the seventy Disciples which were not empty Titles but had distinct Offices the former not onely invested with dignities above the other but with power over them as appears by the Election of Matthias Now Christ was entrusted with the Keys Isa 22. 22. and honoured with the Sceptre Psal 45. 6. God committing the Government to him as the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls 1 Pet. 2. 25. having the Key of David Rev. 3. 7. This he ordered by an immutable Law which neither could expire or be repealed For all power was given to him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28. 18. a power not onely to protect but to rule the Church not onely to rule the Consciences of its Members but externally to order and administer it as a publick Society a power to rule in himself or by Proxy and Delegates therefore it follows in the exhibition thereof that charge Go ye c. v. 19. without demurr or dispute For I have the power to commission you and do command you to execute it I have received it from my Father thus to exercise that power and empower you and to it I was solemnly consecrated by the descent of the Holy Ghost as S. Luke expresseth it Act. 10. 38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power which at least imports thus much As by the ceremony of anointing God promoted persons to high Dignities and Offices so Christ was regularly advanced to his prelatical Function to be the first and chief Bishop in the Christian Church from whose fulness all others were to receive grace for grace Num. 2. Christ having performed this Office in person took care that after his Ascension into Heaven the holy Apostles should succeed him whom he separated for this Office and over and above authorised them to depute and substitute others to keep the succession of Rulers This he consigned and passed over to them Luk. 22. 29. I appoint you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed me Accordingly at the octaves of his Resurrection he both confirmed them Joh. 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me even so I send you and also consecrated them by that solemn Form ever since observed in the Catholick Church either in terms or words equivalent Receive ye the Holy Ghost This fully conserred on them the habitual power which actually they were not licensed to exercise till as he was they were authorized by the descent of the Holy Ghost and endued with power Luk. 24. 49. which happened soon after his Ascension Eph. 4. 11. when he took off this suspension and at Pentecost sent the promise of the Father upon them the Comforter Joh. 15. 26. the Holy Ghost Act. 1. 8. And so they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire which sate upon each of them Act. 2. 3. that every of them might be a respective Plenipotentiary in the Administration of his Kingdom This sitting of the Fire upon each of them as it destroyeth the Erastian Supposition for the Apostles were neither Civilians nor common Lawyers or Statesmen so it prejudgeth both the Papal and Presbyterian pretensions The Papal because it sate not upon one S. Peter which might have entitled him to a Jurisdiction over the rest but upon each of them that what power one of them had all and each of them had For before Christ had warranted to them twelve Thrones for every Apostle one Matt. 19. 28. as Camero hath observed that every one might enjoy the same entire authority and supremacy The Presbyterian because it sate not upon all as fellow Collegues or Common-council-men but as so many single Persons not that they could not or did not for a time act jointly but that it sate upon all and every of them so that the power was granted to them jointly and severally whereupon when they took their circuits to their several apartments they severally exercised their Function and Office Bullinger's conjecture is We have no Canonical Records of the Government of the Church but in the Acts of the Apostles where the Platform is described and exemplified in the person of S. Paul from whose example and practice we are to conclude how the rest of the Apostles first planted and then governed the Church Bul. part 2. Epit. Tempor rerum Tab. 6. de Apostal c. But evident it is S. Paul acted as a single person without any dependence upon all or any of the Twelve Therefore if this observation hold all the rest planted and governed severally if this fail the state and condition of their employment will enforce it For if they depended after the College was broken up upon any one or the whole Community they could not effectually have executed their Commission because upon every exigent especially when they removed from one Province to another they must have had the consent of that one or the whole to license and authorize them which was utterly impossible to obtain For they then being dispersed into several Regions of great distance one from another they must give up their work till at every occasion they had received orders whether to undertake and how to manage it Very few or none of them knew where to find S. Peter if they did they had no Post-office to transmit and return expresses and the College after it was dissolved never assembled again Impossible therefore it was for them to execute their Commission validly under those circumstances unless each of them had been a Plenipotentiary by the tenour thereof Num. 3. As Christ invested the Apostles with this power in a due subordination to himself so they in virtue of his investiture were to constitute others to succeed them in the principals thereof Confessedly the Apostolical Office was to reside in the Church for ever So J. O. Independ Catech. p. 119. and the ordained by them were of the same Order with them so WÃ lo p. 43 44 144. upon which account the title of Apostles was allowed in Scripture to many of those whom the Apostles had separated for the work of the Ministery Calvin speaks faintly to the point on 1 Cor. 4. 9. Tales interdum vocat Apostolos malo tamen c. yet at last he comes off more frankly telling us plainly who those us Apostles last were Qui in ordinem Apostolicum post Christi Resurrectionem asciti fuerunt As Apollo Sylvanus Pisc c. is very liberal S. Paul gave them this title Eo quod eodem munere fungerentur Saint James was ordained Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles in the nineteenth of Tiberius saith Blondel in Chron. p. 43. the next year after Christ's Ascension by his account which in his censure of the Pontifical Epistles he affirms from all antiquity and Walo p. 20. assures us he was none of the Twelve yet he is called an Apostle Gal. 1. 19. which Blondel Apol. pro sent Hier. p. 50. thus confirms Saint Matthew the Apostle was a Bishop and Saint James the Bishop was called
Servant to Saul 1 Sam. 22. 12. and David was Lord to Nathan 1 Reg. 1. 24. so neither were the Kings to execute the Sacerdotal Function but were bound to consult their Priests and Prophets as Joshua was Eleazer Num. 27. 21. by God's appointment and David did Abiathar 1 Sam. 23. 6. We are sure Saul Jeroboam Vziah were severely checked for exercising such Acts as formerly belonged to the Priests not that they were debarred from regulating and providing for the due discharge of the Priestly Offices for that is a part of their duty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. and Arist l. 1. Ethic. c. 13. was herein Orthodox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they are to permit the Priests the exercises of their Functions and in matters of Religion to require the Law at their mouths Mal. 2. 7. which all Christian Kings have always granted Mr. Hobbs owneth that after the Ascension of our Lord the power Ecclesiastical was in Apostles after them in such as they had ordained and so delivered downward to others ordained by them and the great Erastian name hath yielded them a power to decide cases of Conscience and to declare what is lawfull what not This was respectively done but he fell far short of the mark for certainly to baptize Proselytes is a larger portion of power than bare interpreting or teaching the Law even a power to admit Members into the Christian Society and in all reason they who have power to admit have power occasionally to exclude hence that Gentleman was forced to confess they had power to bind and loose which in Scripture signifies to forbid and decree which is more than any Casuist or Preacher as such pretends to and is rather proper to a Legislative or Judicial Power which was sometimes exercised by the Church as when the Apostles upon a complaint where no less men than S. Paul and Barnabas were Advocates for the Plaintiffs passed an obligatory Decree Act. 15. 28. 16. 4. That Precept or Permission Tell the Church at least implies the Church had then power to take cognizance of trespasses and to say the civil Magistrate is that Church is ridiculous for then the sense would be Tell the trespass to Constantine three hundred years after it was committed for till then there was no certainly known Christian Emperour and Christians were not by the Discipline of the Church to seek for remedy at heathen Tribunals in the first instance Now as there was a subordination of these Powers so there was a distinction the one was the power of the Sword committed to the civil Magistrate to reward well-doers and to punish evil-doers of all kinds Rom. 13. 4. an Heretick a Schismatick an Idolater or Blasphemer as well as a Thief a Murtherer or a Traitor and this hath its immediate effect upon the outward man body and goods with reference to the concerns of this life Ezr. 7. 26. the other is the power of the Keys to labour in word and Doctrine to exhort and rebuke with all authority to rule well in spiritual concerns to bind and to loose 1 Tim. 1. 17. Tit. 1. 5. Matt. 16. 19. the proper operation whereof is upon the Soul with reference to the world to come There is a difference saith the above cited Joh. Frig. Refor Pol. between Dominion and Jurisdiction neither the Apostles nor chief Bishops exercised Dominion but their Offices having Jurisdiction p. 16. as in France saith he p. 17. the King hath the civil Dominion the Parliaments the Jurisdiction so in England the Queen hath the Dominion but the Bishops the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction hence Arist l. 10. Ethic. c. 9. n. 10. resolves Legislatours are differenced from Practitioners of Faculties 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Professours are to Act Legislatours to prescribe rules for acting The King's power is the supreme that of Priests subordinate which difference proceeds not from the natural excellency of the one power above the other but from the all-wise disposition of God who is the chief power empowring as he is said to be natura naturans The Bishops with their subordinate Ministers are the Executours of Christ's last Will and Testament the King is the Supervisor and the Judge too to grant them Letters of Administration Bishops and Priests are the Ministers of Religion Kings are the Rulers of it and them The substance of the whole is the true Sons of the Church of England are the sole Assertors of the King's Supremacy not onely in expressions and complement but in fact and real operation not upon reasons of State or dictates of Prudence but the rule of Conscience which none of the Dissenters therefrom will allow Not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with the King's Supremacy and by distinctions and limitations fix it certainly no where but make it as variable as their fortunes One of the most esteemed Partizans made this interpretation thereof The King is the supreme Governour but not the supreme Power Gallant Law Sophistry as if it were possible he could govern in chief who had not a power sutable thereto The Independents plead an exemption from it The Presbyterians utterly deny it Such a Supremacy as the Kings claimed and the two Houses of Parliament Erastian-wise craved indeed at first they did but beg it which after they plundred I disclaim said Henderson second Paper num 7. The true Nonconformist makes it the main work of his Book to charge it with Antichristianism The Pontificians perfectly abhor it The Prelatists are the onely defenders of it The Pontificians make Kings their Churches Ministers and Presbyterians make them their Kirk Ministers not the Ministers of God The Erastians and Independents are agreed they are originally the People's Ministers not God's The Prelatists assent with the Law of Christ and the Laws of the Kingdom the King is God's Minister Rom. 13. The Presbyterians and Independents resolve the Kingdom is in and under the Church and then the Government of that must be conformed to that of this If then the Presbyterians be rampant the civil Government must be Aristocratical If the Independents be the masters of Misrule it must be Democratical but if it happen the Erastians be the Sultans then the Game is King and no King at the best he is but their Trustee he must stand on his good behaviour and pass his accounts to the Patriots for the contracting good People If the Pope be the great Cham the civil Government must truckle SECT 3. To bring the matter nearer home there was a time when the blades of Fortune in 40 thought it prudent to declare they had no intentions for any alterations It was when the Earl of Essex his Army had scented and followed the Scent very hotly and when the King had objected the designs amongst them they formed a Declaration to renounce all such purposes Aug. 9. 42. as before they had protested against it as a slander and for once such an one as the Father of lies had
