Subjection should cease with them and that the Pastors of the succeeding Ages should be all Equals No no this strange and absurd conceit of Equality amongst Pastors the Mother of Schism and of Confusion is but a dream newly brought forth and seen never in the Church before 4. Power of Censure and Ordination appeareth even by Scripture marvellous probable to have been derived from Christ to his Church without this surmised Equality in them to whom he hath committed the same For I would know Whether Timothy and Titus were commanded by Saint Paul to do any thing more than Christ hath authorized Pastors to do And to the one it is Scripture which saith Against a Presbyter receive THOU no accusation saving under two or three Witnesses Scripture which likewise hath said to the other For this very cause left I THEE in Crete that THOU shouldst redress the things that remain and shouldst ORDAIN Presbyters in every City as I appointed THEE In the former place the power of Censure is spoken of and the power of Ordination in the latter Will they say that every Pastor there was equal to Timothy and Titus in these things If they do the Apostle himself is against it who saith that of their two very Persons he had made choyse and appointed in those places them for performances of those Duties whereas if the same had belonged unto others no less than to them and not principally unto them above others it had been fit for the Apostle accordingly to have directed his Letters concerning these things in general unto them all which had equal interest in them even as it had been likewise fit to have written those Epistles in Saint Iohn's Revelation unto whole Ecclesiastical Senates rather than only unto the Angels of each Church had not some one been above the rest in Authority to order the affairs of the Church Scripture therefore doth most probably make for the inequality of Pastors even in all Ecclesiastical affairs and by very express mention as well in Censures as Ordinations 5. In the Nicene Council there are consumed certain Prerogatives and Dignities belonging unto Primates or Archbishops and of them it is said that the antient custom of the Church had been to give them such preheminence but no syllable whereby any man should conjecture that those Fathers did not honor the Superiority which Bishops had over other Pastors only upon antient custom and not as a true Apostolical heavenly and divine Ordinance 6. Now although we should leave the general received perswasion held from the first beginning that the Apostles themselves left Bishops invested with power above other Pastors although I say we should give over this opinion and imbrace that other conjecture which so many have thought good to follow and which my self did sometimes judge a great deal more probable than now I do meerly that after the Apostles were deceased Churches did agree amongst themselves for preservation of Peace and Order to make one Presbyter in each City Chief over the rest and to translate into him that power by force and vertue whereof the Apostles while they were alive did preserve and uphold order in the Church exercising Spiritual Jurisdiction partly by themselves and partly by Evangelists because they could not always every where themselves be present This order taken by the Church it self for so let us suppose that the Apostles did neither by word nor deed appoint it were notwithstanding more warrantable than that it should give place and be abrogated because the Ministry of the Gospel and the Functions thereof ought to be from Heaven There came Chief Priests and Elders unto our Saviour Christ as he was teaching in the Temple and the Question which they moved unto him was this By what Authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this Authority their Question he repelled with a Counter-demand The Baptism of John whence was it from Heaven or of Men Hereat they paused secretly disputing within themselves If we shall say from Heaven he will ask Wherefore did ye not then believe him And if we say of men We fear the People for all hold Iohn a Prophet What is it now which hereupon these men would infer That all-Functions Ecclesiastical ought in such sort to be from Heaven as the Function of Iohn was I No such matter here contained Nay doth not the contrary rather appear most plainly by that which is here set down For when our Saviour doth ask concerning the Baptism that is to say the whole Spiritual Function of Iohn whether it were from Heaven or of men he giveth clearly to understand that men give Authority unto some and some God himself from Heaven doth Authorize Nor is it said or in any sort signified that none have lawful Authority which have it not in such manner as Iohn from Heaven Again when the Priests and Elders were loth to say that Iohn had his calling from men the reason was not because they thought that so Iohn should not have had any good or lawful Calling but because they saw that by this means they should somewhat embase the Calling of Iohn whom all men knew to have been sent from God according to the manner of Prophets by a meer Celestial vocation So that out of the evidence here alledged these things we may directly conclude first that who so doth exercise any kinde of Function in the Church he cannot lawfully so do except Authority be given him Secondly that if Authority be not given him from men as the Authority of Teaching was given unto Scribes and Pharisees it must be given him from Heaven as Authority was given unto Christ Elias Iohn Baptist and the Prophets For these two only wayes there are to have Authority But a strange Conclusion
Government is confirmed yea strengthened it is and ratified even by the not establishment thereof in all Churches every where at the first 2. When they further dispute That if any such thing were usedful Christ would in Scripture have set down particular Statutes and Laws appointing that Bishops should be made and prescribing in what order even as the Law doth for all kinde of Officers which were needful in the Iewish Regiment might not a man that would bend his wit to maintain the fury of the Petrobrusian Hereticks in pulling down Oratories use the self-same argument with as much countenance of reason If it were needful that we should assemble our selves in Churches would that God which taught the Iews so exactly the frame of their sumptuous Temple leave us no particular instructions in writing no not so much at which way to lay any one stone Surely such kinde of Argumentation doth not so strengthen the sinews of their cause as weaken the credit of their Judgement which are led therewith 3. And whereas Thirdly in disproof of that use which Episcopal Authority hath in Judgement of Spiritual Causes they bring forth the verdict of Cyprian who saith That equity requireth every man's Cause to be heard where the fault he was charged with was committed forasmuch as there they may have both Accusers and Witnesses in the Cause This Argument grounding it self on Principles no lesse true in Civil than in Ecclesiastical Causes unless it be qualified with some exceptions or limitations over-turneth the highest Tribunal Seats both in Church and Common-wealth it taketh utterly away all appeals it secretly condemneth even the blessed Apostle himself as having transgressed the law of Equity by his appeal from the Court of Iudea unto those higher which were in Rome The generality of such kinde of axioms deceiveth unless it be construed with such cautions as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth require An usual and ordinary transportation of causes out of Africa into Italy out of one Kingdom into another as discontented Persons list which was the thing which Cyprian disalloweth may be unequal and unmeet and yet not therefore a thing unnecessary to have the Courts erectted in higher places and judgement committed unto greater Persons to whom the meaner may bring their causes either by way of appeal ot otherwise to be determined according to the order of Justice which hath been always observed every where in Civil States and is no less requisite also for the State of the Church of God The Reasons which teach it to be expedient for the one will shew it to be for the other at leastwise not unnecessary Inequality of Pastors is an Ordinance both Divine and profitable Their exceptions against it in these two respects we have shewed to be altogether causless unreasonable and unjust XIV The next thing which they upbraid us with is the difference between that inequality of Pastors which hath been of old and which now is For at length they grant That the superiority of Bishops and of Arch-bishops is somewhat antient but no such kinde of Superiority as ours have By the Laws of our Discipline a Bishop may ordain without asking the Peoples consent a Bishop may excommunicate and release alone a Bishop may imprison a Bishop may bear Civil Office in the Realm a Bishop may be a Counsellor of State these thing antient Bishops neither did nor might do Be it granted that ordinarily neither in elections nor deprivations neither in excommunicating nor in releasing the excommunicate in none of the weighty affairs of Government Bishops of old were wont to do any thing without consultation with their Clergy and consent of the People under them Be it granted that the same Bishops did neither touch any man with corporal punishment nor meddle with secular affairs and Offices the whole Clergy of God being then tyed by the strict and severe Canons of the Church to use no other than ghostly power to attend no other business than heavenly Tarquinius was in the Roman Common-wealth deservedly hated of whose unorderly proceedings the History speaketh thus Hic Regum primus traditum à Prioribus morem de omnibus Senatum consulendi solvit domesticis Consillis Rempub. administravit bellum pacem foedera societates perse ipsum cum quibus voluit injussu Populi ac Senatus fecit diremitque Against Bishops the like is objected That they are Invaders of other mens right and by intolerable usurpation take upon them to do that alone wherein antient Laws have appointed that others not they onely should bear sway Let the Case of Bishops he put not in such sort as it is but even as their very heavyest Adversaries would devise it Suppose that Bishops at the first had encroached upon the Church that by sleights and cunning practises they had appropriated Ecclesiastical as Augustus did Imperial power that they had taken the advantage of mens inclinable affections which did not suffer them for Revenue-sake to be suspected of Ambition that in the mean while their usurpation had gone forward by certain easie and unsensible degrees that being not discerned in the growth when it was thus farr grown as we now see it hath proceeded the world at length perceiving there was just cause of complaint but no place of remedy left had assented unto it by a general secret agreement to bear it now as an helpless evil all this supposed for certain and true yet surely a thing of this nature as for the Superiour to do that alone unto which of right the consent of some other Inferiours should have been required by them though it had an indirect entrance at the first must needs through continuance of so many ages as this hath stood be made now a thing more natural to the Church than that it should be opprest with the mention of contrary Orders worn so many ages since quite and clean out of ure But with Bishops the case is otherwise For in doing that by themselves which others together with them have been accustomed to do they do not any thing but that whereunto they have been upon just occasion authorized by orderly means All things natural have in them naturally more or less the power of providing for their own safety And as each particular man hath this power so every Politick Society of men must needs have the same that thereby the whole may provide for the good of all parts therein For other benefit we have not any by sorting our selves into Politick Societies saving only that by this mean each part hath that relief which the vertue of the whole is able to yield it The Church therefore being a Politick Society or Body cannot possibly want the power of providing for it self And the chiefest part of that power consisteth in the Authority of making Laws Now forasmuch as Corporations are perpetual the Laws of the antienter Church cannot chuse but binde the latter while they are in force But we
