New Testament where to be a Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct Office or a distinct order but indifferently communicated to all the Superior Clergy and all the Princes of the people II. The second thing I intended to say is this that although all the superior Clergy had not onely one but divers common appellatives all being called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even the Apostolate it self being called a Deaconship yet it is evident that before the common appellations were fixt into names of propriety they were as evidently distinguished in their offices and powers as they are at this day in their Names and Titles To this purpose St. Paul gave to Titus the Bp. of Crete a special commission command and power to make Ordinations and in him and in the person of Timothy he did erect a Court of Judicature even over some of the Clergy who yet were called Presbyters against a Presbyter receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses there is the measure and the warranty of the Audientia Episcopalis the Bps Audience Court and when the accused were found guilty he gives in charge to proceed to censures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You must rebuke them sharply and you must silence them stop their mouths that 's St. Pauls word that they may no more scatter their venom in the ears and hearts of the people These Bishops were commanded to set in order things that were wanting in the Churches the same with that power of St. Paul other things will I set in order when I come said he to the Corinthian Churches in which there were many who were called Presbyters who nevertheless for all that name had not that power To the same purpose it is plain in Scripture that some would have been Apostles that were not such were those whom the spirit of God notes in the Revelation and some did love preeminence that had it not for so did Diotrephes and some were Judges of questions and all were not for therefore they appealed to the Apostles at Jerusalem and St. Philip though he was an Evangelist yet he could not give confirmation to the Samaritans whom he had baptiz'd but the Apostles were sent for for that was part of the power reserv'd to the Episcopal or Apostolical order Now from these premises the conclusion is plain and easy 1. Christ left a Government in his Church and founded it in the persons of the Apostles 2. The Apostles received this power for the perpetual use and benefit for the comfort and edification of the Church for ever 3. The Apostles had this Government but all that were taken into the Ministery and all that were called Presbyters had it not If therefore this Government in which there is so much disparity in the very nature and exercise and first original of it must abide for ever then so must that disparity If the Apostolate in the first stabiliment was this eminency of power then it must be so that is it must be the same in the succession that it was in the foundation For after the Church is founded upon its Governours we are to expect no change of government If Christ was the Author of it then as Christ left it so it must abide for ever for ever there must be the Governing and the Governed the Superior and the Subordinate the Ordainer and the Ordained the confirmer and the confirmed Thus far the way is straight and the path is plain The Apostles were the Stewards and the ordinary Rulers of Christs Family by virtue of the order and office Apostolical and although this must be succeeded to for ever yet no man for his now or at any time being called a Presbyter or Elder can pretend to it for besides his being a Presbyter he must be an Apostle too else though he be called in partem sollicitudinis and may do the offices of assistance and understewardship yet the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government and Rule of the Family belongs not to him But then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are these Stewards and Rulers over the houshold now To this the answer is also certain and easy Christ hath made the same Governours to day as heretofore Apostles still For though the twelve Apostles are dead Yet the Apostolical order is not it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a generative order and begets more Apostles now who these minores Apostoli are the successors of the Apostles in that office Apostolical and supreme regiment of Souls we are sufficiently taught in Holy Scriptures which when I have clearly shewn to you I shall pass on to some more practical considerations 1. Therefore certain and known it is that Christ appointed two sorts of Ecclesiastick persons the XII Apostles and the LXXII Disciples to these he gave a limited commission to those a fulness of power to these a temporary imployment to those a perpetual and everlasting from these two societies founded by Christ the whole Church of God derives the two superiour orders in the sacred Hierarchy and as Bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the Apostles so the Presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ but by claiming a succession to the LXXII and then consider the difference compare the Tables and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have for since the LXXII had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand and more then that we hear nothing of them in Scripture but upon the Apostles Christ powred all the Ecclesiastical power and made them the ordinary Ministers of that Spirit which was to abide with the Church for ever the Divine institution of Bishops that is of Successors to the Apostles is much more clear then that Christ appointed Presbyters or Successors of the LXXII and yet if from hence they do not derive it they can never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all much less to be so alone But we may see the very thing it self the very matter of fact St. Iames the Bp. of Ierusalem is by St. Paul called an Apostle Other Apostles saw I none save James the Lords Brother For there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our Lord that is such which Christ made by his word immediately or by his Spirit extraordinarily and even into this number and title Matthias and St. Paul and Barnabas were accounted But the Church also made Apostles and these were called by St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostles of the Churches and particularly Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians properly so saith Primasius and what is this else but the Bp. saith Theodoret for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who are now called Bps were then called Apostles saith the same Father the sence and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Mark as of him that is Servant of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so St. Iohn such a principality as he hath that washes the feet of the weary traveller or if you please take it in the words of our Blessed Lord himself that He that will be chief among you let him be your Minister meaning that if under Christs Kingdom you desire rule possibly you may have it but all that Rule under him are Servants to them that are rul'd and therefore you get nothing by it but a great labour and a buisy imployment a careful life and a necessity of making severe accounts But all this is nothing but the general measures I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which Christian Bishops have blessed and