as not to give it up untill they perfectly understand concerning Episcopacy it self Quid mali fecit I shall speak at this time only of the first of these three points That Episcopacy is not repugnant to the government setled in the Church for perpetuity by the Apostles Whereof I conceive this which followes as clear a demonstration as any thing of this nature is capable of That this government was received universally in the Church either in the Apostles time or presently after is so evident and unquestionable that the most learned adversaries of this government do themselves confesse it Petrus Molinaeus in his book De munere postorali purposely written in defence of the Presbyteriall government acknowledgeth That presently after the Apostles times or even in their time as Ecclesiasticall story witnesseth it was ordained That in every City one of the Presbytery should be called a Bishop who should have preheminence over his Colleagues to avoid confusion which oft times ariseth out of equality And truly this form of government all Churches every where received Theodorus Beza in his Tract De triplici Episcopatus genere confesseth in effect the same thing For having distinguished Episcopacy into three kinds Divine Humane and Satanicall and attributing to the second which he calls Humane but we maintain and conceive to be Apostolicall not only a priority of order but a superiority of power and authority over other Presbyters bounded yet by lawes and canons provided against Tyranny he clearly professeth that of this kind of Episcopacy is to be understood whatsoever we read concerning the authority of Bishops or Presidents as Justin Martyr calls them in Ignatius and other more ancient Writers Certainly from these two great defenders of the Presbytery we should never had this free acknowledgement so prejudiciall to their own pretence and so advantageous to their adversaries purpose had not the evidence of clear and undeniable truth enforced them to it It will not therefore be necessary to spend any time in confuting that uningenuous assertion of the Anonymus Authour of the Catalogue of Testimonies for the equality of Bishops and Presbyters who affirmes That their disparity began long after the Apostles times But we may safely take for granted that which these two learned Adversaries have confessed and see whether upon this foundation laid by them we may not by unanswerable reason raise this superstruction That seing Episcopall Government is confessedly so ancient and so Catholique it cannot with reason be denyed to be Apostolique For so great a change as between Presbyteriall Government and Episcopall could not possibly have prevailed all the world over in a little time Had Episcopall Government been an aberration from or a corruption of the Government left in the Churches by the Apostles it had been very strange that it should have been received in any one Church so suddainly or that it should have prevailed in all for many Ages after Variâsse debuerat error Ecclesiarum quod autem apud omnes unum est non est erratum sed traditum Had the Churches err'd they would have varied What therefore is one and the same amongst all came not sure by errour but tradition Thus Tertullian argues very probably from the consent of the Churches of his time not long after the Apostles and that in matter of opinion much more subject to unobserv'd alteration But that in the frame and substance of the necessary government of the Church a thing alwayes in use and practice there should be so suddain a change as presently after the Apostles times and so universall as received in all the Churches this is clearly impossible For what universall cause can be assigned or fained of this universall Apostasie you will not imagine that the Apostles all or any of them made any decree for this change when they were living or left order for it in any Will or Testament when they were dying This were to grant the question to wit that the Apostles being to leave the government of the Churches themselves and either seeing by experience or foreseeing by the Spirit of God the distractions and disorders which would arise from a multitude of equalls substituted Episcopall government instead of their own Generall Councells to make a Law for a generall change for many ages there was none There was no Christian Emperour no coercive power over the Church to enforce it Or if there had been any we know no force was equall to the courage of the Christians of those times Their lives were then at command for they had not then learn't to fight for Christ but their obedience to any thing against his Law was not to be commanded for they had perfectly learn't to die for him Therefore there was no power then to command this change or if there had been any it had been in vain What device then shall we study or to what fountaine shall we reduce this strange pretended alteration Can it enter into our hearts to think that all the Presbyters and other Christians then being the Apostles Schollers could be generally ignorant of the will of Christ touching the necessity of a Presbyteriall government Or dare we adventure to think them so strangely wicked