must note withal that because the body of the Church continueth the same it hath the same Authority still and may abrogate old Laws or make new as need shall require Wherefore vainly are the antient Canons and Constitutions objected as Laws when once they are either let secretly to dye by dis-usage or are openly abrogated by contrary Laws The Antient had cause to do no otherwise than they did and yet so strictly they judged not themselves in Conscience bound to observe those Orders but that in sundry cases they easily dispensed therewith which I suppose they would never have done had they esteemed them as things whereunto everlasting immutable and undispensible observation did belong The Bishop usually promoted none which were not first allowed as fit by conference had with the rest of his Clergy and with the People Notwithstanding in the case of Aurelius Saint Cyprian did otherwise In matters of Deliberation and Counsel for disposing of that which belongeth generally to the whole body of the Church or which being more particular is nevertheless of so great consequence that it needeth the force of many Judgements conferred in such things the common saying must necessarily take place An Eye cannot see that which Eyes can As for Clerical Ordinations there are no such reasons alledged against the Order which is but that it may be esteemed as good in every respect as that which hath been and in some considerations better at leastwise which is sufficient to our purpose it may be held in the Church of Christ without transgressing any Law either Antient or Late Divine or Human. which we ought to observe and keep The form of making Ecclesiastical Officers hath sundry parts neither are they all of equal moment When Deacons having not been before in the Church of Christ the Apostles saw it needful to have such ordained They first assemble the multitude and shew them how needful it is that Deacons be made Secondly they name unto them what number they judge convenient what quality the men must be of and to the People they commit the care of finding such out Thirdly the People hereunto assenting make their choyce of Stephen and the rest those chosen men they bring and present before the Apostles Howbeit all this doth not endue them with any Ecclesiastical Power But when so much was done the Apostles finding no cause to take exception did with Prayer and imposition of hands make them Deacons This was it which gave them their very being all other things besides were only preparations unto this Touching the form of making Presbyters although it be not wholly of purpose anywhere set down in the Apostles Writings yet sundry speeches there are which insinuate the chiefest things that belong unto that Action As when Paul and Barnabas are said to have fasted prayed and made Presbyters When Timothy is willed to lay hands suddenly on no man for fear of participating with other mens sins For this cause the Order of the Primitive Church was between Choyce and Ordination to have some space for such Probation and Tryal as the Apostle doth mention in Deacons saying Let them first be proved and then minister if so be they be found blameless Alexander Severus beholding in his time how careful the Church of Christ was especially for this point how after the choyce of their Pastors they used to publish the names of the Parties chosen and not to give them the final act of Approbation till they saw whether any lett or impediment would be alledged he gave Commandment That the like should also be done in his own Imperial Elections adding this as a Reason wherefore he so required namely For that both Christians and Iews being so wary about the Ordination of their Priests it seemed very unequal for him not to be in like sort circumspect to whom he committed the Government of Provinces containing power over mens both Estates and Lives This the Canon Law it self doth provide for requiring before Ordination scrutiny Let them diligently be examined three dayes together before the Sabbath and on the Sabbath let them be presented unto the Bishop And even this in effect also is the very use of the Church of England at all Solemne Ordaining of Ministers and if all Ordaining were Solemne I must confesse it were much the better The pretended disorder of the Church of England is that Bishops Ordain them to whose Election the People give no voyces and so the Bishops make them alone that is to say they give Ordination without Popular Election going before which antient Bishops neither did nor might do Now in very truth if the multitude have hereunto a right which right can never be translated from them for any cause then is there no remedy but we must yield that unto the lawful making of Ministers the voyce of the People is required and that according to the Adverse Parties Assertion such as make Ministers without asking the Peoples consent do but exercise a certain Tyranny At the first Erection of the Common-weals of Rome the People for so it was then fittest determined of all affairs Afterwards this growing troublesome their Senators did that for them which themselves before had done In the end all came to one man's hands and the Emperour alone was instead of many Senators In these things the experience of time may breed both Civil and Ecclesiastical change from that which hath been before received neither do latter things always violently exclude former but the one grawing less convenient then it hath been giveth place to that which is now become more That which was fit for the People themselves to do at the first might afterwards be more convenient for them to do by some other Which other is not thereby proved a Tyrant because he alone doth that which a multitude were wont to do unless by violence he take that Authority upon him against the Order of Law and without any publick appointment as with us if any did it should I suppose not long be safe for him so to do This Answer I hope will seem to be so much the more reasonable in that themselves who stand against us have furnish'd us therewith For whereas against the making of Ministers by Bishops alone their use hath been to object What sway the People did bear when Stephen and rest were ordained Deacons They begin to espy how their own Plat-form swerveth not a little from that example wherewith they controul the practices of others For touching the form of the Peoples concurrence in that Action they observe it not no they plainly profess that they are not in this point bound to be followers of the Apostles The Apostles Ordained whom the People had first chosen They hold that their Ecclesiastical Senate ought both to choose and also to Ordain Do not themselves then take away that which the Apostles gave the People namely the priviledge of chusing Ecclesiastical Officers They do But behold in what sort
consisteth in the matter about which the actions of each are conversant and not in this that Civil Royalty admitteth but one Ecclesiastical Government requireth many Supreme Correctors Which Allegation were it true would prove no more than only that some certain number is necessary for the assistance of the Bishop But that a number of such as they do require is necessary how doth it prove Wherefore albeit Bishops should now do the very same which the Antients did using the Colledge of Presbyters under them as their Assistants when they administer Church-Censures yet should they still swerve utterly from that which these men so busily labour for because the Agents whom they require to assist in those Cases are a sort of Lay-Elders such as no antient Bishop ever was assisted with Shall these fruitless jarrs and janglings never cease shall we never see end of them How much happier were the World if those eager Task-masters whose eyes are so curious and sharp in discerning what should be done by many and what by few were all changed into painful doers of that which every good Christian man ought either only or chiefly to do and to be found therein doing when that great and glorious Judge of all mens both deeds and words shall appear In the mean while be it One that hath this charge or be they Many that be his Assistants let there be careful provision that Justice may be administred and in this shall our God be glorified more than by such contentious Disputes XV. Of which nature that also is wherein Bishops are over and besides all this accused to have much more excessive power than the antient in as much as unto their Ecclesiastical authority the Civil Magistrate for the better repressing of such as contemn Ecclesiastical censures hath for divers ages annexed Civil The crime of Bishops herein is divided into these two several branches the one that in Causes Ecclesiastical they strike with the sword of Secular punishments the other that Offices are granted them by vertue whereof they meddle with Civil Affairs Touching the one it reacheth no farther than only unto restraint of liberty by imprisonment which yet is not done but by the Laws of the Land and by vertue of authority derived from the Prince A thing which being allowable in Priests amongst the Jews must needs have received some strange alteration in nature since if it be now so pernicious and venomous to be coupled with a Spiritual Vocation in any man which beareth Office in the Church of Christ. Shemaia writing to the Colledge of Priests which were in Ierusalem and to Zâ—phania the principal of them told them they were appointed of God that they might be Officers in the House of the Lord for every man which raved and did make himselfe a Prophet to the end that they might by the force of this their authority put such in Prison and in the Stocks His malice is reproved for that he provoketh them to shew their power against the innocent But surely when any man justly punishable had been brought before them it could be no unjust thing for them even in such sort then to have punished As for Offices by vertue whereof Bishops have to deal in Civil Affairs we must consider that Civil Affairs are of divers kindesâ— and as they be not all fit for Ecclesiastical Persons to meddle with so neither is it necessary nor at this day haply convenient that from meddling with any such thing at all they all should without exception be secluded I will therefore set down some few causes wherein it cannot but clearly appear unto reasonable men that Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions may be lawfully united in one and the same Person First therefore in case a Christian Society be planted amongst their professed enemies or by toleration do live under some certain State whereinto they are not incorporated whom shall we judge the meetest men to have the hearing and determining of such mere civil Controversies as are every day wont to grow between man and man Such being the state of the Church of Corinth the Apostle giveth them this direction Dare any of you having business against another be judged by the unjust and not under Saints Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World If the World then shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels How much more things that appertain to this life If then ye have judgement of things pertaining to this life set up them which are least esteemed in the Church I speak it to your shame Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you us not one that can judge between his Brethren but a Brother goeth to law with a Brother and that under the Infidels Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to Law one with another Why rather suffer ye not wrong why rather sustain ye not harm In which Speech there are these degrees Better to suffer and to put up Injuries than to contend better to end contention by Arbitrement then by Judgement better by Judgement before the wisest of their own than before the simpler better before the simplest of their own than the wisest of them without So that if judgement of Secular affairs should be committed unto wise men unto men of chiefest Credit and Account amongst them when the Pastors of their Souls are such Who more fit to be also their Judges for the ending of strikes The wisest in things divine may be also in things humane the most skilful At leastwise they are by likelihood commonly more able to know right from wrong than the common un-lettered sort And what St. Augustin did hereby gather his own words do sufficiently show I call God to witness upon my Soul saith he that according to the Order which is kept in well-ordered Monasteries I could wish to have every day my hours of labouring with my hands my hours of reading and of praying rather than to endure these most tumultuous perplexities of other men's causes which I am forced to bear while I travel in Secular businesses either by judging to discuss them or to cut them off by intreaty Unto which toyles that Apostle who himself sustained them not for any thing we read hath notwithstanding â—yed us not of his own accord but being thereunto directed by that Spirit which speaks in him His own Apostleship which drew him to travel up and down suffered him not to be any where settled for this purpose wherefore the wise faithful and holy men which were seated here and there and not them which travelled up and down to preach he made Examiners of such Businesses Whereupon of him it is no where written that he had leisure to attend these things from which we cannot excuse our selves although we be simple because even such he requireth if wise men cannot be had rather than