presumption This House is his Kingdom too Matt. 13. 24 31 33 34. Temporal Monarchs if they have occasions to absent themselves from their Dominions will always depute and substitute such as shall take care for the preservation of their Kingdoms in peace and tranquillity certainly we have lower thoughts of Christ than we have of an earthly Potentate if we can conceive that he having designed and formed a Kingdom of Heaven here upon Earth would at his departure hence be so careless and insensible of its after state and condition that he would not make sufficient provisions for its due management stability and perpetuity especially since we are ascertained this his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom to continue unto the worlds end and he hath promised so long he will be with it Matt. 28. ult which he effectually ordered Luke 22. 29. I have appointed you a Kingdom I who have full authority for all power is given me Matt. 28. 18. have appointed you as my Embassadours 2 Cor. 5. 20. to transact and negotiate the affairs of my Kingdom in all quarters of the world setting you on Thrones whereby ye are impowered by Commission to rule under me and for me and I have appointed all my faithfull Servants to give you double honour and be obedient unto you 1 Tim. 5. 17. 1 Thess 5. 12 13. Heb. 13. 17. viz. I have actually conferred the preheminence and dignity upon you not left my Kingdom at random to be ordered by contingent and infinitely variable votings not to be new modelled 1536. when Jesuitism and Presbyterianism first peeped out nor to be reformed to confusion in 1641. nor to receive amendments in 1648. and a refinement in 1680. and made a full grant to you and your Successours for ever what was then demised stands still in full force and virtue even the more prudent and sober of the Sectaries will subscribe to this there ought to be a Government in the Church that it continue not as a City without Walls or a Vineyard without a Hedge and many of them have stood stifly for the Jus Divinum of the several opposite and contradictory Models Sect. 2. It being now proved that Church Government is necessary both in respect of the appointment of its Head and from the constitution and nature of that Body it will necessarily follow that that necessary Government be always one and the same because the Head and the Body is always one and the same If once we admit several contradistinguished Governments we must grant several Heads and several Bodies It can never be proved from Scripture God will approve several Governments in his Church or that he hath permitted any degrees or orders of men to alter that which was from the beginning This is one of the great crimes we charge upon the Pope that he hath altered the Government of the Church which will appear to be unjust if the Government thereof be ambulatory and ad placitum Article what we can against him on this score if there be no one perpetual determinate Government he will easily abate the impeachment for he will clear himself by this that he being a Temporal Prince as well as an Ecclesiastical Prelate hath power upon reasons of State and Discipline to alter the Polity of the Church if God hath not fixed a constant unvariable Form For if it be arbitrary and precarious why should any Kingdom or State deny that power to him which they assume and usurp themselves In a well-ordered Kingdom he is not onely a Traitour who disclaims the jus Regnandi of his natural Liege Lord and Prince but he also who without any authority derived from him or contrary to his pleasure shall presume to exercise any of his Regalities or powers annexed to and inherent in the Crown so they who will readily grant Christ to be Head of the Church yet withall pretend a power to form another Government than that which he observed and ordered in his Church are formal Schismaticks and Traitours to Christ the King of Kings This is obvious if we reject the authority of the Church we renounce Christ's authority and if we levell and cashier the Catholick Government we schismatically divide and so far separate from the Catholick Church which receives that denomination not onely in respect of that Faith which is universally professed but also of the Government which hath been and is universally observed It is true there are many particular Churches in the Catholick which are distinct locally and in a foreign account but really and morally are onely one because they all and each of them adhere to the one Lord one Faith and one Baptism and retain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For this distinction is not in essentials or integrating requisites but onely happens to them upon an extrinsecal and adventitious account inasmuch as it doth not spring from any diversity or contrariety in Faith Sacraments or Government but doth onely accrue to them from the diversity of several Kingdoms independent one from another into which these are incorporated It is true there was some distinction of Churches before the Kingdoms of the earth were Christian yet this arose upon an accidental respect from the respective Plantations There is an ancient Tradition which is probable that every Apostle had his peculiar circuit appointed by Christ whereupon they some sooner some later dispersed themselves into Twelve several Regions and parts in the world to fix their Plantations if this be admitted they were necessitated to suit their Rules and introduce such Customs as were most proper for the inhabitants and possessours of their several Assignments this then will afford a probable reason of that variation of Orders and Customs in the Jewish and Gentile Plantations who were of different tempers and principles whom the Apostles would endeavour to please as S. Paul witnesseth of himself 1 Cor. 9. 19. 20. Now though hereupon several circumstantial observations were taken up in several places and Provinces yet still the same Faith and the same Government in the main was maintained The Conclusion then is all the Churches of Christ Primitive or Successive have but one Lord one Head one King are but all one Body one House one Kingdom therefore they all de jure are under one Government which what it is is next to be considered Sect. 3. That one necessary Government is Episcopacy or Prelacy which because it hath prevailed in the Catholick Church ever since the first plantation of Christianity is therefore undoubtedly Apostolical and if so then certainly Divine To demonstrate this the method will be to produce the Evidences in order Num. 1. Prelacy was founded originally in the person of Christ as the true Messiah It was foretold Isa 9. 6. the Government should be on his shoulders and this to be perpetual v. 7. and this he founded in an imparity of Ecclesiastical Officers settling two distinct Orders for Church Ministeries the twelve Apostles and
an Apostle the Apostles as Governours over their Plantations were called Bishops and Bishops with respect to the ministerial Mission were called Apostles Timothy and Titus saith Walo p. 44. were styled Apostles but in very truth were Bishops by the same right and of the same order that those are of this day who govern the Church and have authority over Presbyters This he undertakes to prove p. 62. Bishops hold the chief degree in Ecclesiastical Order as heretofore they did who were called Apostles but the Apostles and the Presbyter-Bishops were of a distinct Order as he labours to assert from Act. 15. 6. 22 23. in these words Tunc dicebatur in Conciliis ex utroque ordine compositis c. Then it was said of the Council moulded up of both Orders that of the Apostles and that of the Presbyters id p. 269. This he seconds with an observation from the Greek Interpreters p. 26 27. who concluded the Apostles were of an higher dignity than the Presbyters fairly resolving with them they were several Orders p. 269. and that Ordination could not be common to both p. 229. Cast all this together viz. The Order of the Apostles was of higher dignity than that of Presbyters the Apostles then were in truth Bishops these Bishops had command over the Presbyters they were distinct Orders all this in the Age of the Apostles and that Ordination could not be common to both the result will be there was then a disparity in Church Officers the identity of Name will not conclude an identity in Office Presbyters were under the Jurisdiction of Bishops to them and them onely Ordination appertained which is to assert from Scripture Diocesan Bishops in the Prelatists sense Calvin and Beza acknowledge there is a Subordination of many Ministers to one President by Divine appointment hoc fert natura c. This we have from nature the disposition of men requires it So Cal. l. 4. Inst c. 6. sect 8. It was it is and ever will be necessary ex Ordinatione Dei perpetua by the perpetual Ordinance of God there be one President So Beza defen p. 153. But hath this President any power yea a double power first regendae communis actionis jus to govern the common action summon Presbyters appoint time and place and propose matters c. The second is by authority to execute what is decreed by common consent Cal. l. 4. Inst c. 4. sect 2. But is he not capable of a standing power yea he may receive a farther latitude from the positive Laws of men who without any violation of Divine Ordinance may settle it on one man for his life For either in the days of the Apostles or immediately after the Episcopal Office became elective and perpetual to one man Quod certè reprehendi nec potest nec debet Bez. defens p. 141. inde But is not the application hereof merely humane No not wholly humanum non simpliciter tamen sed c. I may call it humane not simply but comparatively without any injury to the Fathers or so many Churches In good time The consectary of this if I mistake not is to reject this presidentiary-Presidentiary-power as such is repugnant to God's Ordinance to reject it upon the form of application is an injury to the Fathers and many Churches It is necessary from nature and the Divine Institution and the fixing of it in one person for life to distinct acts and purposes is Apostolical either in the Apostles Age or immediately thereupon and is Catholick