all the world over as against knowledge and conscience to conspire against it Imagine the spirit of Diotrephes had entered into some or a great many of the Presbyters and possessed them with an ambitious desire of a forbidden superiority was it possible they should attempt and atchieve it once without any opposition or contradiction and besides that the contagion of this ambition should spread it self and prevail without stop or controule nay without any noyse or notice taken of it through all the Churches in the world all the watchmen in the mean time being so fast asleep and all the dogges so dumb that not so much as one should open his mouth against it But let us suppose though it be a horrible untruth that the Presbyters and people then were not so good Christians as the Presbyters are now that they were generally so negligent to retain the government of Christs Church commanded by Christ which we now are so zealous to restore yet certainly we must not forget nor deny that they were men as we are And if we look upon them but as meer naturall men yet knowing by experience how hard a thing it is even for policy arm'd with power by many attempts and contrivances and in a long time to gain upon the liberty of any one people undoubtedly we shall never entertain so wild an imagination as that among all the Christian Presbyteries in the world neither conscience of duty nor love of liberty nor aversenesse from pride and usurpation of others over them should prevail so much as with any one to oppose this pretended universall invasion of the Kingdome of Christ and the liberty of Christians When I shall see therefore all the fables in the Metamorphosis acted and prove stories when I
So he Lastly now under our Gracious Soveraigne King Charles in the time of Arch-Bishop Abbot Whose daily experience did testifie the reciprocall correspondence between him and with other Bishops and all reformed Churches beyond the Sea At what time likewise Cyrill late Greek Patriarch of Constatinople did so farre honour both him and our English Church as to professe his accordance therewith more specially then with any other And if our Bishops of later date had not been respected then surely would not the Divines about Breme in Germany have sent their controversies had among themselves onely unto certain Bishops in England as they did to have them moderated by their judgements not to speak of their dedications of some of their Books unto Bishops These last Relations nothing but the importunity of these times could have extorted from us Thus much of particular respects had in speciall to our English Episcopall Government by singular approved Divines of the reformed Protestant Churches In the next place as the thread of our method leadeth us we are to examine what they will say touching the unlawfulnesse or lawfulness thereof in generall II. THESIS That there was never any visibly constituted Church in all Christendome since the Apostles time for 1500. years and more which held Episcopacy in it self to be unlawfull WE are not ignorant that even at this time all Episcopacy and Prelacy of any one above Presbyterie is cryed down by some as unlawfull in it self notwithstanding our Opposites cannot but know what besides Epiphanius Saint Angustine recorded of one Aerius to wit that he because he could not obtain to be made a Bishop did therefore teach that there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop So he and for that cause they listed him among the erroneous Authors of that Age but he being excepted never any visible Church of Christ before him we adde nor yet any thus protested after him nor before these dayes of contradiction defended his opinion Now whether the humour of desire to rule others and the unwillingnesse to be subject unto others may not equally transport some Ecclesiasticks to oppose against Episcopacy they can best judge whom it most concernes We know beside infinite others who have acknowledged the lawfulnesse of Episcopacy some protestant Divines of remote Churches who have fully condemn'd the opinion of Aerius Three may suffice for three hundred if they be learned and judicious Authors and not interested in that which is now called Episcopall policy Master Moulin commeth on roundly I have since my infancy saith he abhorr'd the opinion of Aërius Tylenus also a Divine of the French Church as pertinently and plainly None ever before Aërius endeavoured the extirpation of Episcopacy nor yet after him any but some of Geneva What some he might meane we know not but whom he might not meane we have already shewn as Calvin Beza Sadle and Causabon who have given their ample suffrages for our English Episcopacy but only speak against the Romish Hierarchie And now for the generality of it Beza is again at hand saying If there be any as I think saith he there is not who altogether reject the Episcopall Order God forbid that any of sound brains should ever assent to their furies and besides protesteth his acknowledged observance and all reverence to all Bishops reformed Hitherto against the objected unlawfulnesse of Episcopacy in the Church of Christ. But this will not satisfie some men except