the Council of Carthage where it was decreed That the Bishop of the Chief See should not be entituled the Exarch of Priests or the highest Priest or any other thing of like sense but onely the Bishop of the chiefest See whereby are shut out the name of Archbishop and all other such haughty titles In these Allegations it fareth as in broken reports snatched out of the Author's mouth and broached before they be half either told on the one part or on the other understood The matter which Cyprian complaineth of in Florentinus was thus Novatus misliking the easiness of Cyprian to admit men into the fellowship of Believers after they had fallen away from the bold and constant Confession of Christian Faith took thereby occasion to separate himself from the Church and being united with certain excommunicate Persons they joyned their wits together and drew out against Cyprian their lawful Bishop sundry grievous accusations the crimes such as being true had made him uncapable of that Office whereof he was six years as then possessed they went to Rome and to other places accusing him every where as guilty of those faults of which themselves had lewdly condemned him pretending that twenty five African Bishops a thing most false had heard and examined his Cause in a Solemn Assembly and that they all had given their Sentence against him holding his Election by the Canons of the Church void The same factious and seditious Persons coming also unto Florentinus who was at that time a man imprisoned for the testimony of Jesus Christ but yet a favourer of the error of Novatus their malicious accusations he over-willingly hearkned unto gave them credit concurred with them and unto Cyprian in fine wrote his Letters against Cyprian Which Letters he justly taketh in marvellous evil part and therefore severely controuleth his so great presumption in making himself a Judge of a Judge and as it were a Bishop's Bishop to receive accusations against him as one that had been his Ordinary What heigth of pride is this saith Cyprian what arrogancy of spirit what a puffing up of minde to call Guides and Priests to be examined and sifted before him So that unless we shall be cleared in your Courts and absolved by your sentence behold for these six years space neither shall the Brotherhood have had a Bishop nor the People a Guide nor the Flock a Shepherd nor the Church a Governor nor Christ a Prelate nor God a Priest This is the pride which Cyprian condemneth in Florentinus and not the title or name of Archbishop about which matter there was not at that time so much as the dream of any controversie at all between them A silly collection it is that because Cyprian reproveth Florentinus for lightness of belief and presumptuous rashness of judgement therefore he held the title of Archbishop to be a vain and a proud name Archbishops were chief amongst Bishops yet Archbishops had not over Bishops that full Authority which every Bishop had over his own particular Clergy Bishops were not subject unto their Archbishop as an Ordinary by whom at all times they were to be judged according to the manner of inferiour Pastors within the compass of each Diocess A Bishop might suspend excommunicate depose such as were of his own Clergy without any other Bishops Assistants not so an Archbishop the Bishops that were in his own Province above whom divers Prerogatives were given him howbeit no such Authority and Power as alone to be Judge over them For as a Bishop could not be ordained so neither might he be judged by any one only Bishop albeit that Bishop were his Metropolitan Wherefore Cyprian concerning the liberty and freedom which every Bishop had spake in the Council of Carthage whereat fourscore and seven Bishops were present saying It resteth that every of us declare what we think of this matter neither judging nor severing from the right of Communion any that shall think otherwise For of us there is not any which maketh himself a Bishop of Bishops or with Tyrannical fear constraineth his Collegues unto the necessity of obedience inasmuch as every Bishop according to the reach of his liberty and power hath his own free judgement and can have no more another his Iudge than himself be Iudge to another Whereby it appeareth that amongst the African Bishops none did use such Authority over any as the Bishop of Rome did afterwards claim over all forcing upon them opinions by main and absolute power Wherefore unto the Bishop of Rome the same Cyprian also writeth concerning his Opinion about Baptism These things we present unto your Conscience most dear Brother as well for common honours sake as of single and sincere love trusting that as you are truly your self Religious and Faithful so those things which agree with Religions and Faith will be acceptable unto you Howbeit we know that what some have over-drunk in they will not let go neither easily change their minde but with care of preserving whole amongst their Brethren the bond of Peace and concord retaining still to themselves certain their own Opinions wherewith they have been inuired Wherein we neither use force nor prescribe a Law unto any knowing that in the Government of the Church every Ruler hath his own voluntary free judgment and of that which he doth shall render unto the Lord himself an account As for the Council of Carthage Doth not the very first Canon thereof establish with most effectual terms all things which were before agreed on in the Council of Nice And that the Council of Nice did ratifie the preheminence of Metropolitan Bishops who is ignorant The name of an Archbishop importeth only a Bishop having chiefty of certain Prerogatives above his Brethren of the same Order Which thing since the Council of Nice doth allow it cannot be that the other of Carthage should condemn it inasmuch as this doth yield unto that a Christian unrestrained approbation The thing provided for by the Synod of Carthage can be no other therefore than only that the chiefest Metropolitan where many Archbishops were within any greater Province should not be termed by those names as to import the power of an ordinary Jurisdiction belonging in such degree and manner unto him over the rest of the Bishops and Archbishops as did belong unto every Bishop over other Pastors under him But much more absurd it is to affirm that both Cyprian and the Council of Carthage condemn even such Superiority also of Bishops themselves over Pastors their Inferiours as the words of Ignatius imply in terming the Bishop A Prince of Priests Bishops to be termed Arch-Priests in regard of their Superiority over Priests is in the Writings of the Antient Fathers a thing so usual and familiar as almost no one thing more At the Council of Nice saith Theodores three hundred and eighteen Arch-Priests were present Were it the meaning of the Council of Carthage that the Title of
the light of a true and sound understanding which sheweth what honor is fit for Prelats and what attendancy convenient to be a part of their honor Touching Priviledges granted for Honor's-sake partly in general unto the Clergy and partly unto Prelates the Chiefest Persons Ecclesiastical in particular of such quality and number they are that to make but rehearsal of them we scarce think it safe left the very entrails of some of our godly Brethren as they term themselves should thereat haply burst in sunder XXI And yet of all these things rehearsed it may be there never would have grown any question had Bishops been honored only thus farr forth But the honoring of the Clergy with wealth this is in the eyes of them which pretend to seek nothing but mere Reformation of Abuses a sin that can never be remitted How soon O how soon might the Church be perfect even without any spot or wrinckle if Publick Authority would at the length say Amen unto the holy and devout requests of those godly Brethren who as yet with out-stretched necks groan in the pangs of their zeal to see the Houses of Bishops risted and their so long desired Livings gloriously divided amongst the Righteous But there is an impediment a lett which somewhat hindreth those good mens Prayers from taking effect They in whose hands the Soveraignty of Power and Dominion over the Church doth rest are perswaded there is a God for undoubtedly either the name of Godhead is but a feigned thing or if in Heaven there be a God the Saerilegious intention of Church-Robbers which lurketh under this plausible name of Reformation is in his sight a thousand times more hateful than the plain professed malice of those very Miscreants who threw their Vomit in the open face of our blessed Saviour They are not words of perswasion by which true men can hold their own when they are over-beset with Thieves And therefore to speak in this Cause at all were but labor lost saving only in respect of them who being as yet un-joyned unto this Conspiracy may be haply somewhat stayed when they shall know betimes what it is to see Thieves and to run on with them as the Prophet in the Psalm speaketh When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been Partaker with Adulterers For the better information therefore of men which carry true honest and indifferent mindes these things we will endeavour to make most clearly manifest First That in Goods and Livings of the Church none hath propriety but God himself Secondly That the honor which the Clergy therein hath is to be as it were God's Receivers the honor of Prelates to be his chief and principal Receivers Thirdly That from him they have right not only to receive but also to use such Goods the lower sort in smaller and the higher in larger measure Fourthly That in case they be thought yea or found to abuse the same yet may not such honor be therefore lawfully taken from them and be given away unto Persons of other Calling XXII Possessions Lands and Livings Spiritual the wealth of the Clergy the Goods of the Church are in such sort the Lords own that man can challenge no propriety in them His they are and not ours all things are his in that from him they have their being My Corn and my Wine and mine Oyl saith the Lord. All things his in that he hath absolute power to dispose of them at his pleasure Mine saith he are the Sheep and Oxen of a thousand hills All things his in that when we have them we may say with Iob God hath given and when we are deprived of them The Lord whose they are hath likewise taken them away again But these sacred Possessions are his by another tenure His because those men who first received them from him have unto him returned them again by way of Religious gift or Oblation And in this respect it is that the Lord doth term those Houses wherein such Gifts and Oblations were laid His Treasuries The ground whereupon men have resigned their own interest in things Temporal and given over the same unto God is that Precept which Solomon borroweth from the Law of Nature Honor the Lord out of thy Substance and of the chiefest of all thy Revenue so shall thy Barns be filled with Plenty and with new Wine the fat of thy Press shall overflow For although it be by one most fitly spoken against those superstitious Persons who only are scrupulous in external Rites Wilt thou win the favour of God He vertuous They best worship him that are his Followers It is not the bowing of your Knees but of your Hearts it is not the number of your Oblations but the integrity of your Lives not your Incense but your Obedience which God is delighted to be honored by Nevertheless we must beware lest simply understanding this which comparatively is meant that is to say whereas the meaning is that God doth chiefly respect the inward disposition of the Heart we must take heed we do not hereupon so worship him in Spirit that outwardly we take all Worship Reverence and Honor from him Our God will be glorified both of us himself and for us by others To others because our Hearts are known and yet our example is required for their good therefore it is not sufficient to carry Religion in our Hearts as Fire is carried in Flint-stones but we are outwardly visibly apparently to serve and honor the living God yea to employ that way as not only for our Souls but our Bodies so not only our Bodies but our Goods yea the choice the flower the chiefest of all thy Revenue saith Solomon If thou hast any thing in all thy Possessions of more value and price than other to what use shouldest thou convert it rather than to this Samuel was dear unto Hannah his Mother The Childe that Hannah did so much esteem she could not but greatly wish to advance and her Religious conceit was that the honoring of God with it was the advancing of it unto honor The chiefest of the Off-spring of men are the Males which be first-born and for this cause in the antient World they all were by right of their birth Priests of the Most High By these and the like Precedents it plainly enough appeareth that in what Heart soever doth dwell unseigned Religion in the same there resteth also a willingness to bestow upon God that soonest which is most dear Amongst us the Law is that sith Gold is the chiefest of Mettals if it be any where found in the bowels of the Earth it belongeth in right of honor as all men know to the King Whence hath this Custom grown but onely from a natural perswasion whereby men judge it decent for the highest Persons alwayes to be honored with the choisest things If ye offer unto God the blinde saith the Prophet Malachi it is not