ever since Very right for the conceit of a successive annual Presidency held by turns is both novel never any Church for 1500 years received it and also particular those who after did are so few that 500 for one have opposed it All antiquity hath avouched several persons whose names are found in the Scriptures to have been Bishops These names following are in the Scripture and Ancients of undoubted credit have averred them for Bishops as 1. James sirnamed the Just to have been Bishop of Jerusalem we have Blondel's Testimony for this from antiquity 2. Timothy was Bishop of Ephesus the Post-scripts which Beza saith were to be seen in all the Manuscripts he could meet with of the Epistles directed to him which if authentick strongly prove this if they be suspected these great names will make it good Epiph. Hier. Chrys Aug. Doroth. in Synop. who lived in Dioclesian's time Euseb l. 3. Eccl. Hist c. 4. to whose authorities Bucer in 4. ad Ephes Pellican in 1 Tim. 1. Zwinglius de Eccles and Walo as before is cited have subscribed but that which fully clears it is that the Fathers assembled in Council at Chalcedon have witnessed that untill their time twenty seven Bishops had successively sate at Ephesus from Timothy where it was granted so many there were though it was disputed whether all of them in that time were ordained at Ephesus or some of them ordained at Constantinople 3. Titus was Bishop Prelate of Crete as the Scripture declareth Tit. 1. where the two claimed Prelatical powers are found to be settled on him that of Ordination vers 5. in every City of that Territory or Region and that of Jurisdiction in the same verse to set in order the things that are wanting or left undone as we translate the words but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may rightly be rendred Correct things out of order which supposeth a power to censure and reform irregularities The voice of Antiquity is clear here Theod. Hier. Chrys the Scholiast c. of both of them we have good warranty for their authority over the Clergy S. Paul 1 Tim. 1. 3. besought Timothy to send out a prohibition against false teachers and he commanded Titus sharply to rebuke vain talkers and deceivers and if they will prate on to stop their mouths and to silence them Titus 1. 11 12 13. 4. Onesimus spoken of Col. 4. 9. and Philem. 10. was from a Servant to S. Paul advanced to be Deacon Hier. advers er Joh. Hier. and from a Deacon to be Bishop Euseb l. 3. c. 30. 5. Linus mentioned 2 Tim. 4. 21. and Clemens Phil. 4. 3. were Bishops of Rome by universal Tradition Diodate upon these words my yoke-fellow and fellow-labourer notes The Apostle here speaks to the chief Pastour who was to reade the Epistles directed to him in the publick Assembly Bidel Exerc. in Ign. Ep. c. 3. is very clear Clemens after the death of Linus and Cletus being the onely survivor alone retained the name of Bishop all others being styled barely Presbyters for which he assigns these reasons First for that he alone remained of all the fellow-la-bourers with the Apostles Secondly because the distinction of Bishops and Presbyters then prevailed This was in the Apostles times for Clemens was Bishop of Rome an 94. as Gualt reckons in his Chronol when Simon the Canaanite was living as Bulling thinks in his Annot. in Tab. 6. certainly S. John was for he died not till an
102. the ninth and last year of Clemens 6. Simeon named Act. 15. 14. after his Kinsman James the Brother of our Lord was martyred consecrated his Successour at Jerusalem an 63 or 64. Euseb l. 3. c. 10. and 16. so that for full eleven years he was of an inferiour Order for so many passed after the mention of him in the Acts. 7. Dionysius spoken of Act. 17. 24. was the first Bishop of Athens Euseb l. 3. c. 4. To these may be added Archippus Bishop of Coloss Apollo of Corinth Epaphroditus of Philippi Tychicus of Chalcedon Sylvanus Sosthenes c. but it will be sufficient to review the Catalogue of the four Patriarchal Sees 1. After James the first Bishop of Jerusalem fourteen of the Circumcision succeeded him Euseb l. 4. 5. whereof Justus was the last who died an 131. which is full twenty years before Blondel's Ara. 2. At Antioch after S. Peter Euodius was Bishop till an 98 then Ignatius till an 108 after him Cornelius who died before 140. 3. Eight successive Bishops sate at Rome till 140. in which year Higinus was consecrated Antonini Pii Tertio 4. At Alexandria five are accounted from S. Mark the last whereof Eumanes was ordained an 134. Num. 4. That all these had the same power which is now claimed by Bishops is evident from Rev. 1. 20. where as the seven Angels of the Asian Churches are distinguished from the Churches so every of those Angels had a power of Jurisdiction in their respective Churches to redress abuses For why should they be particularly taxed for scandals and irregularities therein if they had no power to reform and remedy them It seems too severe to charge neglects on them who have no power to take cognizance of crimes and to correct them That those Asian Churches were fixed and determinate distinct Churches the Presbyterians cannot deny who affirm they were governed by Presbyters for that must needs be a determinate Body which is governed by one or by many The Independents shift we find here a Congregational Church wherein were many Congregations many Ministers many Believers many Pastours is frivolous for there might and many such there were yet these might be and were under one President over them in Chief for such as these many are to be found in our Cities where there are Bishops to rule them and it is evident that those Prefects were and did exercise authority over both Laity and Clergy from the rule given to Timothy by S. Paul before alledged John Frigivile of Gaunt writ his Reform Pol. an 1593 wherein he avers p. 64 c. Q. Elizabeth maintained the Government and State of the Clergy in England as God had ordained in the Law and confirmed in the Gospel for said he p. 14. Though the Apostles were equal among themselves concerning authority yet no sooner was the Church encreased but different degrees began S. Paul charged Timothy who was Bishop of one of those Seven Churches not to admit an accusation against a Priest therefore he might admit or reject an accusation against a Priest and therefore he had Jurisdiction even over a Priest Dr. Raynolds's Conference with Hart p. 535. thus states it In the Church at Ephesus were sundry Elders and Pastours to guide it yet among those sundry there was one Chief whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church here then is our Saviour's approbation for the Chiefty of the Order and this is he whom afterwards in the Primitive Church the Fathers called Bishop Num. 5. The Apostles having ordained Bishops to succeed them in the Government of the Church they who were so ordained were thereby authorized to ordain others and so on to the end of the world Matt. 28. ult which in the judgment of the best Interpreters imports Though the Apostles continued not in their Persons yet should in their Successours That there should be such a Succession is concluded from Scripture Act. 1. 20. must one be ordained to take Judas his Bishoprick which by Divine disposition fell upon Matthias who as Euseb reports l. 2. c. 1. was of the Seventy an inferiour because a distinguished Rank to that of the Apostles which seems probable from v. 21. it being the employment of the Seventy to accompany and attend them Saint Paul appointed Timothy to depute faithfull persons to officiate in the Church 2 Tim. 2. 2. yea so great care had the Apostles for a Succession that as Clemens reports they Note Lift or Catalogue of approved men who should succeed the present Bishops in each Church Num. 6. In the Apostles times certainly immediately after there were three Orders in the Church not as Calvin who first conjured up Lay-Elders to be his officious Agitatours recites them nor as Mr. Dallee conjectures but as they are accounted in the Church of England Bishops Priests and Deacons Indeed it is very likely there was first but one Order the Apostolical or Episcopal the Apostles or Bishops discharging all Church Administration and Offices But they having a power entire in themselves and radically they were enabled to derive and communicate what they thought fit for the necessities of the Church to others Accordingly the Church increasing as it is recorded in the Acts the Order of Deacons was instituted who were not empowered onely to collect receive and distribute Alms to the necessities of the poor but to higher Ecclesiastical Offices For we find Philip both preached and baptized Acts 8. 35 38. That this Philip was not the Apostle but the Deacon Calvin thinketh so because he supposeth the Apostles were not then removed from Jerusalem Gualter is positive from the Testimony of Epiph. de Sim. c. and all ancient Writers Certainly Saint Cypr. ad jub is clear A Philippo Diacono quem iidem Apostoli Petrus scil Johannes miserant baptizati erant Beza reckoning the Pastoral Offices and duties adds Sub quibus c. under which we comprehend the Administration of Sacraments and the blessing of Marriage from the perpetual use of the Church in which particulars the Deacons often supplied the place of the Pastours so he Confess c. 5. Aphor. 25. This he attempts to prove from Joh. 4. 2. 1 Cor. 1. 14. with him concurrs Bull. Fleming Magdab who all received it from Just Mar. Ambr. Hter Aug. the Greek Par. and Tert. who is most express Dandi quidem c. The chief Priest that is the Bishop hath the first right of administring Baptism then the Presbyters and Deacons How long these two Orders continued in the Church is not fully resolved Some conceive from Act. 14. 23. about an 49. Claudii Septimo the third Order that of Presbyter was superinduced others conjecture not so early however Cities and their Territories submitting to the Sceptre of Christ Presbyters were constituted before all the Apostles died yet the Bishops still reserved the power of Ordination and by consequence of Jurisdiction as in the Greek Chruch even to this day Bishops alone Ordain as Arcud de