furthermore the lawfulness thereof may appear in that degree which is called in respect of its right According to the Word of God It belongeth unto us to shew this by the Confession of Divines of remote Protestant Churches which we are ready to performe and more too III. THESIS That Episcopal Prelacy is acknowledged by Protestant Divines of remote Churches to be according to the Word of God and their consent therein unto Primitive Antiquity LVther may well be allowed for the fore-man amongst the Reformers of the Protestant Religion who proveth the Prelacy of Episcopacy above simple Presbyters for so he saith by Divine Right and this he doth in his Tractâ—te called his Reselution grounding his judgment upon Scripture whereof hereafter Accordingly Bucer against the Pope as Anti-Christ We see saith he by their perpetual observation of Churches and from the Apostles themselves that it seemed good to the holy Ghost that some singular one should be appointed among the Presbyters to Govern in so sacred an Order who hath for the same cause the Appellation of Bishop in Scripture Scultetus the Divine Professour at Heidelberg professing Episcopal degree to be of divine Right and professeth to prove it to be such by efficacious reasons who in the sequell of his discourse will be as good as his word with whom agreeth that admirable Schollar Isaac Casaubon the ornament of Geneva who held the same to be grounded upon the Testimonies of Scriptures These may serve for the present till we come to a larger consent All these and other the former confessions of Protestant Divines are the proper idiom and language of primitive Antiquity teaching thus Episcopacy is by the Ordination of Christ. So Ignatius and again Reverence your Bishop as Christ and the Apostles have commanded you Or thus To be a divine power the resistancè whereof is against God himself So Cyprian And thus God placed Bishops over His family So Origen And thus The Apostles were made Bishops by Christ who ordained others meaning Bishops in other places by whom the Church should be govern'd So Augustine Or thus Bishops constituted over Presbyters as the Word of God teacheh So Epiphanius And thus None can be ignorant that Bishops were instituted by Christ when he made His Apostles by whom others should be made Bishops whom we succeed and speaking of Bishops of whom Christ said he that despiseth you despiseth me So again Augustine Before we end this point we shall desire our Opposites to bethink themselves what they think may signifie the suffrages of the Fathers of the Synod of Calcedon for Antiquity one of the first four Generall and in this generality universally receiv'd throughout Christendom for amplitude consisting of six hundred and thirty Bishops and for aversenesse against the Pope of Rome that which undermin'd the very foundation of Romish Popedom which is a pretence of having been established by the divine Authority of Christ the universall Bishop of the Church and equalling another Patriarch with him and shewing that all the Primacy which the Pope of Rome had was but from humane Authority This Councell concerning Episcopacy ordain'd that To depose a Bishop down to the degree of a Presbyter is Sacriledge This so great a Harmony between the former Protestant Divines and those eminent Fathers how shall it not sound delightfull unto every docible and unpreoccupated hearer These confessions notwithstanding we have not discharg'd our
opinion of singularity and onelinesse as a thing not acknowledged in other remote and reformed Churches of Protestants not considering what hath been published to the world long-ago that the word Superintendent is of the same signification with the word Bishop both from the same Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet some Protestant Churches practising a Prelacy vail it over with the word Superintendency If we would know what Zanchie will speak out and to the purpose in telling us that Episcopi whom we call Bishops and Superintendents are words of the same sense and signification and therefore where there is an agreement in the thing signified there ought not to be any altercation and strife about words But what will he say to the practice He distinguisheth Protestant Churches in this respect into three differences some whereof practise a superiority of one above the Clergy under the proper name of Bishops another sort the same but under the name of Superintendents and General Superintendents whom we call Arch-bishops Lastly he discloseth a third kinde a circumstance very remarkeable who although they avoid the Titles of Bishops or Superintendents yet use they to be such primarii as to say eminent in Prelacy as in whom for so he saith the whole Authority consisteth Now therefore our question must be whether the Church exercising Prelacy or the other that onely practise equality exceed in number The number of Churches which had Prelates under the name of Bishops and the other of Superintendents being in signification the same seemed to Greg. de Valentia the Jesuite so many that he thought all Protestant Churches to have Bishops An excellent servant of God Doctor Duraeus and a zealous hunter after