otherwise was most requisite Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf By reason whereof the Church groweth burdened with silly creatures more then need whose noted baseness and insufficiency bringeth their very Order it self into contempt It may be that the fear of a Quare impedit doth cause Institutions to pass more easily then otherwise they would And to speak plainly the very truth it may be that Writs of Quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the others place Yet where Law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment to shew their judgment they are not hindred And I doubt not but that even conscienceless and wicked Patrons of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England are the more imboldened to present unto Bishops any reffuse by finding so easie acceptation thereof Somewhat they might redress this sore notwithstanding so strong impediments if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart were not in a manner contented with it Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present if that which some of your selves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath if a man do but think what it is for a Bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower and that in trust without any other obligation then his sacred Order only and that religious Integrity which hath been presumed on in him Simoniacal corruption I may not for honors sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place So often they do not I trust offend by sale as by unadvised gift of such preferments wherein that ancient Canon should specially be remembred which forbiddeth a Bishop to be led by humane affection in bestowing the things of God A fault no where so hurtful as in bestowing places of jurisdiction and in furnishing Cathedral Churches the Prebendaries and other Dignities whereof are the very true successors of those ancient Presbyters which were at the first as Counsellers unto Bishops A foul abuse it is that any one man should be loaded as some are with Livings in this kind yea some even of them who condemn utterly the granting of any two Benefices unto the same man whereas the other is in truth a matter of far greater sequel as experience would soon shew if Churches Cathedral being furnished with the residence of a competent number of vertuous grave wise and learned Divines the rest of the Prebends of every such Church were given within the Diocess unto men of worthiest desert for their better encouragement unto industry and travel unless it seem also convenient to extend the benefit of them unto the learned in Universities and men of special imployment otherwise in the affairs of the Church of God But howsoever surely with the publick good of the Church it will hardly stand that in any one person such favours be more multiplied then law permitteth in those Livings which are with Cure Touching Bishops Visitations the first institution of them was profitable to the end that the state and condition of Churches being known there might be for evils growing convenient remedies provided in due time The observation of Church Laws the correction of faults in the service of God and manners of men these are things that visitors should seek When these things are inquired of formally and but for custom sake fees and pensions being the only thing which is sought and little else done by Visitations we are not to marvel if the baseness of the end doth make the action it self loathsom The good which Bishops may do not only by these Visitations belonging ordinarily to their Office but also in respect of that power which the Founders of Colledges have given them of special trust charging even fearfully their consciences therewith the good I say which they might do by this their authority both within their own Diocess and in the well-springs themselves the Universities is plainly such as cannot chuse but add weight to their heavy accounts in that dreadful Day if they do it not In their Courts where nothing but singular integrity and Justice should prevail if palpable and gross corruptions be found by reason of Offices so often granted unto men who seek nothing but their own gain and make no account what disgrace doth grow by their unjust dealings unto them under whom they deal the evil hereof shall work more then they which procure it do perhaps imagine At the hands of a Bishop the first thing looked for is a care of the Clergy under him a care that in doing good they may have whatsoever comforts and encouragements his countenance authority and place may yield Otherwise what heard shall they have to proceed in their painful course all sorts of men besides being so ready to malign despise and every way oppress them Let them find nothing but disdain in Bishops in the enemies of present Government if that way lift to betake themselves all kind of favourable and friendly help unto which part think we it likely that men having wit courage and stomack will incline As great a fault is the want of severity when need requireth as of kindness and courtesie in Bishops But touching this what with ill usage of their powe amongst the meaner and what with disuage amongst the higher sort they are in the eyes of both sorts as Bees have lost their sting It is a long time sithence any great one hath felt or almost any one much feared the edge of that Ecclesiastical severity which sometime held Lords and Dukes in a more religious aw then now the meanest are able to be kept A Bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them are under his charge what good might he do ten thousand ways more then any man knows how to set down But the souls of men are not loved that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious This is the very root the fountain of all negligence in Church-Government Most wretched are the terms of mens estate when once they are at a point of wrechlesness so extream that thy bend not their wits any further than only to shift out the present time never regarding what shall become of their Successors after them Had our Predecessors so loosely cast off from them all care and respect to posterity a Church Christian there had noâ— been about the regiment whereof we should need at this day to strive It was the barbarous affection of Nero that the ruine of his own Imperial Seat he could have been well enough contented to see in case he might also have seen it accompanied with the fall of the whole World An affection not more intolerable then theirs
who care not to overthrow all posterity so they may purchase a few days of Ignominious safety unto themselves and their present estates if it may be termed a safety which tendeth so fast unto their very overthrow that are the Purchasers of it in so vile and base manner Men whom it standeth upon to uphold a reverend estimation of themselves in the minds of others without which the very best things they do are hardly able to escape disgrace must before it be over-late remember how much easier it is to retain credit once gotten then to recover it being lost The Executors of Bishops are sued if their Mansion-house be suffered to go to decay But whom shall their Successors sue for the dilapidations which they make of that Credit the unrepaired diminutions whereof will in time bring to pass that they which would most do good in that calling shall not be able by reason of prejudice generally setled in the minds of all sorts against them By what means their estimation hath hitherto decayed it is no hard thing to discern Herod and Archelaus are noted to have sought out purposely the dullest and most ignoble that could be found amongst the people preferring such to the High-Priests Office thereby to abate the great opinion which the multitude had of that Order and to procure a more expedite course for their own wicked Counsels whereunto they saw the High-Priests were no small impediment as long as the common sort did much depend upon them It may be there hath been partly some show and just suspition of like practice in some in procuring the undeserved preferments of some unworthy persons the very cause of whose advancement hath been principally their unworthiness to be advanced But neither could this be done altogether without the inexcusable fault of some preferred before and so oft we cannot imagine it to have been done that either onely or chiefly from thence this decay of their estimation may be thought to grow Somewhat it is that the malice of their cunning Adversaries but much more which themselves have effected against themselves A Bishops estimation doth grow from the excellency of vertues suitable unto his place Unto the place of a Bishop those high Divine Vertues are judged suitable which vertues being not easily found in other sorts of greatmen do make him appear so much the greater in whom they are found Devotion and the feeling sense of Religion are not usual in the noblest wisest and chiefest Personages of State by reason their wits are so much imployed another way and their mindes so seldom conversant in heavenly things If therefore wherein themselves are defective they see that Bishops do blessedly excel it frameth secretly their-hearts to a stooping kinde of disposition clean opposite to contempt The very countenance of Moses was glorious after that God had conferred with him And where Bishops are the powers and faculties of whose souls God hath possest those very actions the kind whereof is common unto them with other men have notwithstanding in them a more high and heavenly form which draweth correspondentestimation unto it by vertue of that celestial impression which deep meditation of holy things and as it were conversation with God doth leave in their mindes So that Bishops which will be esteemed of as they ought must frame themselves to that very pattern from whence those Asian Bishops unto whom St. Iohn writeth were denominated even so far forth as this our frailty will permit shine they must as Angels of God in the midst of perverse men They are not to look that the world should always carry the affection of Constantine to bury that which might derogate from them and to cover their imbecillities More then high time it is that they bethink themselves of the Apostles admonition Attende tibi Have a vigilant eye to thy self They erre if they do not perswade themselves that wheresoever they walk or sit be it in their Churches or in their Consistories abmad or at home at their Tables or in their Closets they are in the midst of snares laid for them Wherefore as they are with the Prophet every one of them to make it their hourly prayer unto God Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of enemies so it is not safe for them no not for a moment to slacken their industry in seeking every way that estimation which may further their labours unto the Churches good Absurdity though but in words must needs he this way a maim where nothing but wisdom gravity and judgement is looked for That which the son of Syrach hath concerning the Writings of the old Sages Wise sentences are found in them should be the proper mark and character of Bishops speeches whose lips as doors are not to be opened but for egress of instruction and sound knowledge If base servility and dejection of minde be ever espied in them how should men esteem them as worthy the rooms of the great Ambassadors of God A wretched desire to gain by bad and unseemly means standeth not with a mean mans credit much less with that reputation which Fathers of the Church should be in But if besides all this there be also coldness in works of Piety and Charity utter contempt even of Learning it self no care to further it by any such helps as they easily might and ought to afford no not as much as that due respect unto their very Families about them which all men that are of account do order as neer as they can in such sort that no grievous offensive deformity be therein noted if there still continue in that most Reverend Order such as by so many Engines work day and night to pull down the whole frame of their own estimation amongst men some of the rest secretly also permitting others their industrious opposites every day more and more to seduce the multitude how should the Church of God hope for great good at their hands What we have spoken concerning these things let not malicious accusers think themselves therewith justified no more then Shimei was by his Soveraigns most humble and meek acknowledgment even of that very crime which so impudent a Caitiffs tongue upbraided him withal the one in the virulent rancour of a canckred affection took that delight for the present which in the end did turn to his own more tormenting wo the other in the contrite patience even of deserved malediction had yet this comfort It may be the Lord will look on mine affliction and do we good for his cursing this day As for us over whom Christ hath placed them to be chiefest Guides and Pastors of our souls our common fault is that we look for much more in our Governors then a tolerable sufficiency can yield and bear much less then Humanity and Reason do require we should Too much perfection over rigoâ—ously exacted in them cannot but breed in us perpetual discontentment and on both parts cause all things to be unpleasant It