Concord l. 6. c. 4. sect Igitur observes Indeed in the Latin Church Presbyters did lay on hands with the Bishop at the Ordination of a Presbyter yet this was observed not for its validity but for its solemnity and attestation For the African Fathers who ordered it ascribed the entire power to the Bishop Cod. Afric c. 55. 80. and even at Rome besore S. John's death Presbyters were settled in several Parishes by Enaristus Caron p. 44. and therefore we may believe before that the same was done in earlier converted Churches Mr. Toung in his Notes on S. Clem. 1. Ep. ad Cor. out of a Book which Mr. Petty brought from Greece hath this Sentence S. Peter was in Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 settled Churches by laying hands on Bishops Priests and Deacons It will not be amiss to superadd how far the Waldenses concurred in judgment upon this case with the Church of England which we find Parsons third part of the Three Conversions of England cap. 3. p. 44. who relates from Vrspurg Trithem Antomin and others that they onely approved three Ecclesiastical Orders at which his tender Conscience was moved viz. That of Deaconship Priesthood and Bishops which is very probable for the Fratres Bohemi to continue a succession of Bishops sent twelve men to the Waldenses in Austria to be ordained Bishops by their Bishops which was accordingly done and Corranus a Spaniard one of the Waldenses flying thence into England was retained a Preacher at the Temple and dedicated a Dialogue to the Lawyers there an 1574. in the close whereof he maketh a confession of his Faith where he declares his judgment herein I hold saith he there be divers Orders of Ministers in the Church of God viz. Some are Deacons some Priests some Bishops to whom the instruction of the People and the care of Religion is committed This we are sure of S. Bernard complains heavily many Bishops were of their Communion This was the primitive Establishment Conc. Cart. 3. and 4. Chal. Act. 1. for which reason Nazian in Vita Basil enforms us that he rose to his Bishoprick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the order and rule of spiritual ascent one degree after another So S. Hier. writes of Nepot in Ep. Fit Clericus per solitos gradus c. Num. 7. If S. Augustine's known and generally approved rule be admitted then the Order of Bishops is truly Apostolical because maintained in all Apostolical Chruches before any general Council had determined it And Tert. his Sorites will make it good which was that is truest which is first that is first which was from the beginning that was from the beginning which was from the Apostles that was from the Apostles which was inviolably and religiously observed in all Apostolical Churches Calvin speaks fairly to the case and so doth Beza too if their words may be taken who have tricks to eat them in the former saith the Bishops of the ancient Church made many Canons with that circumspection they had nothing almost contrary to the word of God in their whole Oeconomy l. 4. Instit c. 1. sect 14. but more fully thus they did not frame any other form of Government in the Church than that which God prescribed in his word The latter averreth what was then done was done optimo Zelo if so then they did it from warranty either from the Scripture or universal Tradition S. Hierome himself once said it was an Apostolical Tradition and when he said it was a Custome he proved it a good one because ordered for a good end as a safe remedy against Schism and an Apostolical Custome because taken in the Apostles times when one said I am of Paul c. which happened an 58. The disparity of Bishops and Priests was so religiously maintained in the primitive Church that the Fathers in the Council of Chalc. Act. 1. adjudged it sacrilege to bring down a Bishop to the degree of a Presbyter and the Doctrine of parity was condemned as flat Heresie in Aerius because he positively affirmed that there was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. one Order one Honour one Dignity in the Priesthood Dr. Crack Defens Eccl. Anglic. contra Arch. Spal p. 242 243. Bishops then as they were settled in matricibus Ecclesiis the Apostolical mother Churches so have been continued in all successive Ages without any considerable opposition for 1500 years which is so strong and cogent an argument to some who have not been over-fond of Episcopacy they have resolved it unanswerable since the Order hath been canvassed by some yet is still retained either in the Name or Thing in all the Eastern and Southern Churches generally in the Western and Northern reformed and others unless in two or three petty Associations in comparison of the rest where by reason of some cross circumstances it cannot be obtained though highly approved and much affected by most of their learned men never disowned or abominated by any but those whose zeal for the good Old Cause is immoderate S. Augustine's expression insolentissima insania insolent madness Num. 8. If these Structures be built upon the Foundation of the Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone the Fabrick is as firm as Mount Sion which may not be removed For if the Apostles did settle Bishops in their several Plantations and these such as the Prelatists plead for then that is the one necessary Government to be retained in the Church For the Apostles being inspired by the Holy Ghost they did then act and order the Church according to his directions Amesius himself resolves what is Apostolical Stands by Divine Right his words are Med. Theol l. 2. c. 15. n. 28. The Apostles were acted by the Divine Spirit no less in their Institutions than in the very Doctrine of the Gospel propounded by word or writing This he delivers to assert the Divine Authority and unalterableness of the Lord's day and will therefore hold here For if Episcopacy stand in the Church by the same authority that the Lord's day doth which Dr. Hammond hath fully proved then it hath the same Divine Authority for its Establishment This King James saw and so Premonition p. 44. is very positive That Bishops ought to be in the Church I always maintained as an Apostolical Order and so the Ordinance of God The Dissenters who allow of Church Government as such have often declared what concerns the rule of Government in the Church by Officers appointed by Christ is unchangeable Now that the Bishops are those Officers hath been evidenced from Scripture Rules and Precedents and confirmed by the suffrage of a cloud of Witnesses who as they accord in their Testimonies so were faithfull unto death some whereof were the chosen Witnesses of Christ's Resurrection some were immediate Successours to those ordained by the Apostles others of the highest reputation in the Church for testifiers of Catholick Tradition all of them had and still have such credit in the
Christian world that their attestation hath ever since been reverenced and accepted in momentous matters of Religion such as the religious observation of the Lord's day the number and integrity of the Canonical Books of holy Scripture the Baptism of Infants c. Episcopacy at least stands upon the same grounds with these if these upon the true measures of Piety and Religion be not alterable neither is it The most learned of the Dissenters have been forced to use the same proofs for these which we do for Episcopacy when they have not done so they have been baffled in a good cause as hereafter may be exemplified The Conclusion then is to attempt a Reformation of Episcopacy by its extermination is contrary to the sure and standing Rules of Christianity CHAP. III. THIS is farther to be discussed in point of prudence whether the change or standing thereof will conduce more to the publick interest which may be dispatched by these observations SECT 1. They who to the diminution or abolition of Episcopacy have or would set up new models of Church Government are either the Erastians the Presbyterians the Independents or the Pontificians The three former were hatched since an 1510. the last was long of hammering but was never rightly cast till Julius the Second moulded it at Lateran and of a crackt piece made it whole Now every of these will prefer Episcopacy caeteris paribus before any of the other Platforms but their own espoused Darling which they would have all to accept because complying with and favouring their wordly designs and interests But ask seriously any of the more observing and understanding men which of the Claimers they would rather incline to provided they could not possibly procure their own to bear the sway they will fairly take to Episcopacy Num. 1. The Erastians will by no means joyn with the Pontificians because they challenge and usurp a power to take cognizance in causes merely Civil in ordine ad spiritualia Not with the Presbyterians because they also claim the same sub formalitate Scandali both of them maintain the power both of make and confirm Ecclesiastical Laws as originally and radically in their supreme Judicatures the Civil Magistrate is onely to execute them which he must doe upon their Significavit's and Writs of Requisition at his peril otherwise he shall be clogged with their Sentences of Excommunication Nor do they much fansie the Independents because they will not endure the Civil Magistrate to interpose in Church matters nor have the least stroke in externals of Religion As for the Bishops though it be a grievance that they sometimes meddle in matters of a mixt nature yet because they know that what they act in these cases is by authority derived from the Civil Magistrate according to the known standing Laws they esteem Episcopacy as the most safe and expedient form and so Bishops may stand for the present till they can by rebellion grasp again all Civil and Ecclesiastical power in their clutches Num. 2. Independents utterly dislike both Erastians and Pontificians and though they can associate with the Presbyterians at present yet they hold no good opinion of them In a Book entituled Saint John Baptist they heavily declaim against them saying They had established a Dagon in Christ's Throne had stinted the whole worship of God c. at last it came to this they had rather the French King yea the Great Turk should rule over them In a Book called The Arraignment of Persecution they declared If ever the Presbyterians rule in chief an higher persecuting spirit would be found in them than they had felt from the Bishops J. O. hath excellently decyphered these Num. 3. The Presbyterians grin at them all Beza is as angry at Erastus Socinus and Morellius as the Pope Mr. Henderson's tender Conscience started at the thought of them The Books are commonly to be had wherein they oft and sadly complained all that they could expect for their expences of Bloud and Treasure none of their own was to be recompensed with greater grievances and more dangerous licentiousness which is too true than they ever mourned for which is very false for most of them were colloguing compliers under the Government of King and Bishops At last they cried out Matters were come to that pass they had exchanged a bad Religion for none at all See Excom Excom p. 18. inde And Edwards his Gangrene Num. 4. The Papists of all men had the advantage but the more sober considering men among them have expressed That all their purchases of Proselytes were no compensation for those miseries they had sustained and still feared from the Junto's and that they were much more happy under the former Government which secured their civil Liberties and Birth-rights SECT 2. But let it be for once presumed that each of those Models had somewhat good yet withall recollect that the Constitution of this Church is of so excellent a mixture with the choicest ingredients that it will effect those great ends so much pretended by them more strongly and obligingly if it may attain its just value and respect For Num. 1. The Erastians are to be commended for their pretended care and endeavours that the power of the Civil Magistrate be not infringed by any Ecclesiastical Usurpation So far good if they were not possessed or rather pretend onely to be with fears and jealousies that this Church approved some principle to the diminution of the Civil Power which what it is none can with any colour of reason conjecture unless this be it that whilst she fully renders to Caesar the things that are Caesar's she is still cautious to reserve to God the things that are God's Erastus the first Founder of that Order had no prejudice against any thing determined in this Church upon that score if we respect either the motives which induced him to quarrel the Allobrogian Model or the Arguments he framed against it The Motives were 1. He had observed that Calvin had so cunningly contrived it that he and his assisting Ministers could upon every occasion overtop the Statesmen The artifice lay herein he took for a blind onely six Ministers but twelve Syndicks yet so that the Ministers were to continue for life but the Statesmen to be annually chosen whereby he conceived these changling Officers would be so wary as not to cross the standing Moderatours which so happened as he himself signified in his Epistle to Bulling Semper fuimus in ist a promiscua colluvie superiores We had always the better in that rifraff Junto 2. He knew those chosen Officers had neither age or experience nor judgment nor manners a full description of the late Lay-Elders to enable them to sustain so great an employment with credit and honour 3. He was provoked that a Malecontent English fugitive had liberty to discuss this Thesis viz. That in every well-ordered Church this Government was to be retained in which the Ministers with the concurrence of