the best game which is the general peace of Protestant Churches among themselves hath set down a Catalogue of the Churches reform'd on both Parties and reckoneth if he be not mistaken seven Bishops in the Kingdom of Swede in Denmark Bishops in other Lutheran Churches Superintendents and in all Imperial Cities among the Protestants besides divers other reform'd Churches the like which we suppose will rather keep their conformity with England then tast new wine with others seing that as the Text saith The old is better and whether the Episcopal form be not the onely and Apostolical cometh now to be discussed by inquiring into Antiquity VI. THESIS That the former reasons of Confessions of Protestant Divines concerning the necessity of Episcopal Prelacy for preservation of concord and preventing of schisme is correspondent to the judgment of Antiquity IT would be worth our knowledge to understand that the former Confessions of Protestant Divines are in effect but the ecchoings unto the sentences of ancient Fathers Among whom Hierome could tell us That the original of Episcopacy which is the placing of one Presbyter in a degree above others was decreed throughout the whole world for taking away Schisme which use thereof was held so necessary in the dayes of Antiquity that the said Hierome spared not to affirm That the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of a Bishop to whom except some eminent Authority be given there will be as many Schismes as there are Priests in the Church So he and before him Tertullian thus The Bishop is for the honour of the Church which being in safety our peace will be also safe But how Chrysostome and Gregory Nyssen do illustrate both affirming the same necessity of a Bishop in the Church as is a Precentor in a Quire a Governour in a Campe and a Pilot in a Ship By which Episcopal order saith Basil the Church is reduced as one soul into communion and concord yea and before all these Cyprian Bishop and Martyr complained of such insolencies of Presbyters against their Bishops as being causes of heresies and schismes against a divine power of Government So he These will some say are but their sayings and shall we therefore think that their sayings were not the symbolls and expressions of their meaning but we presume better of them that are ingenuous and the rather for their further satisfaction which may be had in the next Thesis VII THESIS That Bishops primitively were not only the chiefest champions for the Christian faith but also the greatest adversaries to Romish Popedome as have also our English BEfore we can begin the proof of this Thesis we are confronted by our Opposites against Primitive Fathers in strange termes Bishops by advancing the authority of Episcopacy did thereby say they but plead their own cause and made a stirrop for the Romish Antichrist to mount into his Pontificall saddle So they Which contumely against the reverend antiquity we are loath to call by its proper name being therefore not to reprove others but to prove what we have in hand which is that some of the ancient Bishops lived in the torrid zone of fiery persecution and others in a temperate Of the first sort we have it confessed That the persecuting Emperours did above all others make their Inquisition and exercises of their furies most especially upon Bishops we have it upon record in Cyprian but much more in other Ecclesiasticall Histories wherein as is confessed by Master Brightman although Dioclesian in his Edict did especially command the destruction of all that had taken sacred Orders yet in a further speciality the massacring of Bishops he relateth that one hundred and sixty of them were martyred in two places yea and in the Church of Rome it self is also reckoned the number of 160. Bishops who were martyrs of Christ in those primitive times To fancy that these afflicted and persecuted Members of Christ for their degree sake could pride it in their Episcopall office would be held to be but a dream they will rather think that if they should prelate it as Marriners use to frolike it rather in a calme of tranquility but for this also we shall easily subcribe to the judgement of Master Beza who when he was thus posed whether he should impute the note of pride unto these Primitive servants of God whose names have alwayes been celebrious in the Church of Christ to wit Basil Nysen Nazianzen Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose and Augustine who are known to have afterwards had Episcopall Government in their several Churches answereth saying I never heard any speak or read any write otherwise then honourably of those men as was meete So he of his time he could not prophesie of the future It were good that these who use this new and broad language had considered That Bishops were then almost the only ones who as occasion fell out either pulled the Romish Pope out of his Saddle when he was mounted or else pluckt away his Stirrop that in those times he could not get up For whereas Popedome being a double usurpation one of plenitude of Authority universall over Bishops and the other of an infallibility of judgement in