judge of If it were a matter of wrong or an evill deed O ye Iews I would according to reason maintain you Causes of the Church are such as Gallio there receiteth if it be a question of your Law look ye to it I will be no judge thereof In respect of this difference therefore the Church and the Common-wealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other yet this is no Argument that they are two Independent Societies Some other Reasons there are which seem a little more neerly to make for the purpose as long as they are but heard and not sifted For what though a man being severed by Excommunication from the Church be not thereby deprived of freedom in the City or being there discommoned is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the Church What though the Church be bound to receive them upon Repentance whom the Common-weal may refuse again to admit If it chance the same man to be shut out of both division of the Church and Common-weal which they contend for will very hardly hereupon follow For we must note that members of a Christian Common-weal have a triple state a natural a civil and a spiritual No mans natural estate is cut off otherwise then by that capital execution After which he that is none of the body of the Common-wealth doth not I think remain fit in the body of that visible Church And concerning mans civil estate the same is subject partly to inferiour abatement of liberty and partly to diminution in the highest degree such as banishment is sith it casteth out quite and clean from the body of the Common-weal it must needs also consequently cast the banished party even out of the very Church he was of before because that Church and the Common-weal he was of were both one and the same Society So that whatsoever doth utterly separate a mans person from the one it separateth from the other also As for such abatements of civil estate as take away only some priviledge dignity or other benefit which a man enjoyeth in the Common-weal they reach only to our dealing with publike affairs from which what may lett but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augmenting the number of persons in whom either Church or Common-wealth consisteth He that by way of punishment loseth his voice in a publike election of Magistrates ceaseth not thereby to be a Citizen A man dis-franchised may notwithstanding enjoy as a Subject the common benefit of Protection under Laws and Magistrates so that these inferiour diminutions which touch men civilly but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the Common-wealth nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the Church of God These I say do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted Societies And concerning Excommunication it curreth off indeed from the Church and yet not from the Commonwealth howbeit so that the party Excommunicate is not thereby severed from one body which subsisteth in it self and retained by another in like sort subsisting but he which before had fellowship with that society whereof he was a member as well touching things spiritual as civil is now by force of Excommunication although not severed from the body in Civil affairs nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching Communion in those things which belong to the same body as it is the Church A man which having been both Excommunicated by the Church and deprived of Civil dignity in the Common-wealth is upon his repentance necessarily reunited into the one but not of necessity into the other What then That which he is admitted unto is a Communion in things Divine whereof both parts are partakers that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some humane previledge or right which other Citizens happily enjoy But are not these Saints and Citizens one and the same people are they not one and the same Society Doth it hereby appear that the Church which received an Excommunicate can have no dependency on any pers o which hath chief Authority and Power of these things in the Commonwealth whereunto the same party is not admitted Wherefore to end this point I conclude First that under the dominions of Infidels the Church of Christ and their Common-wealth were two Societies independent Secondly that in those Common-wealths where the Bishop of Rome beareth sway one Society is both the Church and the Common-wealth But the Bishop of Rome doth divide the body into two divers bodies and doth not suffer the Church to depend upon the power of any civil Prince and Potenrate Thirdly that within this Realm of England the case is neither as in the one nor as in the other of the former two but from the state of Pagans we differ in that with us one Society is both the Church and Common-wealth which with them it was not as also from the state of those Nations which subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome in that our Church hath dependance from the Chief in our Common-wealth which it hath not when he is suffered to rule In a word our state is according to the pattern of Gods own antient elect people which people was not part of them the Common-wealth and part of them the Church of God but the self-same people whole and entire were both under one Chief Governour on whose Supream Authority they did all depend Now the drift of all that hath been alledged to prove perpetual separation and independency between the Church and the Commonwealth is that this being held necessary it might consequently be thought fit that in a Christian Kingdom he whose power is greatest over the Common-wealth may not lawfully have supremacy of power also over the Church that is to say so far as to order thereby and to dispose of spiritual affairs so far as the highest uncommanded Commander in them Whereupon it is grown a Question whether Government Ecclesiastical and power of Dominion in such degrees as the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Soveraign Governour thereof may by the said supream Governour lawfully be enjoy'd and held For resolution wherein we are First to define what the power of dominion is Secondly then to shew by what right Thirdly after what sort Fourthly in what measure Fiftly in what inconveniency According to whose example Christian Kings may have it And when these generals are opened to examine afterwards how lawful that is which we in regard of Dominion do attribute unto our own namely the title of headship over the Church so far as the bounds of this Kingdom do reach Secondly the Prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies about spiritual affairs publick Thirdly the right of assenting unto all those orders concerning Religion which must after be in force as Law Fourthly the advancement of Principal
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
Dominion over the whole Church of Christ militant doth and that by divine right appertain to the Pope of Rome They did prove it lawful to grant unto others besides Christ the power of Headship in a different kinde from his but they should have proved it lawful to challenge as they did to the Bishop of Rome a Power universal in that different kinde Their fault was therefore in exacting wrongfully so great Power as they challenged in that kinde and not in making two kindes of Power unless some reasons can be shewed for which this distinction of Power should be thought erroneous and false A little they stirr although in vain to prove that we cannot with truth make such distinction of Power whereof the one kinde should agree unto Christ onely and the other be further communicated Thus therefore they argue If there be no Head but Christ in respect of Spiritual Government there is no Head but be in respect of the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by those whom he hath appointed for as much also as it is his Spiritual Government Their meaning is that whereas we make two kindes of Power of which two the one being Spiritual is proper unto Christ the other men are capable of because it is visible and external We do amiss altogether in distinguishing they think forasmuch as the visible and external power of Regiment over the Church is onely in relation unto the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by such as Christ hath appointed thereunto and the exercise of this Power is also his Spiritual Government Therefore we do but vainly imagin a visible and external Power in the Church differing from his Spiritual Power Such Disputes as this do somewhat resemble the practising of Well-willers upon their Friends in the pangs of Death whose maner is even their to put smoak in their Nostrils and so to fetch them again alhough they know it a matter impossible to keep them living The kinde of affecton which the Favourers of this laboring cause bear towards it will not suffer them to se it dye although by what means they should make it live they do not see but thy may see that these wrestlings will not help Can they be ignorant how little it boteth to overcast so clear a light with some mist of ambiguity in the name of Spiritual Râ—iment To make things therefore so plain that henceforward a Childes capacity ma serve rightly to conceive our meaning we make the Spiritual Regiment of Christ to â—e generally that whereby his Church is ruled and governed in things Spiritual Of this general we make two distinct kindes the one invisible exercised by Christ himself in his own Person the other outwardly administred by them whom Christ doth allow to be Rulers and Guiders of his Church Touching the former of these two kindes we teach that Christ in regard thereof is particularly termed the Head of the Church of God neither can any other Creature in that sense and meaning be termed Head besides him because it importeth the conduct and government of our Souls by the hand of that blessed Spirit wherewith we are sealed and marked as being peculiarly his Him onely therefore do we acknowledge to be the Lord which dwelleth liveth and reigneth in our hearts him only to be that Head which giveth salvation and life unto his Body him onely to be that Fountain from whence the influence of heavenly Graces distilleth and is derived into all parts whether the Word or the Sacraments or Discipline or whatsoever be the means whereby it floweth As for the Power of administring these things in the Church of Christ which Power we call the Power of Order it is indeed both Spiritual and His Spiritual because such properly concerns as the Spirit His because by him it was instituted Howbeit neither Spiritual as that which is inwardly and invisibly exercised nor His as that which he himself in Person doth exercise Again that power of Dominion which is indeed the point of this Controversie and doth also belong to the second kinde of Spiritual Government namely unto that Regiment which is external and visible this likewise being Spiritual in regard of the manner about which it dealeth and being his in as much as he approveth whatsoever is done by it must notwithstanding be distinguished also from that Power whereby he himself in Person administreth the former kinde of his own Spiritual Regiment because he himself in Person doth not administer this we do not therefore vainly imagine but truly and rightly discern a Power external and visible in the Church exercised by men and severed in nature from that Spiritual Power of Christ's own Regiment which Power is termed Spiritual because it worketh secretly inwardly and invisibly His because none doth nor can it personally exercise either besides or together with him seeing that him onely we may name our Head in regard of His and yet in regard of that other Power from this term others also besides him Heads without any contradiction at all which thing may very well serve for answer unto that also which they further alledge against the aforesaid distinction namely That even the outward Societies and Assemblies of the Church where one or two are gathered together in his Name either for hearing of the Word or for Prayer or any other Church-exercise our Saviour Christ being in the midst of them as Mediatour must be their Head and if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a Head fully it followeth that even in the outward Societies and Meetings of the Church no more man can be called the Head of it seeing that our Saviour Christ doing the whole Office of the Head himself alone leaveth nothing to men by doing whereof they may obtain that Title Which Objection I take as being made for nothing but onely to maintain Argument for they are not so farr gone as to argue this in sooth and right good earnest God standeth saith the Psalmist in the midst of gods if God be there present he must undoubtedly be present as God if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a God fully it followeth that God himself alone doing the whole Office of a God leaveth nothing in such Assemblies to any other by doing whereof they may obtain so high a Name The Psalmist therefore hath spoken amiss and doth ill to call Judges Gods Not so for as God hath his Office differing from theirs and doth fully discharge it even in the midst of them so they are not hereby excluded from all kinde of Duty for which that Name should be given into them also but in that Duty for which it was given them they are encouraged Religiously and carefully to order themselves after the self-same manner Our Lord and Saviour being in the midst of his Church as Head is our comfort without the abridgement of any one duty for performance whereof others are termed Headsm another kinde than he is