the Elderships should have the power of excommunicating all offenders even Princes themselves Hereupon in a just indignation he expressed his abhorrence of this bold seditious Proposition yet with great indiscretion he causelesly vented his wrath against Excommunication as it was a Church Discipline His Arguments improved by his Followers are these He supposed Excommunication did totally cut off the excommunicated from the internal and invisible Communion of the Church whereupon his Followers argued If the power of Excommunication be in the Church Officers then it lies in their power to save or damn men But his supposition is false and the inference of his Followers is wild as one and the most learned of them hath observed for he saith finis hujusmodi disciplinae c. The end of this discipline not final Sentence was is so still that the censured being deprived of the spiritual privileges of the Church they might be humbled to salvation This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth for its onely a barr from the external visible Society of Believers not to exclude men from heaven but to encline them to put themselves in a capacity to be received again into the peace of the Church for the enjoyment of those great privileges of holy commerce which all men religiously affected earnestly desire and value A method of Discipline which Christ and his Apostles thought proper to reduce and reclaim sinners It is medicinal in Saint Augustine's expression To. 9. Serm. de Poeniten med if that Tract be his ordained and applied for edification not destruction if for destruction it is for that of the Flesh that the Spirit might be saved 1 Cor. 5. 15. or it s a Chastisement the censured are thereby chastised of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. 32. which Chastisement is not sweet or joyous for the present but grievous yet yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. 2. Excommunication say they is a censure inferring a civil Penalty therefore if the Church makes use of it she enlargeth her Phylacteries by an encroachment on the civil Power But where do those wrathfull Objectours find this or how can they prove it It was always reckoned in the Catalogue of spiritual gifts practised by the Church for spiritual ends and uses and exercised upon the members of the Church qua tales in that capacity onely if upon contempt hereof a civil Penalty was incurred this proceeded not from the quality and nature of the censure but from the authority of the civil Magistrate who so far respected the Church that he made provisions against the contempt of her Discipline That which the Church aims at is either to reduce the offender or to warn others or to discharge her duty in discountenancing and disowning dangerous prevailing Heresies Schisms and Scandals all which are of spiritual concernment and cognizance 3. The Bishops claim this power by Divine Right and why not Forsooth this is contrary to the Oath of Supremacy and sets up two Supremes in one Kingdom This is an high Charge I am persuaded if the great Turk was acquainted with this noble Argument he would in a rage destroy all the poor Christian Bishops in his Empire or else he would scorn and deride it as it justly deserveth For the Argument runs thus Ministers by a Divine Right challenge a power to baptize Proselytes communicate Christians and doe other offices belonging to their Functions Therefore they set up two Supremes in one Kingdom or thus The Scripture declareth the Holy Ghost made them Overseers to feed the Church of God sure they may pretend to Divine Right who derive their title from the Holy Ghost Therefore the Scripture contradicteth that Supremacy which it establisheth But in sober sadness did none of the first Christian Emperours or after Kings understand their Religion and Prerogative did they ever declare the Imperial and Episcopal power were incompatible were they all so blind they could not espie this so obvious an inconsistency or did any of our own great Councils before that of 40. ever make such a determination As for our own Kingdom we may without disparagement to their great wisedoms compare many of our Kings with the ablest of any or all of them King Henry the Eighth was a wise Prince one that would not bate an Ace of his Sovereignty yet he never scrupled at the Divine Right of Episcopacy Q. Elizabeth was as jealous of her Prerogative and as zealous for it as the highest and most masculine Spirit yet she reverenced and maintained the Order The greatest for Learning and Judgment the Father and the Son were as Prelatical as the Prelatists What King James his opinion was of Episcopacy is before related what it was concerning his Supremacy which he cogently asserted he thus expressed Premonition p. 108. It consists not in making Articles of Faith but in commanding obedience be given to the word of God in reforming Religion according to his prescribed will in assisting the spiritual Power this is to be noted with the temporal Sword in procuring due obedience to the Church mark this too in judging and cutting off all frivolous Questions and Schisms as Constantine did and finally in making a decorum to be observed in all things and establishing Order in all indifferent things King Charles the First of blessed memory hath above and beyond all others resolved the case in his answer to Henderson's Papers in his Reply to the Answer of the Isle of Wight Divines Rel. Car. fol. 691. and in his final Answer fol. 709. Sir Henry Spelman in his large History of Titles p. 157. thus stated it God hath committed the Tabernacle to Levi as well as the Kingdom to Judah and though Judah hath power over Levi as touching the outward Government even of the Temple it self yet Judah meddled not with the Oracle and the holy Ministery but received the will of God from the mouth of the Priest This is evident God for the promoting of Piety and Justice among men hath ordained two distinct Powers the Regal and the Sacerdotal which in the times of the Patriarchs were formally united and inseparably followed the first born of the male kind in every Family This he seemed to alter in the persons of Moses and Aaron investing Moses the younger Brother with the Regality Aaron the elder in the Priesthood both these received their Commissions from God Num. 16. Every power is the Ordinance of God but the Regal as Supreme the Sacerdotal as Subordinate which subordination is not essential or causal but moral by virtue of God's Constitution and accidental for Order's sake Certainly God who gives all power can order a subordination of powers derived from him the one to be superiour the other inferiour and God was pleased to dispose the distribution of those under the Mosaical dispensation that as the Priests were not to usurp the Regal for Abimelech was
pretend great zeal against Ignorance and Sin and the other is aggrieved at promiscuous Communions though both of them by their barkings and bawlings against this Church and the Discipline and Government thereof have and do still obstruct the methods which she hath provided as remedies against those maladies Now that those Offices which she hath determined for those ends are proper and very instrumental through the assistence of the Divine grace which accompanies and inanimates them to devoutly affected Christians most effectual thereto they will be necessitated to acknowledge by observing the Order prescribed which lies thus Every Infant is to be solemnly matriculated into the Church by holy Baptism these baptized in a competent time are to be catechised in the principles of Christian Religion and then to be confirmed by the Bishop and are required to give attention to the reading and preaching of the word of God Being thus prepared they are admittable to the great mystery of the holy Eucharist and for neglect of these means the offenders are liable to the censures of the Church That these methods are Scriptural and Apostolical most of the Dissenters acknowledge some of them indeed scruple at Confirmation but Calvin conceives it to be originally Apostolical with whom more than a whole Jury of reformed Divines have given in their Verdict Mr. Baxter thinketh it would quiet the wrangle about the formality of a Church Covenant and Membership Mr. Brinsley of Yarmouth was of opinion it would remove all the fears and jealousies of vain Disputers Calvin is positive this office was performed by the Bishop from the beginning and Mr. Dallee commends that of S. Hier. Episcopus c. in Dial. inter Orth. and Lucef In this I blame the Presbyterians and Independents because at present they hang together by the tails but for all the fair copies of their Countenances if their wished and laboured for turn come their faces will look several ways If the Presbyterians get the start and keep their ground for a while they will soon proclaim the Independents to be Babylonians If the Independents once more out-wit the Presbyterians and turn them out of power and trust then the Independents will face about and tell them roundly they are Egyptians SECT 5. As for the Papists the best they can brag on is their unity of which they rant highly that they and they onely have found out the true way to it this is a mere bravado to which a wise and learned person made heretofore this return viz. Let me see the Jesuits and Seculars reconciled in England a Dominican and Jesuit in Doctrinal Papistry French and Italians in state Papistry then I shall allow them a little to vapour their oral and conclave Traditionists are hard at it in their confutations of each other their great heads of Unity Pope Sixtus and Clemens fell very foul one with another they cannot agree about the Supremacy of a Pope and a Council nor which of their four or five Churches is the infallible one the Popes and Councils have declared several ways upon the points which obviates their common shift viz. Their clashings and bickerings are but in scholastick opinions and niceties for then the definitions of Popes and Councils are no matters of Faith But here again they quarrel for some assert a Doctrine is heretical by its repugnancy to what is revealed by Christ others affirm a Doctrine is heretical because the Church hath declared so it s the former sort thus confutes If the Doctrine be heretical from the Churches declaration then the Church hath power to make Articles of Faith about which also there is a great bustle among them for some of them peremptorily deny the Church hath any power to make Articles of Faith but most of the Canonists and all the Popes Exchequer men affirm it so schismatically are they divided about their Church the Head thereof with the terms and objects of their pretended Unity when these are smartly objected to them their onely salvo is Their Rule would be a means to hold them in unity if it were followed Very good for the plain English of this is their Rule about which they so smartly wrangle and concerning which they could never yet agree will or may be a means of unity when they are agreed about it In opposition whereto we assert the Rule which we propose is not flexible like theirs but infallible viz. the sure word of God duly applied for the application whereof we take in the consentient judgment of the universal Church in matters of Faith and in points of practice the constant usage thereof these we stand to because if they be not the true means of unity the true Church of God which always relied on these and no other had never any If to this some Romanists give assent as some of them do they are so far English Episcopal Protestants From all which premised there is great reason and good warranty to conclude that under the Government of King and Bishops the Civil Power is most safely fixed mixt Communion Ignorance and Sin are most effectually provided against Unity and Obedience storngly guarded therefore whatsoever good or desirable can be expected from Erastianism Presbyterianism Independency or Popery is really experimented in Episcopacy and therefore this in true polity ought to be retained and supported the other modes are not to be admitted or entertained not the Erastians for they play at fast and loose with Kings and the Church they respect no Government present to which their submission is compliance not obedience Not the Presbyterians for they encroach upon and vilifie Kingly authority if they find a King they will if they dare shackle him or in our Northern expression houghband him Not the Independents for with them Kings are the Peoples Creatures and Trustees neither will they permit him with their good wills to intermeddle in Church Affairs Not the Pontificians for reasons given by the learned Doctor Stillingfleet and that honourable Person who seconded him It is therefore the clear interest of the Crown if it would have a Church National to govern by it ought to be Protestant Episcopal as a late ingenious Writer hath observed lest if it be held of the Pope Kirk or People in Capite it totter and fall That Probleme which Dr. Prideaux Ep. Ded. ad fasc Contro An suprematus Papalis sit potiùs Antichristianus quà m Presbyterianus aut Enthusiasticus may hence easily be resolved if we be not too palpably partial we must declare them all or none at all to be Tyrannical or Antichristian The best Argument ever yet produced to prove the Pope to be Antichrist is his bold challenge over all Kings and Monarchs to depose them and dispose of their Crowns and Dignities which if it be good it will hold as strongly against all other Sectaries for they are as truly the Limbs of Antichrist who preach and press Rebellion against their lawfull Sovereign and those commissionated by