the Apostles and as antiquity it self teacheth and consent of Protestant Divines of Remote Churches will afterwards grant to have been in the dayes of Saint John the Evangelist the Bishop of Smyrna The other viz. Ignatius was also acquainted with those who had been the Disciples of Christ. Besides we have heard Scultetus resolving that Iames not the Apostle the Brother of our Lord was Bishop of Hierusalem from the plentifull testimonies of Antiquity it self We will conclude with this our proof from the same Antiquity but what even that which Bucer finds resolved upon as he saith before Hierom let us take his own words Divine Fathers more ancient then Hierom. Cyprian Ireneus Eusebius and other Ecclesiastical Historians shew That in the Apostles times there was one elected and ordained who should have Episcopal function and superiority over Presbyters so he instancing in Iames of whom we have spoken who was Bishop of Hierusalem XV. THESIS That Master Beza himself is challengable to yeild unto Apostolical right of Episcopacy from his own former confession MAster Beza hath already confessed concerning the famous Church of Alexandria that from Mark the Evangelist one was chosen to be placed in a degree above Presbyters called Bishop is according to the Testimony of Hierom. The Story hereof hath been of late published by Master Selden the Ornament of our Nation excellently conversant in ancient exotick Learning out of the Relation of Eutychâ—us that Mark the Ev. placed Anianus Patriarch or Bishop over Presbyters in the Church of Alexandria In which book also there is set down the full Catalogue of 18. Bishops successively unto Dionysius that possessed the same See which proveth as plainly an Episcopal and personal succession by an Apostolical Constitution from Anianus to Alexandria in a lineal succession as was the filiall and natural descent from Adam to Thara which makes up eighteen Generations What need then many words the most Theses which have been premised and almost all afterwards to be propounded do declare the same by joynt accordance of Protestant Divines of reformed Churches and suffrages of Antiquity We hasten to our last proof but are arrested in our way by our Opposites to answer two objected Testimonies of Antiquity XVI THESIS That the Testimonies of Nazianzen and Augustine are unworthily objected to the contrary VVE are urged to reckon these two excellent Bishops although in true Construction they have answered for themselves Nazianzen say our Opposites mustering up the evils that had hapned unto him reckoneth ejection out of his Episcopacy holding it a part of wisdome to avoid it wishing that there were no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 place of President-ship or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Tyrannicall Prerogative in the Church but that they might be known only by vertue We have alleadged Nazianzen according to the genuine sense So they But so as usually in an Heterogeneall sense to inferre a necessary abnegation of Episcopacy They who seek iugenuously the genuine sense of Sentences in Authors must be Janus-like faced looking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 backward and foreward both which properties have been wanting to our opposites first because before the words objected they lay before their eyes this saying of Nazianzen there was a time when Episcopacy was had in great admiration and desired of wise and prudent men and the second as not considering that was then spoken only comparatively against the Tyrannicall Government of Bishops which by all Protestant Bishops hath been condemned in the Popish Hierarchie besides that this was but the breath of vexatious passion upon occasion of one Maximus whom Nazianzen calleth a Cynicke and doggish Philosopher because whereas he himself had the Generall esteem in the Church of Christ to be by way of excellence called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine notwithstanding he was vehemently persecuted by the same unworthy Prelate and by his circumvention disturb'd out of his Bishopricke and therefore sensible of that iudignity did utter the language of his hearts grief But why did not our Opposites tell us that after this storme there fell a calme when the same godly Bishop was with generall applause received to his Bishoprick again but especially we may complaine that they have by their silence smothered Nazianzens judgement concerning the cause it self which is the right of Episcopacy and which he esteemed the most perfect kind of Government So he And is not this as much as to have held it the best Which he further declareth in his funerall Orations which he had of three famous Bishops Basil Athanasius and Cyprian Augustine writing to Hierome saith that custom hath obtained that Episcopacy should be higher then Presbytery according to the honour and dignity of the words Therefore saith Walo the distinction of Episcopacy and Presbytery was first constituted by the Church So he whose disciples our other Opposites have learned this lesson saying If Augustine had known the majority of Bishops above Presbyters to have been of Divine or Apostolicall institution he might have said so