That the Parliament being a mere Temporal Court can neither by the law of Nature nor of God have competent power to define of such matters That Supremacy in this kinde cannot belong unto Kings as Kings because Pagan Emperours whose Princely power was true Soveraignty never challenged so much over the Church That Power in this kinde cannot be the right of any Earthly Crown Prince or State in that they be Christians forasmuch as if they be Christians they all owe subjection to the Pastors of their Souls That the Prince therefore not having it himself cannot communicate it to the Parliament and consequently cannot make Laws here or determine of the Churches Regiment by himself Parliament or any other Court subjected unto him The Parliament of England together with the Convocation annexed thereunto is that whereupon the very essence of all Government within this Kingdom doth depend it is even the body of the whole Realm it consisteth of the King and of all that within the Land are subject unto him The Parliament is a Court not so merely Temporal as if it might meddle with nothing but onely Leather and Wool Those dayes of Queen Mary are not yet forgotten wherein the Realm did submit it self unto the Legate of Pope Iulius at which time had they been perswaded as this man seemeth now to be had they thought that there is no more force in Laws made by Parliament concerning Church-Affairs then if men should take upon them to make Orders for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven they might have taken all former Statutes of that kinde as cancelled and by reason of nullity abrogated What need was there that they should bargain with the Cardinal and purchase their Pardon by promise made before-hand that what Laws they had made assented unto or executed against the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy the same they would in that present Parliament effectually abrogate and repeal Had they power to repeal Laws made and none to make Laws concerning the Regiment of the Church Again when they had by suit obtained his confirmation for such Foundations of Bishopricks Cathedral Churches Hospitals Colledges and Schools for such Marriages before made for such Institutions into Livings Ecclesiastical and for all such Judicial Processes as having been ordered according to the Laws before in force but contrary unto the Canons and Orders of the Church of Rome were in that respect thought defective although the Cardinal in his Letters of Dispensation did give validity unto those Acts even Apostolicae firmitatis robur the very strength of Apostolical solidity what had all these been without those grave authentical words Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament that all and singular Articles and Clauses contained in the said Dispensation shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the Laws of this Realm lawful good and effectual to be alledged and pleaded in all Courts Ecclesiastical and Temporal for good and sufficient matter either for the Plaintiff or Defendant without any Allegation or Objection to be made against the validity of them by pretence of any General Councel Canon or Decree to the contrary Somewhat belike they thought there was in this mere Temporal Court without which the Popes own mere Ecclesiastical Legate's Dispensation had taken small effect in the Church of England neither did they or the Cardinal imagine any thing committed against the Law of Nature or of God because they took order for the Churches Affairs and that even in the Court of Parliament The most natural and Religious course in making Laws is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things which they are to concern In matters of God to set down a form of Prayer a solemn confession of the Articles of the Christian Faith and Ceremonies meet for the exercise of Religion It were unnatural not to think the Pastors and Bishops of our Souls a great deal more fit than men of Secular Trades and Callings Howbeit when all which the wisdome of all sorts can do is done for the devising of Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the form and vigour of Laws without which they could be no more unto us than the Councel of Physitians to the sick Well might they seem as wholesom admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without consent of the whole Church to be guided by them whereunto both Nature and the practise of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his People by the hand of Moses without their free and open consent Wherefore to define and determine even of the Churches Affairs by way of assent and approbation as Laws are defined in that Right of Power which doth give them the force of Laws thus to define of our own Churches Regiment the Parliament of England hath competent Authority Touching that Supremacy of Power which our Kings have in this case of making Laws it resteth principally in the strength of a negative voice which not to give them were to deny them that without which they were Kings but by mere title and not in exercise of Dominion Be it in Regiment Popular Aristocratical or Regal Principality resteth in that Person or those Persons unto whom is given right of excluding any kinde of Law whatsoever it be before establishment This doth belong unto Kings as Kings Pagan Emperors even Nero himself had no less but much more than this in the Laws of his own Empire That he challenged not any interest of giving voice in the laws of the Church I hope no man will so construe as if the cause were conscience and fear to encroach upon the Apostles right If then it be demanded By what right from Constantine downward the Christian Emperors did so far intermeddle with the Churches affairs either we must herein condemn them as being over presumptuously bold or else judge that by a Law which is termed Regia that is to say Regal the People having derived unto their Emperors their whole power for making of Laws and by that means his Edicts being made Laws what matter soever they did concern as Imperial dignity endowed them with competent Authority and power to make Laws for Religion so they were thought by Christianity to use their Power being Christians unto the benefit of the Church of Christ was there any Christian Bishop in the world which did then judge this repugnant unto the dutiful subjection which Christians do ow to the Pastors of their Souls to whom in respect of their Sacred Order it is not by us neither may be denied that Kings and Princes are as much as the very meanest that liveth under them bound in conscience to shew themselves gladly and willingly obedient receiving the Seals of Salvation the blessed Sacraments at their hands as at the
consequently to the Ministry of the Church and if it be by Gods Ordinance appertaining unto them how can it be translated from them to the Civil Magistrate Which Argument briefly drawn into form lyeth thus That which belongeth unto God may not be translated unto any other but whom he hath appointed to have it in his behalf But principality of Judgement in Church-matters appertaineth unto God which hath appointed the High-Priest and consequently the Ministry of the Church alone to have it in his behalf Ergo it may not from them be translated to the Civil Magistrate The first of which Propositions we grant as also in the second that branch which ascribeth unto God Principality in Church-matters But that either he did appoint none but onely the High-Priest to exercise the said Principality for him or that the Ministry of the Church may in reason from thence be concluded to have alone the same Principality by his appointment these two Points we deny utterly For concerning the High-Priest there is first no such Ordinance of God to be found Every High-Priest saith the Apostle is taken from amongst men and is ordained for men in things pertaining to God Whereupon it may well be gathered that the Priest was indeed Ordained of God to have Power in things appertaining unto God For the Apostle doth there mention the Power of offering Gifts and Sacrifices for Sin which kinde of Power was not onely given of God unto Priests but restrained unto Priests onely The power of Jurisdiction and ruling Authority this also God gave them but not them alone For it is held as all men know that others of the Laity were herein joyned by the Law with them But concerning Principality in Church-affairs for of this our Question is and of no other the Priest neither had it alone nor at all but in Spiritual or Church-affairs as hath been already shewed it was the Royal Prerogative of Kings only Again though it were so that God had appointed the High-Priest to have the said Principality of Government in those maters yet how can they who alledge this enforce thereby that consequently the Ministry of the Church and no other ought to have the same when they are so farr off from allowing so much to the Ministry of the Gospel as the Priest-hood of the Law had by God's appointment That we but collecting thereout a difference in Authority and Jurisdiction amongst the Clergy to be for the Polity of the Church not inconvenient they forthwith think to close up our mouths by answering That the Iewish High-Priest had authority above the rest onely in that they prefigured the Soveraignty of Iesus Christ As for the Ministers of the Gospel it is altogether unlawful to give them as much as the least Title any syllable whereof may sound to Principality And of the Regency which may be granted they hold others even of the Laity no less capable than the Pastors themselves How shall these things cleave together The truth is that they have some reason to think it not at all of the fittest for Kings to sit as ordinary Judges in matters of Faith and Religion An ordinary Judge must be of the quality which in a Supream Judge is not necessary Because the Person of the one is charged with that which the other Authority dischargeth without imploying personally himself therein It is an Errour to think that the King's Authority can have no force nor power in the doing of that which himself may not personally do For first impossible it is that at one and the same time the King in Person should order so many and so different affairs as by his own power every where present are wont to be ordered both in peace and warr at home and abroad Again the King in regard of his nonage or minority may be unable to perform that thing wherein years of discretion are requisite for personal action and yet his authority even then be of force For which cause we say that the King's authority dyeth not but is and worketh always alike Sundry considerations there may be effectual to with-hold the King's Person from being a doer of that which notwithstanding his Power must give force unto even in Civil affairs where nothing doth more either concern the duty or better beseem the Majesty of Kings than personally to administer Justice to their People as most famous Princes have done yet if it be in case of Felony of Treason the Learned in the Laws of this Realm do affirm that well may the King commit his Authority to another to judge between him and the Offender but the King being himself there a Party he cannot personally sit to give Judgement As therefore the Person of the King may for just considerations even where the cause is Civil be notwithstanding withdrawn from occupying the Seat of Judgment and others under his Authority be fit he unfit himself to judge so the considerations for which it were haply no convenient for Kings to sit and give Sentence in Spiritual Courts where Causes Ecclesiastical are usually debated can be no barr to that force and efficacy which their Soveraign Power hath over those very Consistories and for which we hold without any exception that all Courts are the Kings All men are not for all things sufficient and therefore Publick affairs being divided such Persons must be authorized Judges in each kinde as Common reason may presume to be most fit Which cannot of Kings and Princes ordinarily be presumed in Causes merely Ecclesiastical so that even Common sense doth rather adjudge this burthen unto other men We see it hereby a thing necessary to put a difference as well between that Ordinary Jurisdiction which belongeth unto the Clergy alone and that Commissionary wherein others are for just considerations appointed to joyn with them as also between both these Jurisdictions And a third whereby the King hath transcendent Authority and that in all Causes over both Why this may not lawfully be granted unto him there is no reason A time there was when Kings were not capable of any such Power as namely when they professed themselves open Enemies unto Christ and Christianity A time there followed when they being capable took sometimes more sometimes less to themselves as seemed best in their own eyes because no certainty touching their right was as yet determined The Bishops who alone were before accustomed to have the ordering of such Affairs saw very just cause of grief when the highest favouring Heresie withstood by the strength of Soveraign Authority Religious proceedings Whereupon they oftentimes against this unresistable power pleaded the use and custom which had been to the contrary namely that the affairs of the Church should be dealt in by the Clergy and by no other unto which purpose the sentences that then were uttered in defence of unabolished Orders and Laws against such as did of their own heads contrary thereunto are now altogether impertinently brought in opposition against