him upon a Puritan Vote or Republican Resolution as they who prove and prosecute it upon the Pope's Placet or Fiat that cannot be the mystery of Godliness and Saintship in a Presbyterian or Independent which is presumed to be the mystery of Iniquity in the Pope and if the Doctrine of Rebellion be the mark of the Beast in a Pontifician it cannot be a sign of Election in a Smectymnuan or Owenist for if the Pope by the plenitude of his power can discharge Subjects from the Oath and bonds of Allegiance then the Sectaries by what names or titles soever divided or subdivided can free themselves upon easier terms for one will absolve himself by a dormant dispensation of the spirit another excuse himself by the pretence of a new light a third will plead Providence a fourth Conscience and the Blades of Fortune will stand upon their privileges The result of this tedious Chapter is God had always a Church this Church had always a Government this was always detemined by God who in the first Ages of the world settled this power on the first-born who were both Kings and Priests after he separated these Offices Moses to hold the Kingly power Aaron the Priestly yet he so ordered that the Priestly power should be subordinate to the Regal he foretold the like order should be established in the Christian Church that Nations should flow into it Isa 2. 2. and the Kings of those Nations should be nursing Fathers to it Isa 49. 23. that together with them should be spiritual Fathers Bishops as Prefects therein Isa 60. 17. for Clement according to that Copy which the Apostle useth reads that Comma thus viz. I will make thy Bishops peace so do the Seventy who in nineteen other places render the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop so Pagnine from R. Abraham and Buxtorf what we translate Office Psal 109. 8. they reade Prefecture which S. Peter Acts 1. 2. calls Bishoprick what was thus prophesied God in the fulness of time determined by his all-wise providence verified when the Church was first governed by our Lord Jesus Christ who had under him Commission-officers his Apostles and under them the Seventy Disciples After his Ascension and descent of the Holy Ghost the Apostles ruled in chief having Attendants and Assistants to them whom they after substituted as the necessities of the Church required for Bishops with Deacons and Priests under their Jurisdiction Thus the Church stood and was governed for 300 years till the nursing Fathers appeared then and ever since Kings and Bishops have presided in it Kings having the Dominion Bishops the Jurisdiction in the Catholick Church This was one great end of the Reformation to restore our Kings and Bishops to their universally acknowledged Rights due to them by Divine Law this of all other Governments is the most Christian rational and practicable because most suiting with the main end of Government which is that we may live quiet and peaceable lives without any Faction or Schism in all godliness and honesty and this therefore and no other is to be retained in the Church both upon the true measures of piety and prudence CHAP. IV. THE next thing canvassed in this Church is the constituted Worship of God by Liturgy with Ceremonies and Holy-days SECT 1. If it can be evinced that prescribed Forms were used in the Three first Centuries it will follow in the judgment of all unprejudiced persons they are still to be practised and imposed Num. 1. Our Lord and Saviour prescribed a Form to his Disciples Matt. 6. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not onely for the Matter but very Form for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. is the same with that Numb 6. 23. according to the Septuagint which did not respect onely the Substance but the Words as they were dictated S. Luke makes it clear When ye pray say Verba recitationem certam praescribit saith Melanch he gave them an Express saith Diod. long before them S. Cypr. de Orat. Dom. Christ consulting the salvation of his people delivered them Etiam orandi Formam and before him Tert. de Or. c. 1 9. Novam c. he ordered a new Form of Prayer and before them both in Trajan's Reign the Christians ordinarily used it as our Greg. observ'd from Lucian The Context will confirm the interpretation for it is generally received the Jewish Teachers did compose Forms for their Disciples S. John Baptist did whereupon Christ's Disciples moved him also for a Form Luk. 11. 1. that thereby they might be owned for such In compliance whereto our Saviour granted their Petition yet with that caution to decline novelty that he took much of it from the Jewish Euchologue as not onely our Greg. hath noted but Drusius also and Capellus plain it is from the manner of its composure it was not delivered as a Directory but as a Liturgy not onely as a Rule to form our Prayers by but a form to pray in good reasons also there are to persuade us notwithstanding the silence of the Scripture that the Disciples constantly so used it for it was a Symbol of their Discipleship not unto them as common Jews who onely used the Church Ritual but as Christ's retainers whose privilege and honour it was to have a Form of his setting they under this relation moved him for a Form in order to its observation and to discriminate them from other Jews or Disciples of other Masters Num. 2. Our Saviour himself practised composed Forms Matt. 26. 30. which Cam. assures us was the solemn customary Hymn which concluded the Supper and it is the more probable because the Disciples joyned with Christ in it which they could not have done unless they had been well acquainted with it Again he used the same prayer thrice Matt. 26. 44. so upon his complaint upon the Cross he used the words of David Psal 22. 1. and when he gave up the Ghost Luk. 23. 46. he took a Form from Psal 31. 7. Num. 3. We have the Presidents of S. Peter and S. John attending the ordinary service Acts 3. 1. which the circumstances of time and place do evince for if they neglected the daily Service or used any other they would have given an offence to the Jews whose conversion they endeavoured this is confirmed from that observation of learned men that the first Christians accommodated all their Offices to the Jewish Ritual and revived the moral Service of God practised in the Jewish Church which was always by a determinate Form saith Capel from Maim Syn. Crit. in Loc. and appears from Luk. 1. 10. compared with Rev. 8. 4. for at the time of Incense they had three Forms called Emeth Gnaboah and Shemshalom because they began with these words Lightf Desc of the Temple Service Mr. Selden in his Notes on Eut. p. 41. from Maim relates The Jews were permitted to have their voluntary prayers yet not on the Sabbath
and Feast days nor with the solemn appointed Sacrifices because prescribed Prayers were then to be observed but onely at the Free-will Offerings and then too with these restrictions they should not be extemporary but prepared Prayers nor were they permitted to the whole Congregation which was tied up to the daily Offices Those places of Saint Paul Eph. 3. 19. Col. 3. 16. are a plain reference to the Jewish practice for there he useth those three Greek words by which the Septuagint renders the three Hebrew Mismorim Tehillath or Rabbinice as Buxt Tehillim and Shirim Diod. interprets this Text by reference to Psal 55. 17. as others to Dan. 6. 10. Num. 4. Primitive practice is deduced 1. From Acts 13. 2. where the Church is said to be solemnly at her Liturgy ministring not to the people by Alms or other acts of Charity but to God in the acts of his Worship in publick Prayers and other parts of the Evangelical Ministery saith Diod. This is agreeable to that Text Acts 2. 42. which in Mr. Calvin's judgment delineates the true state of the Church treating of publick Prayers And to that Acts 4. 24. when the hundred and twenty Converts prayed unanimously and uniformly there were no dissenters amongst them nor mutes all joyned and all in one Form and this a set Form as it is set down in the Text. 2. From 1 Cor. 11. 5. every man and woman c. This at first sight is obvious all of both Sexes prayed and prophesied and from the Context this was done in the publick Assemblies when the Church met v. 20. and this according to an Apostolical Tradition which S. Paul charged them to keep v. 2. But what then is this praying and prophesying 1. This praying here is not by an extemporary faculty or volubility of language it may be questioned whether that was then in use for if when S. Paul Rom. 12. Gal. 5. Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 12. enumerated the gifts of the Spirit he gave a full Catalogue thereof then this pretended gift is begged because no such is mentioned in that Company that of praying by the Spirit 1 Cor. 14. 15. was praying in an unknown Tongue v. 14. which required an interpreter however this be those gifts were not common to all Believers neither was any of them communicated to select persons for popularity and ostentation but for profit and edification yea their proper purpose was to prevent that licentiousness that was taken from the pretence thereof and even to restrain arbitrary prayers and to confine the gifted to such suggestions as the holy Spirit dictated to them this is evident the Apostle censures some of the pretenders for clashing one with another 1 Cor. 14. 21. it was never heard that the Spirit was given to any to pray upon their own heads or according to their own lusts interests and passions but supposing there were such a gift yet it was not to be used at every meeting for if an Interpreter were wanting at any such meeting then all they had to doe was either to resort to the Common Prayers or to break up and be gone neither lastly was this gift given promiscuously to all of all Sexes it being pretended as a peculiar to the Minister or some inspired person endowed therewith therefore praying here must be praying in the Church v. 20. 22. by the Churches prayers according to the order and custome thereof 1 Cor. 14. 