much nay he would have said as much And we answer if any of our Opposits had reguarded to search the judgement of Augustine they would not have said thus much because it is evident that Augustine did say as much as they require he should have said as hath been shewn saying of himself and other Bishops thus we succeed the Apostles in the same Power and that Christ instituted Bishops when he ordained his Apostles That we repeate not his condemning Aërius as Epiphanius did for denying Episcopacy to have been an institution Apostolicall and now whether our Reader think it more reasonable to yeeld to the supposition of what Augustine would have done or the manifestation what he did we permit to his judgement This obstacle thus removed we fall now upon the last proof Our last proof that Episcopacy is of Apostolicall right according to the word of God even from the Word of God it self To this purpose two places of Scripture are especially to be alleadged The Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus and the Epistles of St. John in the Revelation to the seven Churches in Asia which are to be discussed according to our foremer Method by the consonant Testimonies of ancient Fathers and consent of Protestant Divines of generall esteem and approbation XII THESIS That Timothy and Titus both had a Prelacy over Presbyters notwithstanding the objection of the community of Names of Bishops and Presbyters is sufficiently confessed by Protestant Divines of Remote Churches THere can none be held a more sufficient witnes with our Opposites then he who hath professedly pleaded this cause in their behalfe notwithstanding freely deerly granteth that Timothy and Titus were indeed Governours over their Provinces and places where the Apostle had appointed them and that they had over the Presbyters a kind of Apostolical anthority which he in his own judgement calleth extraordinary and we
take him at his own words in granting that it was some way an Authoritative Prelacy and for the distinction of extraordinary it will by and by receive an ordinary but a true answer yet we do not so much presse his confession as we may do his Reasons thereof deducted from the Texts themselves concerning their Prelaticall power of ordering matters that were amisse Tit. 1. 5. of receiving Accusation against Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. and the like But our other Opposites will needs pose us requiring us to answer their first Objection videl That the Bishops whose pedegree was derived from the Apostles were no other then Presbyters then this is proved say they by two instances the first is The identity of their names which quoth they is a proof of no small consequence we answer yea rather of none at all Else was Master Beza but of small judgement when speaking of the Apostolicall Age be confessed that the Presbytery had then a President over them yea when the community of names So he of Presbyters and Bpâ— remained among them accordingly as Dr Reynolds hath said that the Presbytery had then one who was president over them when as yet the names of Bishop and Presbyter were the same who furthermore concerning the time of distinguishing the name of Bishop and Presbyter whither sooner or later here or there he saith The name of Bishop was afterwards appropriated by the usuall language of the Fathers of the Church to him that had the Presidentship over the Elders So he Hereby granting that the Presidentship by Bishops was of force before the title and name was appropriated and allotted unto them If our Opposites had acquainted themselves with these learned authors they would have spared their pains in oppugning Episcopacy How much more if they had consulted with Gods own Oracle in his word wherein we find which formerly we pointed at that Saint Peter intituled himself a Co-presbyter 1. Pet. 5. 1. Saint Iohn himself a Presbyter 1. John 1. And Saint Paul himself thrice he could then stoop no lower a Deacon Col. 1. 23. 25. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Yet notwithstanding all these inferiour appellations they held still the Authority of their Apostelship we end this point in hope that our Opposites will take out this lesson which Calvin learnt from the Divine Text in the Epistle of Titus what 's that Even our full conclusion in this cause We learn from hence that there was not then an equality saith he among the Ministers of the Church but that one was with Authority placed over others Their second convincing objection would be discuss'd XVIII THESIS That Timothy and Titus have had a Prelacy as Bishops over the Presbyters in the Apostles times notwithstanding the objection that they were called Evangelists according to consent of Protestants of reform'd Churches IN the next place we are to examine the second and only other objection which our Opposites enforce in this case to wit that Timothy and Titus with all other such Disciples of the Apostles the assistants and immediate successors did take care of the Churchs not as properly Bishops but as Evangelists who had no setled residence in any of the Churches So they but are encountred with other Protestant Divines of remote Churches