them who use but that Power which Laws have given them unless men can shew that there is in those Laws some manifest iniquity or injustice Whereas therefore against the force Judicial and Imperial which Supream Authority hath it is alledged how Constantine termeth Church-Officers Over-seers of things within the Church himself of those without the Church how Augustine witnesseth that the Emperor not daring to judge of the Bishop's Cause committed it to the Bishops and was to crave paâ—â—â—on of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end to appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs how Hilary beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical Causes to whom onely Common-wealth matters belonged how Ambrose affirmeth that Palaces belong unto the Emperor Churches to the Minister That the Emperor hath the authority over the Common-walls of the City and not in holy things for which cause he never would yield to have the Causes of the Church debated in the Princes Consistories but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to answer concerning Church-matters in a Civil Court he came not We may by these testimonies drawn from Antiquity if wellst to consider them discern how requisite it is that Authority should always follow received Laws in the manner of proceeding For inasmuch as there was at the first no certain Law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrates authority should be of how farr it should reach and what order it should observe but Christian Emperors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those affairs by this means it cometh to passe that they in their practise vary and are not uniform Vertuous Emperors such as Constantine the Great was made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the Church even when it lived under Infidels Constantine of reverence to Bishops and their Spiritual Authority rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do than was willing to claim a Power not fit or decent for him to exercise The Order which hath been before he ratifieth exhorting the Bishops to look to the Church and promising that he would do the Office of a Bishop over the Common-wealth which very Constantine notwithstanding did not thereby so renounce all Authority in judging of Special Causes but that sometime he took as St. Augustine witnesseth even personal cognition of them howbeit whether as purposing to give therein judicially any Sentence I stand in doubt for if the other of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh did in such sort judge surely there was cause why he should excuse it as a thing not usually done Otherwise there is no lett but that any such great Person may hear those Causes to and fro debated and deliver in the end his own opinion of them declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is But this kinde of Sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto it is a Sentence of private perswasion and not of solemn jurisdiction albeit a King or an Emperour pronounce it Again on the contrary part when Governours infected with Heresie were possessed of the Highest Power they thought they might use it as pleased themselves to further by all means that opinion which they desired should prevail they not respecting at all what was meet presumed to command and judge all men in all Causes without either care of orderly proceeding or regard to such Laws and Customs as the Church had been wont to observe So that the one sort feared to do even that which they might and that which the other ought not they boldly presumed upon the one sort of modesty excused themselves where they scarce needed the other though doing that which was inexcusable bare it out with main power not enduring to be told by any man how farr they roved beyond their bounds So great odds was between them whom before we mentioned and such as the younger Valentinian by whom St. Ambrose being commanded to yield up one of the Churches under him unto the Arrians whereas they which were sent on his Message alledged That the Emperour did but use his own right forasmuch as all things were in his power The Answer which the holy Bishop gave them was That the Church is the House of God and that those things that are Gods are not to be yielded up and disposed of it at the Emperors will and pleasure His Palaces he might grant to whomsoever he pleaseth but Gods own Habitation not so A cause why many times Emperours do more by their absolute Authority than could very well stand with reason was the over-great importunity of wicked Hereticks who being Enemies to Peace and Quietness cannot otherwise than by violent means be supported In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled than theirs was because our Lawes have with farr more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kinde of Power All decision of things doubtful and correction of things amiss are proceeded in by order of Law what Person soever he be unto whom the administration of Judgment belongeth It is neither permitted unto Prelates nor Prince to judge and determine at their own discretion but Law hath prescribed what both shall do What Power the King hath he hath it by Law the bounds and limits of it are known the intire Community giveth general order by Law how all things publickly are to be done and the King as the Head thereof the Highest in Authority over all causeth according to the same law every particular to be framed and ordered thereby The whole Body Politick maketh Laws which Laws gave Power unto the King and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that power it so falleth out that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort There is no cause given unto any to make supplication as Hilary did that Civil Governors to whom Common-wealth-matters only belong may not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical causes If the cause be Spiritual Secular Courts do not meddle with it we need not excuse our selves with Ambrose but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civil Judge in a matter which is not Civil so that we do not mistake either the nature of the Cause or of the Court as we easily may do both without some better direction than can be by the rules of this new-found Discipline But of this most certain we are that our Laws do neither suffer a Spiritual Court to entertain those Causes which by the Law are Civil nor yet if the matter be indeed Spiritual a mere Civil Court to give Judgement of it Touching Supream Power therefore to command all men and in all manner
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
â—â— 31. Jer. â—9 13. Joel 2. 12. Chrys. de repar laps lib. ad Theodor. Deposit dist 3. c. Talis Aug. in Ps. l. â— The state of Bishops although somtime oppugned and that by such as therein would most seen to please God yeâ— by his providence upheld hitherto whose glory it is to maintain that whereof himself is the Author Cyp. l. 1. ep 3. Sulpit. Severe lb. 2. Beda Eccl. hist. l. 2. c. 2. a An. 1066. b Alfredus Eborac asis Archieâ— iseopus Galieimum cognomeâ—to Northum spirantem adhue minesua caelis in peâ—ulum mitem redâ—liAâ—â— religiâ—sis in pro conservands repub tuerd que ecclesiast also sacramento asiiuxit Nub. iâ— l. â— c. â— What a Bishop is what his name doth import and what doth belong to his Office as he is a Bishop a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys. Haltar de Numa Pompili Antiq. lib. 2. Vult â—â— Pompeius esse quem tora â—re Campania maricima ora habear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad quem delectus negotii summa referatur Cic. ad Attie lib. 7. Epist. 11. b Acts 20. Phil. 1. 1. And God brought them unto Adam that Adam might see or consider what name it was meet he should give unto them Gen. 2. 19. So also the name Deacon a Minister appropriated to a certain order of Ministers The name likewise of a Minister was common to divers degrees which now is peculiarly among our selves given only to Pastors and not as anciently to Deacons also In Bishops two things traduced of which two the one their Authority in it the first thing condemned the superiority over other Ministers what kind of superiority in ministers is it which the one part holdeth and the other denieth lawful From whence it hath grown that the Church is governed by Bishops Meminise Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praepoâ—â—os Dominus elegic Cyp. l. 3 cp 9. Rom. 2. 14 15. 1 Cor. 9.16 Joh. 22 15,1â— Gal. 2. 8. a Him Eusebius doth name the Governor of the Churches in Asia Lib 3. Hist. Eccles. cap. 16. Tertujian calleth the same Churches St. lohns Foster daughters Lib. 3. advers Marcion b Iacobus qui appe latur frarer Domini cognomento Justus pest pathonem Domini flatim ab Apostiolis Hierosolymerum Episeopus ordinatus est Hierom de script Eccles Eodem tempore Jacobum primumu fedem Episcopaslem Ecclesiae quae est Hierosolymis obtinuisse memoriae traditur Euseb. Hist. Eclces lib. 2. cap. 1. The same seemeth to be intimated Acts 15 13. and Acts 21. 18. c Acts 12. 2. d Acts 13.2 e Tit. 1. 5. f This appeareth by those subscriptions which are set after the Epistle to Titus and the second to Timothy and by Euseb. Eccles hist. lib. 3. c. 4. g Irem lib. 3. c. 3. h In Ep. ad Antioch Hiâ—ron ep 81. Cypr. ep ad plorent * Theed in 1 Tim 5. a Ipsius Apostolates nulla successio Pinitur enim legatio cum legoto nec aâ—l successores ipslus transit Srgpl. doct prin con b Act. 1. 21 22. 1 John 1. 3. c Gal. 1. 1. d Apoc. 21. 14. e Mar. 28. 19. The time and cause of instituting every where Bishops with restraint Acts 20. 36,37 Acts 20.29 30. As appeareth both by his sending to call the Presbyters of Ephesus before him as far as to Milituch Acts 20. 17 which was almost fifty miles and by his leaving Timothy in his place with his Authority and iâ—sh uffions for ordaining of Ministers there 1 Tim. 5. 22. and for proportioning their maintenance verse 17.18 and for judicial hearing of accusations broughâ— against estem verse 19. and for holding them in an uniformity of Doctrine chap. 1 vers 3. Revel 2 Cypr. l. 4. Epist. 9. Hiâ—ren Ep. ad Eâ—ag Exod. 18 19. Epist. ad Jan. Ep. ad Evag. T. C. a. p li. It is to be observed that Ierom saith It was so in Alexandria sign sung that in other Churches it was not so Socrat. l. 1. c. 3. a Unto Ignatius Bishop of Anâ—â—uh Herâ— a Deacon there was made Successor Chrysostom being a Presbyter of Anfiâ—ch we chosen to succeed Nictarius in the Bishop rick of Constantinople a Bishops he meaneth by restraint for Episcopal power was always in the Church instituted by Christ himself the Apostles being in government Bishops at large as no man will deny having received from Christ himself that Episcopal Authority For which cause Cyprian hath said of them Meminisse Diaconi debent quoniam Apostolos id est Episcopos praeposâ—ros Dominus elegit Diaconol aurem posla â—censum Domini in coâ—los Apostoli sibi constiruerunt Episcopatus sui Ecclesia ministros Lib 3. Ep. 9. Lib. a. â—o â— Hâ—â—res 4 â— De prescrâ— p. oâ—â—â— râ— hereâ— Acts. 13. Acts. â— Acts. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 1â— What manner of power Bishops from the first beginning have had Aug. Ep. 19. â—d Hierom. de haeres 53. 1 Cor. 7 29. 1 Tim. 5. 9. Tettul de râ—â— viâ—g Epiph. 3. l. 10 â— haer 7. Acts. 1. â— 23. Tim. 1. 5. 1 Tim. 5. 8. A pud AEgyptum Presbyteri consir mans si â— raesens non fit Eps. copus Comq vulgo Amb. dic in 4. Ep. ad Ephes. Numb 3. 32. Numb 4.17 2 Chron. 19. 11. Joseph Atnig p. 61 â— Cypr. l. 3. ep 9. ad Rogatianum Hâ—erom Ep. â—5 Ep. ad Smyr 1 Tim. 3. 19. Against a Presbyter receive no accusation under two or three witnesses Ignat Epist. ad Antioch Apud Cypr Ep. 1. Ep. 7. Tertul advers Psychic Episcopi universae ple bi r mandare jejunia assoleni Cypr. Ep. 27. Cypr. Ep. 39. Vide Ignat. ad Magnes a Quod Aaron tilios ejus hoc Episcojum Presbyteros esse noverimns Hier. Ep. 2. of Neporiaâ—um b Ita est ut in Episcopis Hominem in Presbyteris Apostolos recognoscas Auctor opuse de ordinib Eccl. inter opera Hieron c Ignat. Ep. ad Tra. d Inslit l. 4. cap. 4. Sect. â—â— Hiere n. Epist. od Euâ—gr 85. Chrysostom lo in 1 Tim. 3. a Velut in a 1 qua sublimi specula 〈…〉 dignantur videre moâ—tales alloqui conâ—erâ—os suos in a. â— Epist. ad Gal. a Nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere Nemo audet accusare majorem propteres quasi sancti beati in praerptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peecatis Dissicilis est accusaâ—io in Episeâ—pum Si â—â—ha pâ—ecaverit non creditur si convictus suerit ron punirur in cap. 8. Ecclesiast b pessimae consuetudiâ—â— est in quiâ—usdam Ecclesâ—â— tacere Presbyteron praesentibus Episcopis non loqui quasi aâ—â— invideant aut non dignentur audice Ep. 2. ad Nepotian c Ep. 54. ad Ripâ—r d Hieron ad Nepoâ— e No Bishop may be a Lord in reference unto the Presbyters which are under him if we take that name in the worse part or Ierom here doth For a Bishop is no