40. and then the meaning is Every man or woman meeting at the Church or observing the customary constituted devotions ought to be thus habited and thus to demean themselves 2. By Prophesying here we are not to understand prediction of future events nor the gift of interpreting what was spoken by the gift of Tongues 1 Cor. 14. v. 2 3. nor for speaking to men for edification 1 Cor. 12. 29. all are not Prophets nor is it to be taken passively as some imagine for hearing a Prophecy for then every one that hears a Prophecy is a Prophet and by the same reason every one that hears a Sermon is a Preacher and a reason ought to be rendred why praying should not be interpreted passively as well as prophesying but the notion here is the same with that of 1 Sam. 10. 5. 1 Chron. 25. 1. Luk. 1. 67. for singing Psalms and Hymns so the sense is perspicuous viz. Let every man and woman singing and praising God in the Church appear in such habits as are suitable to their Sex This should not seem odd to them who allow all to sing but silence the whole Congregation in the act of Prayer because in such singing the Psalms which are used contain in them prayers supplications intercessions and thanksgivings but others are verily persuaded that all both men and women have joynt interest in the publick Service of God with the officiating Ministers who as they are for order's sake to direct and lead the Congregation so all assembled have their parts to act A bare corporal presence is mockery and dalliance an Eye or Ear service will never be accepted as the reasonable service of God Thus it hath been from the beginning which is our Saviour's way of arguing Matt. 19. 8. ever since men called upon the name of the Lord for thus it was practised in the Patriarchal ages as our Greg. hath exemplified p. 120 121. Under the Law examples are numerous Ex. 15. 1. 1 Chron. 15. 36. and 29. 20. 2 Chron. 6. 29. the manner is described Ez. 3. 10 11. and the practice proved Psal 34. 3. and 107. 8 15 21 31. Mr. Selden observes the Eighteen composed Prayers by Ezra began with that Psal 51. 15. O Lord open thou our Lips to which the People answered And our mouths shall shew forth thy praise the very Form retained in S. James his Liturgy which is very much for its credit and in ours soon after the beginning S. Paul urgeth it as a Gospel duty Rom. 15. 6. to glorifie God not with distracted or divided minds but with one mind not that of the Minister onely but of all as one in consort for that form v. 11. viz. Praise ye the Lord was the Peoples Hallelujah our Saviour with the Disciples sung the great one on which Musculus observes Ipse ita praelocutus est ut verba illius fuerunt excepta vicissim reddita just as the people with us repeat the Confession Lord's Prayer c. S. Paul reports the unlearned had his Amen to give in at the Eucharist but probably he did more in the other Offices if we believe Just Mart. Apol. 2. sub fin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. where he distinguisheth between the joynt Prayers of Priest and People and those peculiar and proper to the Minister his part lay in those Offices which solely depended on the power of the Keys as Absolution Consecration of the Elements and Benediction the rest which had no such relation were common both to Minister and People who were to accompany him as it
to enterprise any thing which might infringe or abate the tenour of the Law The Presbyters and Deacons of Rome writing to S. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 7. are very positive Quid magis c. What can be more necessary either in times of peace or persecution than to exercise due severity according to Divine order S. Augustine fully Tract 11. in Joh. Admirantur Donatistae c. The Donatists wonder that Christian Princes should bestir themselves against the detestable dividers of the Church but to abate their wonderment he subjoyns this reason Si verò c. If they did not labour to suppress them how could they give an account to God of their power which they had received from him because it is the duty of Christian Kings that they in their times preserve their Mother the Church in peace That smart saying of his Ep. 73. Possid is not to be forgotten Magis quid agas c. Think rather what course you are to take with those who will not obey Laws and how to handle them than to trouble your self to make it appear that their disobedience to Laws is sinfull This also shews that the Christian Emperours did make severe Laws against the Schismaticks of those times so did Constantine and his Sons Aug. Ep. 166. Ed. Bas To. 2. so did Valentian Gratian Theodosius Arcadius but Justinian took the safest course for the Hereticks being great traders he came even with them none should trade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but the Orthodox the rest had six months given them to consider whether they would conform or no. Evident it is that as the Emperours handled them sometimes more severely sometimes more remissly as the exigence of their affairs and state of the Empire would permit the Church and State did accordingly enjoy their peace and quiet or else were pestered with intestine broils and mischiefs The Governours of the Church were not behind hand to doe their part for the Laodicean Council forbids them admission into the Church c. 6. prohibits any Orthodox man to give his Sons or Daughters in marriage unto them c. 31. yea not to pray with them c. 33. and though it be true S. Aug. and Optat. called the Donatists Brethren yet at last they would not that was after that they had rejected or laid aside the use of the Lord's Prayer as many of our Fanaticks have done But above all Solomon prohibits the removal of what had been long settled by paternal power Prov. 22. 28. which the Ephesine Fathers with many other Ancients have applied to Church Customs and Constitutions Hereupon all wise men have dreaded the dissolution and abolition which is the Puritans work of Reformation of what hath been firmly established by good authority finding the provoking and irritating of humours by medicines in order to a cure have oft proved mortal and have oft resolved a tolerable sore is much better than an hazardous application for a remedy The Lawyers have a saying Better a mischief than an inconvenience which can signifie onely this that a remedy by admitting onely an inconvenience hath oft proved more mischievous in the event than the mischief they endeavoured to avoid because every notable change of State is apt to produce a world of unavoidable mischiefs it being morally impossible upon the exchange of a mischief for an inconvenience to prevent a new set of mischiefs which are not ordinarily found till they be felt It is notorious that even preposterous and unseasonable pressures of present remedies against either some present conceited mischiefs or fansied inconveniences hath choked the heart of all the main and principal concerns which ought first to have been respected and frustrated all those great ends whose advancement hath been pretended and whilst the greatest care of our Patriot Reformers should have been neither to tempt God nor to weary and harden his Vicegerent they have most impudently imprudently and wickedly provoked both by their rebellious actings and preposterous courses Heu probatum est witness not to go farther back our late Exclusioners and No-money-men Num. 3. Admitting a change be submitted to this will not gain nor secure those that are given to change For upon every such change they are ready ever and anon to change their principles and practices The Donatists the great Grandsires of our Sectaries did so at first they yelped Quid Imperatori c. What had the Emperour to doe in Church affairs but S. Augustine tells us with the change of the times they changed their note for taking their time they petitioned Julian the Apostate supplicantibus Rogatiano Pontio saith Opt. for liberty of Conscience which he readily granted them upon an hellish design ut per sacrilegas dissensiones as S. Aug. that by their sacrilegious dissensions he might destroy Christianity hip and thigh root and branch if possible Thus it fared with our Boutefeus they sadly complained and heavily declaimed against those Laws and do yet which our most Christian Kings had enacted for the keeping their Subjects in obedience with penalties upon the seditious disturbers of the peace and transgressours of Law upon the same Donatistical principle yet upon the lamentable change of the times they procured from the Junto's Keepers and Noll cruel Edicts against the regular Sons of the Church which were executed as Bishop Sanderson truly noted without justice or mercy that they had reason to complain as S. Augustine did of the Donatists they were so mischievous ut Barbarorum facta c. That the actings of Barbarians were more mild than theirs Aug. Ep. 122. Num. 4. All the forementioned Petitioners did earnestly solicite for the Religion established by Law avouching a change thereof was unjust most impious and uncharitable They had reason so to doe for that above-cited Text Prov. 22. 28. doth at least insinuate that it is contrary to all Religion equity and prudence upon every motion or singular humour of absurd and unreasonable Male-contents or Phantasticks to discompose or unhinge what our prudent and fatherly Governours have industriously set for the publick peace and tranquillity and have been long received with the approbation and full satisfaction of all good and peaceable Subjects But there is another Text Prov. 24. 21 22 which probably wrought on them to be so zealous for the established Religion My son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change for their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both A sad caveat this destruction is awarded not onely on the changelings but on the moderate medlers who are agitatours mediatours and apologizers for them who though they will not justifie them yet dare plead for them speak a good word for them and as much as they can with safety to themselves palliate and smother their crimes These though stylo novo they be called or miscalled the moderate sober party yet they answer not the name For they are either crafty designing
held forth They are to submit their Sceptres c. which by his reference to Isa 49. 23. is in plain English to say They are to lick the dust of the Presbyters feet and kiss their toes In an 1605. a Club of them protested The Magistrate needs not respect Law he may dispense with it or favourably interpret it sure enough for their sakes but if he practise it where they are not concerned then the cry goes he attempts an arbitrary Government their liberty property and Religion lies at hap hazard Sometimes the Law is a Bulwark to fence out Tyranny on a sudden its an humane invention and God's people must order their lives according to God's word and doe the work of their heavenly Father Now they have so great reverence for Oaths they are not free to take them anon they will glibly down with them and again vomit them and Apologize for the violation of them no Oaths can bind the Conscience against the Reformation England's Reprover p. 158. and the Oaths we have taken must not be examined according to the interpretations of men so Marshal foreman of Smect and Brother Downing O false Lads who can play at fast and loose with their Consciences which are so very tender that they can bend and bow to every opportunity of advantage If they have no interest to serve or can maintain and keep it without conformity they must not conform for a world but if the loss of Offices of trust or profit or hopes of gain to themselves or advantage to the Cause fall into their view they can submit and perform what is required in the 25th Car. II. Time was when the thirteenth to the Romans was onely safe counsel or a politickly contrived Ordinance when King was the King in his Courts not in his person and the damnation threatned was lying in Prison or suffering on a Gibbet The case is soon altered with the times and then upon every revolution Saint Paul spake no longer like a Statesman but as a Casuist not in point of prudence but Conscience first to the Patriots then to the Keepers then to Noll in all which changes damnation was changed from loss or bondage into wrath to come and eternal vengeance For a long time their talk was of Providence and their successes first their cause was God's cause which he would prosper for their sakes his People his fecret Ones and for his promises whereof they had a large stock in the Old Testament and the Revelations this had a strong smack of prophaneness then God prospered their cause therefore it was God's cause a pure Mahometan conclusion now that its at a loss the note is and mark it I beseech you God in the ways of his Providence towards us walks in the dark the good people must unite till the day appears and the good hour comes in the mean time let us make our appeals to God as the Newcastle Conventicling Doctour Gilpin held forth an 1671. and be very carefull that our zeal to God be not interrupted by our duty to the King but above all be free to support your painfull pretious Preachers that we want not tongues and hands for the old cause They constantly condemn that in others which is their common practice Monopolies were once a grievance yet the Drivers were very liberal in their Grants of such to their officious tools King's Declaration Aug. 12. 