in good number For Luther among his other Resolutions inserted this That Episcopacy was of divine Right grounding his judgement upon the Text specifying Titus his Government in Creete as being consonant to the judgement of Augustine 2. Their learned Scultetus sheweth that at this time they were not exercis'd in assisting the Apostoles for collecting of Churches at Evangelists but for Governing of them that had been collected as the generall praecepts given by the Apostles saith he do prove thereby to become the examples Types for the successours to follow and thereupon he concludeth them to have been the same who otherwise were called Evangeliste for preaching the Gospel although by their superintendency Bishops To the same purpose Master Moulin will have it known that whatsoever Timothy and Titus had whether as Bishop or Evangelist it was such as had a continual succession in the Church which is as others confesse as James had in Jerusalem and Marke in Alexandria which was Episcopall Titus saith Tossahus after his peregrinations with Paul was appointed Bishop of Creet and before these Zuinglius confess'd that Tim. at that very time when Paul advis'd him to pursue the work of an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4. was then Bishop in some place or other by all consequence Dr. Gerhard a late famous Theological Author is copious in this Argument who in the same sheweth that the word Evangelist given to Timothy when Paul wrote unto him was taken in a generall acceptation and not as properly belonging to him as he had been an Assistant even as Luther saith he understood it Besides he sheweth out of Scripture exactly the severall Stations which Timothy had with Saint Paul in exercising his office before that time that he was placed Bishop in Ephesus We forbeare the full allegation of the like Authours cited by others that we may hearken to our English Doctour Reynolds nothing inferiour to any of the rest even in the opinion of our Opposites themselves telling us of that very time when Paul assembled the Ministry at Miletum Act. 20. 28. One was chosen as chief in the Church of Ephesus to gâ—â—d it the same whom afterwards the Fathers of the Primitive Church called Bishop So he And for confirmation hereof sheweth that which must indeed be impregnable to wit A lineall succession of 27. Bishops as hath been proved from Timothy in the Church of Ephesus and for surplus age to all this we answer to the objected reasons propounded for Timothy's non-residence in Ephesus by that qualification which Calvin hath done in like cases namely that Pastours are not so strictly tied to their Glebe or charge as that they may not help other Churches upon necessary occasions As for the objected terme of Evangelists we moreover answer from Scripture where we find Philip preaching the word of God in Samaria Act. 8. 5. Called an Evangelist Act. 21. 8. And yet was one of the seven meaning Deacons Act. 6. 5. Our Quaere is why Timothy might not as well be called an Evangelist for preaching the word being a Bishop as Philip was for the same cause named in Evangelist being a Deacon We think all this should be satisfactory although no more were said But more we have XIX THESIS That Antiquity taught an Episcopacy both in Timothy and Titus OUr strongest Opposite Salmasius could not but confesse concerning Antiquity although he spurne against it That Chrysostome Epiphaneus Theophylact Theodoret and other Greek Commentatours have collected out of the words of Paul that Titus was verily Bishop of Creeâ—e and that there could not be divers Bishops in one City which is our
of the holy Apostles it could never be shewed that the Bishop of Antioch was ever present at any such ordination or did ever communicate the grace of ordination to that Iland and that the former Bishops of Constantia the Metropolis of Cyprus Troilus Sabinus Epiphanius and all the holy and orthodoxe Bishops which were before them ever since the holy Apostles were constituted by those which were in Cyprus and therefore desired that as in the beginning from the times of the Apostles and by the constitutions and canons of the most holy and great Synod of Nice the Synod of the Cyprian Bishops remained untouched and superiour to privy underminings and open power so they might still be continued in the possession of their ancient right Whereupon the Councell condemning the attempt of the Bishop of Antioch as an innovation brought in against the Ecclesiasticall laws and the canons of the holy Fathers did not only order that the governours of the Churches which were in Cyprus should keep their own right entire and inviolable according to the Canons of the holy Fathers and their ancient custome but also for all other Dioceses and Provinces wheresoever that no Bishop should intrude himself into any other Province which had not formerly and from the beginning been under him or his predecessours The beginning of which kind of subordination of many Bishops unto one chief if it were not to be derived from Apostolicall right yet it is by Beza fetched from the same light of Nature and enforcement of Necessity whereby men were at first induced to enter