rule his Prebyters not as Lords do their Slaveâ— but as Fathers do their children In vira Chrys. per Caâ—â—od Sen. Pallad in vita Chrysostom After what sort Bishopâ— together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zon in Can. Apost Cum Episcopa Presbyteri Saceâ—lat li hoâ—â—re conjeusti Ep. 28 â— g â— Compresbyteri pâ—striqâ—i nolas aâ—tide bant â—p 27. Cyp. Ep. 93 Cyp. Eâ— â—â— * â—â—â— Such as or was that â—eter whaâ—â— all Cussiator writeth the life of Chrysostom doth call the Accepresbyter of the Church of Alexandriae under Troj â—â—â—â— that time â—â—â— Psal. 14 How sirr the lower of Bishops hath reached from the beginning in respect of Territory or luâ—â— compass I. 3â— p. de Epise ad Cler. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resides Cypr. Ep. 51. Cum jampridem per omnes provinâ—as per urbes singulas ordinari sunt Episcopi Uâ—â— Ecclesiastici ordinis non est câ—nâ—â—â—s osserâ— â—ngit â—Sierailosâ— qui est in solus Tert. exhorâ— ad castir Cypr. Ep. 2â— Heron advers Lucifer Cypr. Ep. 4â— * Cou. Antioch cap. 5. ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cone Constant. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 5. cap. 8. a 1 Cor. 15. As I have ordained in the Churches of Galatia the same do ye also b 2 Cor. 11. 8 Chrys. in â— ad Tiâ— â—Palialâ— inâ—â—ia Chrâ—â—â—â—â— â—Cane L Antioch caâ— 10. â— a Cic. Fam. Ep. 5. Si quid na 〈…〉 um aliquo Helleâ—â—â—â—â—io controversiae ut in illâ—m 〈◊〉 rejicias The suit which Tully maketh wâ—s this that the Party in whose behalf he wrote to the Propraetor might have his Causes put over to that Court which was held in the Diocess of Hellespont where the man did abide and not to his trouble be forced to foâ—low them at Ephesus which was the chiefest Court in thâ—t Province b Cic. ad Attic lib. 5. Ep. 12. Item 1. observ D. de officio Proconsulis Legati c Lib. 1. Tit. 27. l. 1. sect 1. 2. Sancimus ut sicut Oriens atquâ— Illyricum ita Africa praetoriana maxima potestate specialiter à nostra elementia decoretur Cujus sedem jubemus esse Carthaginem ab ea auxiliante Deo septem proâ—inciae cum suis judicious disponantur d Psal. 30. 8 9. Concil Antiochen c. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vilierius de flaâ—u primitivae Ecclâ—… Socr. l. 3. c. â— Câ—n. 28. Can. 3â— Novel 123. 22. Concil Nic. c. 6. Ejusd Con. cap. â— T. C. l. t. â—â— What no mention of him in Theophibus Bishop of Antioch none in Clemens Alexandrinus none in Ignatius noâ—â—â—â— in Iustin Martyr in Irenaeus In Tertâ—l in Oâ—igen in Cyprian in thoâ—e old Historiographers ouâ— of which Eusebius gathered his Story was it for his baseness and smalness that he could not be seen amongst the Bishops Elders and Deacons being the chief and principal of them all Can the Cedar of Lebanon be hidden amongst the Box-trees T. C. l. â— ubi supra A Metropolitan Bishop was nothing elâ—e but a Bishop of that place which is pleased the Emperor or Magistrate to make the chief of the Diocess or Shire and as for this name it makes no more difference between a Bishop and a Bishop than when I say a Minister of London and a Minister of Newington Con. Nicen. c. 6. Illui autem amnino manifestum quod siqus absque Mâ—tro politani sententia sactus flâ—â— p sâ— hune magna â—vno de lefin vit Episâ— ess noâ—n portere Can. 4. a Nâ—vel 123. can 10. b Now. 128. c. 9 c Now l. 79. 2. d Novel 123. can 22. e Novel 1. 3. a. 23. f Can. 9. Can. 16. Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 23. Can. 34. Callind in vita Chrysost. Hieron Ep. 91. In what respects Episcopal Regiment hath been gainsaid of old by Aerius Aug. de haen ad quod vult deu Aeriani ab Aerio quodam sunt nominari qui qinum eâ—â—er Presbyter docuisse senâ—ur quad Episcopus non potest ordioare Dicibo Episcopum a Presbytero nulla ratione debere diseerni Aug. de haer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a As in that he saith the Apostle doth name sometimes Presbyters and not Bishops â— Tim. 4. 14. sometime Bishops and not Presbyters Phil â— â— because all Churches had not both for want of able and sufficient men In such Churches therefore as had but the one the Apostle could not mention the other Which Answer is nothing to the lâ—tâ—er place above mentioned For that the Church of Philippi should have more Bishops than one and want a few able men to be Presbyters under the Regiment of one Bishop how shall we think it probable or likely b 1 Tim. 4. 14. with the Impesition of the Presbyteries hand Of which Presbytery S Paul was chief 1 Tim. 1.6 And I think no man will deny that S. Paul need more than a simple Presbyters Authority Phil. 1. 1. To all the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons For as yet in the Church of Philippi there was no one which had Authority besides Apostles but their Presbyters or Bishops were all both in Title and in Power equal In what respect Episcopal is gain-fall by the Authors of pretended Reformation at this day Their Auguments in disgrace of Regiment byâ—â—heps as being a meer invention of Man and nor sound in Scripture Answered Titus 1. 5. Timothy 3. 5. Philippians â— 1. 1 Peter 5. 1. 2. T. C. l. â— p. 13. So that it appeareth that the Ministery of the Gospel and the Functurions thereof ought to be from Heaven From Heaven I say and Heavenly because although it the exceâ—red by Earthly men and Ministers are chosen also by men like unto themselves yet because it is done by the Word and Institution of God It may well be accounted to come from Heaven and from God Answer Acts 1. 22. Revel 1. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 1. 5. They of Walden Acn. Syl. hist. Boem Norsilius Defens pac Nici Thum. Wakl c. 1. l. 2. cap. 0 Calvin Coment in 1 ad id Lit. Bulhtiger Decad â— Ser. 3. Juel Defens apol par 2. c. â— â—â—t Folk Answ. to the Test. Tic. â— 5. John 1. 25. Mat. 21. 23. Lib. 1. Rom. 1. 32. Luke 1. 6. Confes. 169. Epist. 150. The Arguments to prove there was no necessity of instituting Bishops in the Church Ep. 3. lb. 1. The sort-alledged Argument answered T. C. l. 1. p. â—9 â—on The Bishop which Cyprian speaketh of is nothing else but such as we call Pastor or as the common nâ—mâ— with us is Pastor and his Church whereof he is Bishop is neither Diâ—cesâ— nor Province but a Congregation which met together in one place and to he taught of one man * Etsi Frarres pro dilectione iua cupoli sunt ad conven endum visiandum Censissires boars quos illustravit jaâ—â— gloriosis initiis divina degnati ramen
caur-hoc non glomeratim nee pre multitudinem simull iunctain pure â—â—â—saciendum ne ex hor ipsu invidiâ— conciten ur in evened â—alive denegenar ilum inferiabiles multum volumus â—â—m perdamus is Consulite ergo providere ut cum temperamento bee egi ruids poth Ira ur Presbyteri queque qui ille apud Consessores offer ant sinuâ—h cum singulls Diaconis pervices accâ—rum qua metatio personarum vecitiirudo converient um minuis invidiam Ep. 5. Cypr. lib. 1. Ep. 3. Acts. 25. An Answer unto those things which are objected concerning the difference between that power which Bishops now have and that which antient Bishops had more than other Presbyters Liv. lib. 1. Dâ—câ— quando Epis. sect Igitur Eccl dis p 14 Eccl. Discipl fol. 41. Eccles. Discip. p. 41. Neque enim sas crae aut licebat ut interior ordinater major in Coment q. Ambros. til hutioâ—ur in 1 Tim. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cencil Carthâ—e 4. c. 23. Cypr â— Ep 10. 14. l. â— Ep. 8. Concerning the Civil power and authority which our Bishops have Jer. 29. 2â— 1 Cor. 6. Vâ—l. Birnah Eâ—sson aneâ—â— Jer lib. 40. c. 16. Aug. de oper Monarch c. 29 â— Tim. 8. 4. Convenit hujuâ—modi eligi ordinari sacerdotes quibus nec liberi sunt nec nepotes Etenim fieri vix potest ut vacans hujus vitae quotiâ—â—ae curis quae liberi creant parentibus maximè omne studium omnemque cogitationem circa divinam litugiam res Ecclesiasticas consumat l. 42 sect 1 C de Episc. Cles a Cum multa divinitus Pontifices à majoribus nostris invenia atque instituta sunt tum nihil praeclarius quam quod vos eoâ—dem Religionibus Deorum immortalum summae Reipub. praesse voluerunt Cic. pro domo sua ad Pontif. b Honor Sacerdotii firmamentum porentiae assumebatur Tacit. hist. lib. 5. He sheweth the reason wherefore their Rulers were also Priests The joyning of these two Powers as now so then likewise profitable for the Publick State but in respect clean opposite and contrary For whereas then Divine things being more esteemed were used as helps for the countenance of Secular Power the Case to these latter ages is turned upside down Earth hath now brought Heaven under foot and in the course of the World hath of the two the greater credit Priesthood was then a strengthening to Kings which now is forced to take strength and credit from farr meaner degrees of Civil Authority Hic mos apud Judaeos fuit ut eosdem Reges Sacerdotes haberent quorum justitia religioni permixta incredibile quantum evaluere Just. hist l. 39. Lib. 41. sect 22. C. de Episc. T. C. l. 1. p. 126. The Arguments answered whereby they would prove that the law of God and the Judgment of the best in all ages condemneth the ruling Superiority of one Minister over another T. C. l. 1. p. 12. T.C. l. 1. p. 10. Pag. 95. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 39. Concil Carthag de haer baptizandis Lib. 2. Ep. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 T. C. l. 1. p. 113. Theod. Hist. Eccles. l. 1. c. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heronymus contra Lucifer Saluccin Ecclesiae pemdere dâ—cira summi Sacerâ—uris digmiate id est Episcopâ— Idem est is Hieronymo summos Sacerdoâ— quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Carthaginensi Concilio Vide C. oâ—nes 38. dist Iâ—em C. De conseq dist 5. The second main thing wherein the state of Bishops suffereth 〈…〉 their Honor. Numb 16. 3. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Ecclus. 38. 1. Levit. 19. 32. Ecclus. 25.6 Prov. 23. 22. 1 Pet. 2. 14. Psal. 72. 15. What good doth publickly grow from the Prelacy a Quis est eaâ—â— vecors qui â—uâ—â—um suspect criâ— in coelum Deos eâ—e non senâ—aâ— en quâ—â—â—anca meaâ—â— siunt ut vix quis quam arte ulla ondinem rerum ac vicissicudinem perse qui possiâ— caâ—â— sieri poterâ— our cum Deos esse intell exerit non intelliâ—aâ— eorem nuralâ—ne hoc tantum Imperium esse narum aâ—ctum rerentum â— Cie Orat. de haruâ— responâ— b Tit. 1. l. 3. C. de summatri â— nit c L. 3. C. de Episc. â—â— Cler. d L. 34. C. de Episc. audiend Psal. 7â— â—0â— Qui Sacerdotes in veteri restamento vocabantur hi sont qui nunc l'resbyteri appell antur qui tune Princepâ— Sacerdocum nunc Episcoâ—m vocatur Roba Maur. de â—ss t Cler. 1 3.c â— 1 Tim. 5. 17. Rom. 13.7 Deut. 4. 6. Mat. 5. 13. Petr. D'efens Ep. 5. Psal. 77. 20. Isa. 3.5 What kindes of Honor be due unto Bishops Psal. l 5. â— 2 â—â—â—â—e in title Place Ornaments Acrenâ—ancy and Privilledge 〈…〉 Lib. 5. c. â— Hâ—stor Eccles. L. 7. C. â—ls summa Trinit L. 33. C de Epist. Cler. L. 16. C. de Sacrol Eccles. Mor. 23. 6.9 They love to have the chief Scars in the Assemblies and to be called of men Rabbi Ecclus. 45.7 Novel 6. T. C. l. 3. p. 126. out of Jos. l. 8 c. 15. l. 1â— C. de sacr Eccles. l. 9. C. de sacr Eccles. l. a. C. de Epise Cler. l. 10 C. de Epise Cler. Honor by endowncer with Lords and Livings Psal. 50. 1â— That of Ecclesiastical Goods and consiquently of the Lands and Livings which Bishops enioy â—â—â— propt 〈…〉 longeth a â— God done a Hos 2. 5. b Psal. 50.1 â— c Job â— 1. Mat. 3. 10. Prov. 3. 9. Seneca Mat. 1. 8. â— a Because saith David I have a delight in the House of my God therefore I have given the eunio of my own both Gold and Silver to adorn it with a Chron. 2. 5. b Ps. 50. 13 14. Phil. 4. 18. Psal. â—2 â—1 Math. 2. 11. Matth. 26. 13. Joh. 15. 16. Ans. cap. 15. de â—â—nca C. 12. c. 8 cap. 15 16. Prov. 10. 3. Mâ—l 3. 10. 2 Chro. 31. Tâ— Wald. tum 1. libâ— 4. c. 39. Gen. 28.20 That Ecclesiastical Persons are Receivers of God's â—â—enrâ—â— and that the honor of Prelates is to be thereof his chief Receivers not without liberty from him graâ—ted of converting the same unto their own use even in large manner a Num. 18.23 b Num. 19.23 c Numâ— 21. d Heb. 7. 3. e Acts â— 34. 2 Cor. 8. 5. Acts 11.30 Acts 21. 18. 12. 17. Cap. 41. Et Concil Antioch c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 4. 14. Heb. 11. 3â— a Num. 18.15 b Num. 12. c Num. 13. d Verse 1â— e Verse 8. f Leâ— 9.11 Verse 14 Numâ— 1â— 5. Vers. 8. 5 â—1 18. 1 Chron. 2 3â— Gen. 47. â—2 Numb 35.9 Josh. 14.4 Deut. 12. 8. Lev. 25.33.34 â—â—â— 10. 9. Iâ—…th 13. 14. Numb 18.24 Verse 19. 1 Cor. 9. 13. 1 Tim. 5. 17. 2 Cor. 3. 8. Vide â—2â— 79. art 1. 1 Tim 5. 18. Acts 4. 31. Acts 2. 44. a Ditpâ—â—ns Prosp. de vita contemp l. 2. c. 12. Ocâ—â—n l. 14. C