1642. and in his Declaration concerning the Treaty at Oxford They made an hideous hubbub that subscription to some Articles of peace was required of those that pretended a desire to take upon them the ministerial Function yet they themselves were rigid exactours in the like case They scorn all the Canons and Constitutions of the Church as the Precepts of men but every one at his peril must submit to the orders of their Synods They fiercely inveigh against Impositions Oh! they are apt to whet humane nature very humble patient men they the mean time to wild and forbidden courses This looks not onely like a charge against the Government but a threatning too yet these murmurers against lawfull authority interdicted the Common-Prayer-Book by penalties from five pounds to ten c. and obtruded the Directory by a penalty from five pounds to fifty and that Imposition of July 25. 1684. was at once both Antiehristianly traiterous and tyrannical They tartly tax the Romanists justly enough as to the matter of the charge for clipping and cutting the Tongues of their Writers yet most unjustly because hypocritically as to themselves who use the same craft That most perspicuous passage of Calvin in his Epistle to Cardinal Sadolet wherein he declareth They deserve to be anathematized who reject Episcopacy where it may be retained which is really to pronounce an Anathema on all our English Sectaries is quite purged out in the two latter Editions of Beza and Gellasius This was discovered by the Right Reverend and learned Authour of that Treatise called The Serpent Salve p. 220. What was to be found in the Argentorate Edition of Bucer is left out in the Geneva as Grotius enforms us The Authour of the Friendly Debate par 2. p. 404. hath detected the like fraud in corrupting Dr. Sibbs's Treatise called The Souls Conflict The words of John Careless in reference to the Common-Prayer-Book at his examination by Dr. Martin were exemplified in the first Edition of Acts and Monuments fol. 1531. which in the second Edition by the Legerdemain of the then Puritans were not to be found so in the Edition which I had and carefully searched I could not find what Dr. Hammond View of the Directory p. 17. relates of John Hullier to the same purpose which makes me suspect some Sectarian Hocus in that also That they corrupted the last Books of Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Policy may probably be concluded from what we find reported in the Book called The Life of Hugh Peters and lastly that when the Book of the Thirty Nine Articles was printed they procured the Twentieth viz. That the Church hath power c. to be left out If it were certainly known what their design was in the Tickets which were dispatched into the several Counties before Saint Bartholomew 1662. their hypocrisie would be so laid open that no Apology could be made Thus much I know it was to assure their inferiour sort of Ministers that with their good leave they might comply and conform and if they prevailed in the design they were then carrying on notwithstanding their present compliance they would favourably entertain and as it should happen prefer them Num. 3. They are a singular Sect divided from the whole visible Church and every particular regularly formed Church throughout the whole Christian world This we are sure if they lived in any such Church and acted there in opposition to their established Forms and Rites they would be concluded unsufferable Schismaticks and be more sharply handled than here they are or have been They are true Ishmaelites Ishmael
was a wild man his hand was against every man and every man's hand was against him Gen. 16. 12. They conclude all the Christian world besides their Brethren in iniquity to be Antichristian and all Christian Chruches condemn them as Schismaticks They dissent from this Christian Church whereof they are or ought to be Members and in that respect they dissent from the Catholick Church primitive and successive But this say some is hard measure they are our Brethren and our Protestant Brethren In good time that now at last upon a mischievous design which is easily understood and might be soon manifested Malignants from 40 to 60 should be taken in into the number of the Brethren sure we are they received harder measure from these their false Brethren than Jacob did from his Brother Edom Obad. 10 c. They are in the Scripture notion strange Brethren who can find in their hearts to plunder and murther their now lately adopted Brethren But how comes these dear Brethren with a mischief to be dubbed Protestants Are they so called because they dissent from all Protestant Churches Protestant signifies with them another thing than a reformed Catholick which every Protestant is or else he is no true Protestant Three acceptations of the word Protestant are now in fashion for first Protestants are a Set of pretenders in opposition to and exclusion of all others who profess Christianity if this be their notion they are pure Donatists and the exclusioners have as much Antichristian pride and uncharitableness as the Pope or his most bigotted Papalins it 's an assumed name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks name it who justly esteem every such a badge of division and apostasie Lact. a Latin too thought so Christiani esse desierunt c. They cease to be Christians who forsaking the name of Christ usurp to themselves humane and alien denominations Or secondly Protestants are but Antipapists all who renounce the Communion of the Church of Rome and oppose the Pope's Sovereignty without any more to do commence Protestants in short they are no Papists therefore they are Protestants or which is far more absurd they are enemies sworn and foresworn enemies to Episcopacy and Monarchy and they then are true Protestants The Demagogues and Sectaries do frequently thus sense it which is indeed to reproach it and make it odious to all who love peace and truth For then all Doctour Stillingfleet's Gnats which are now metamorphosed into Vipers then all Doctour Burgesses putredinous Vermin of bold and frantick Sectaries so he honoured them Ser. before Comm. Nov. 5. 1641. who erewhile were his Bandogs which he let loose and hounded on the King and Bishops must be honoured with this title Then Socinians Anabaptists Familists Antinomians Swinckfeldians yea all Mr. Baxter's Jugglers the Hiders whom he subdivides into Vanists Paracelsians Weigelians Behminists c. with his Seekers whom he again subdivides into six more vile ranks must be dignified with this not to be despised as not to be too much extolled title Or lastly Protestants were those learned and pious men who endeavoured the retrieval of the Primitive Catholick and Apostolick Faith and Usages from the innovations and corruptions which had overspread and polluted the Church What they did was to reduce the Church into its primitive state in the simplicity and purity of Faith and redress abuses in practice reserving still a power in each particular Church to determine for it self what God hath left undetermined for unity order and edification with the closest consonancy to the rules and observations of the ancient Catholick Doctours and Fathers If this which indeed is the true notion of the Appellative be intended the Dissenters are to all intents and purposes for ever barred from any claim to it unless they mend their manners which is scarce to be hoped For as a learned man observed They know they are in the wrong as well as we can tell them but all the world will not make them confess and amend As the case now stands they cannot challenge any right either to the name or to the thing Not to the name for neither they nor any of their Sect were in Germany an 1529. when the Disciples were first called Protestants upon a protestation and appeal from the Decree of Spira unto Coesar and a General Council Nor to the thing For neither they nor any commissioned by them did ever subscribe to the Augustan Confession neither will they now be concluded by it nor will they submit to the harmony of Confessions industriously drawn as the proper Test of Protestancy to distinguish true Protestants from false pretenders to the name It is therefore mere mockery to affirm them Protestants who protest against true Protestancy and the resolutions of all formed Protestant Churches But if they must be called so it must be by an odd Figure the same by which a schismatical traiterous Conventicle patched up of Clergy-men States-men Sword-men and Lawyers was once called an Assembly of Divines Their agreement if any such there be in the same common principles of Faith which are arbitrary as to them will not gain them the denomination of Protestant nor beget the relation of Protestant Brethren For then the Pope and his adherents must be Protestants and our Protestant Brethren to boot and with great reason because they earnestly contend for the first Principles of the Oracles of God and Doctrines of Christ which several of the Fanaticks either oppose or scruple Dr. Stillingfleet will not blame the Papists for believing too little but too much which these heretical Blades are faulty in too as well as they The Pope or Church of Rome by a presumed infallibility of judgment from a Divine endowment assumes a power to declare which in practice is to mint and coin Articles of Faith so the Sectaries hold forth their singular opinions and Enthusiastical dotages as demonstrations of Spirit More plainly thus The Roman Chairman with his Conclave or a Council takes upon them to define false or disputed opinions as matters of Faith which thereupon they enter into their Creed to be believed as absolutely necessary to salvation The Sectarian Chairmen with their Benchers and Associates pass Problems in their Systemes and Synods for Divine Revelations and Principles of the Doctrine of Christ which they exemplifie in their Catechisms and Confessions of Faith as the Oracles of God Now they are as infamous prophane prevaricators of Divine Law who preach up their private fancies and sentiments for infallible Soul-saving Doctrines as those who equalize their particular Traditions with the infallible word of God The learned and judicious Bishop Davenant thought so Adhort ad Pacem Eccles c. 1. p. 43. I says he think it is all one to obtrude our controverted points on the Consciences of men in the same degree of necessity with the most perspicuous Doctrines of the Gospel as to confound unwritten Traditions with the written word of God Mr. Newcomen a sprig