into consociations subjected one unto another and by Bucer acknowledged to have been consentaneous to the Law of Christ and to have been done by the right of the body of Christ and by all men must be confessed to be conformable to the pattern delivered by God unto Moses For having set apart the three families of the Levites for his own service and constituted a chief as we have heard over every of them he placed immediately over them all not Aaron the High Priest but Eleazar his son saying Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites and have the oversight of them that keep the charge of the Sanctuary In respect of which oversight as he hath by the Septuagint warrantably enough by the Word of God given unto him the name of a Bishop so the Holy Ghost having vouchsafed to honour him with the title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the President of the Presidents of the Levites none that without prejudice did take the matter into consideration would much stick to afford unto him the name of an Arch-bishop at least he would be taught hereby to retain that reverend opinion of the primitive Bishops of the Christian Church who so willingly submitted themselves not only to the Archiepiscopal but also to a Patriarchical government which Calvin professed he did that in all this they were far from having a thought to devise another form of Church-government then that which God had prescribed in his Word The Writers which in the next age after the Apostles have here given testimony for Episcopacy IN the XIIII year of Domitian about the XCV year of our Lord according to the vulgar account S. John wrote his Revelation and in it the Epistle directed by our Saviour to the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia No longer then twelve years after that time Ignatius S. Johns Schollar writeth his Letters unto the same Church In the beginning whereof he giveth this testimony unto their Bishop that he knew him to have been promoted not of himself nor by men unto that Ministery pertaining to the publick weal of the Church which is every whit as much as if he had called him their Angel Afterwards he telleth them that there is but one Bishop joyned with the Presbytery and the Deacons and that he delivered this as the voice of God Take heed unto your Bishop and to the Presbytery and the Deacons calling him to witnesse for whom he was bound and for whom he went then unto his last martyrdome that he had not this from humane flesh or from the mouth of men but that the Spirit spake it Without the Bishop do nothing So that from S. Johns time we have this continued succession of witnesses in the age next following for Episcopacy In the year CVII Ignatius Bishop of Antioch where first they were called Christians CXXX Hadrian the Emperor touching the Bishop◠of Aegypt CL. Justin Martyr from Samaria CLXIX The Church of Smyrna CLXXV Dionysius Bishop of Corinth CLXXX Hegesippus from Judea Irenaeus Bishop of Lions near unto us CXCV. Tertullian from Africk Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus CC. Clemens Presbyter of Alexandria The Apostolicall Institution of EPISCOPACY deduced out of the premises by W. C. IF we abstract from Episcopall government all accidentals and consider onely what is essentiall and necessary to it we shall find in it no more but this An appointment of one man of eminent sanctity and sufficiency to have the care of all the Churches within a certain Precinct or Diocesse and furnishing him with authority not absolute or arbitrary but regulated and bounded by lawes and moderated by joyning to him a convenient number of assistants To the intent that all the Churches under him may be provided of good and able Pastours and that both of Pastours and people conformity to lawes and performance of their duties may be required under penalties not left to discretion but by law appointed To this kind of government I am not by any particular interest so devoted as to think it ought to be maintained either in opposition to Apostolick institution or to the much desired reformation of mens lives and restauration of Primitive discipline or to any law or precept of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for that were to maintain a means contrary to the end For obedience to our Saviour is the end for which Church Government is appointed But if it may be demonstrated or made much more probable then the contrary as I verily think it may I. That it is not repugnant to the government setled in and for the Church by the Apostles II. That it is as complyable with the reformation of any evill which we desire to reform either in Church or State or the introduction of any good which we desire to introduce as any other kind of government And III. That there is no law no record of our Saviour against it then I hope it will not be thought an unreasonable motion if we humbly desire those that are in authority especially the High Court of Parliament that it may not be sacrificed to clamour or over-born by violence and though which God forbid the greater part of the multitude should cry Crucifie Crucifie yet our Governours would be so full of Justice and courage