built up Christendom for because we must be followers of them as they were of Christ the recounting what they did worthily in their generations will not onely demonstrate how useful how profitable how necessary Episcopacy is to the Christian Church but it will at the same time teach us our duty by what services we are to benefit the Church in what works we are to be imployed and how to give an account of our Stewardship with joy 1. The Christian Church was founded by Bps not onely because the Apostles who were Bishops were the first Preachers of the Gospel and Planters of Churches but because the Apostolical men whom the Apostles used in planting and disseminating Religion were by all Antiquity affirm'd to have been Diocesan Bishops insomuch that as St. Epiphanius witnesses there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ many Churches who had in them no other Clergy but a Bishop and his Deacons and the Presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater But the Bishops names are known they are recorded in the book of Life and their praise is in the Gospel such were Timothy and Titus Clemens and Linus Marcus and Dyonisius Onesimus and Cains Epaphroditas and St. Iames our Lords Brother Evodius and Simeon all which if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith and any truth in their Stories and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch Livy and Tacitus think that all Church story is a perpetual Romance and that all the brave men the Martyrs and the Doctors of the Primitive Church did conspire as one man to abuse all Christendom for ever I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted all these whom I have now reckoned were Bishops fixed in several Churches and had Dioceses for their Charges The consequent of this consideration is this If Bishops were those upon whose Ministery Christ founded and built his Church let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be Pillars The Stewards of Christs Family must be wise that Christ requires and if the order be necessary to the Church wisdom cannot but be necessary to the Order For it is a shame if they who by their Office are Fathers in Christ shall by their unskilfulness skilfulness be but Babes themselves understanding not the secrets of Religion the mysteries of Godliness the perfections of the Evangelical Law all the advantages and disadvantages in the Spiritual life A Bishop must be exercis'd in Godliness a man of great experience in the secret conduct of Souls not satisfyed with an ordinary skill in makeing homilies to the people and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases but ready to answer in all secret inquiries and able to convince the gainsayers and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect If the first Bishops laid the foundation their Successours must not onely preserve whatsoever is fundamental but build up the Church in a most holy Faith taking care that no Heresie sap the foundation and that no hay or rotten vvood be built upon it and above all things that a most Holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreproveable Faith So the Apostles laid the foundation and built the vvalls of the Church and their Successors must raise up the roof as high as Heaven For let us talk and dispute eternally vve shall never compose the controversies in Religion and establish truth upon unalterable foundations as long as Men handle the vvord of God deceiptfully that is vvit designes and little artifices and saecular partialities and they will for ever do so as long as they are proud or covetous It is not the difficulty of our questions or the subtilty of our adversaries that makes disputes interminable but We shall never cure the itch of disputing or establish Unity unless we apply our selves to humility and contempt of riches If we will be contending let us contend like the Olive and the Vine who shall produce best and most fruit not like the Aspine and the Elm which shall make most noyse in a wind All other methods are a beginning at a wrong end And as for the people the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of faith and government is by reducing them to live good lives When the Children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness and filthy lusts they quickly fell into abominable idolatries and St. Paul says that men make shipwrack of their faith by putting away a good conscience for the mystery of faith is best preserv'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a pure conscience saith the same Apostle secure but that and we shall quickly end our disputes and have an obedient and conformable people but else never 2. As Bishops were the first Fathers of Churches and gave them being so they preserve them in being For without Sacraments there is no Church or it will be starv'd and die and without Bishops there can be no Priests and consequently no Sacraments and that must needs be a supream order from whence ordination it self proceeds For it is evident and notorious that in Scripture there is no record of ordination but an Apostolical hand was in it one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the chief one of the superiour and Ruling Clergy and it is as certain in the descending ages of the Church the Bishop always had that power it was never denyed to him and it was never imputed to Presbyters and St. Hierom himself when out of his anger against Iohn Bp. of Ierusalem endeavoured to equal the Presbyter with the Bishop though in very many places he spake otherwise yet even then also and in that heat he excepted ordination acknowledging that to be the Bps peculiar And therefore they who go about to extinguish Episcopacy do as Iullan did they destroy the Presbytery and starve the Flock and take away their Shepheards and dispark their pastures and tempt Gods providence to extraordinaries and put the people to hard shifts and turn the
Church In stead of thy Fathers thou shalt have childen whom thou mayest make Princes in all Lands that is not onely the twelve Apostles our Fathers in Christ who first begat us were to rule Christs Family but when they were gone their Children Successors should arise in their stead Et nati natorum quinascentur ab illis their direct Successors to all generations shall be principes populi that is Rulers and Governours of the whole Catholick Church De prole enim Ecclesiae crevit eidem paternitas id est Episcopi quos illa genuit patres appellat constituit in sedibus Patrum saith St. Austin the Children of the Church become Fathers of the faithful that is the Church begets Bps and places them in the seat of Fathers the first Apostles After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture it will not be amiss to say that this great affair relying not onely upon the words of institution but on matter of fact pas'd forth into a demonstration and greatest notoreity by the Doctrine and Practise of the whole Catholick Church For so St Irenaeus who was one of the most Ancient Fathers of the Church and might easily make good his affirmative VVe can says he reckon the men who by the Apostles were appointed Bishops in the Churches to be their Successors unto Vs leaving to them the same power and authority which they had Thus St. Polycarp was by the Apostles made Bp. of Smyrna St. Clement Bp. of Rome by St. Peter and divers others by the Apostles saith Tertullian saying also that the Asian Bps were consectated by St. Iohn and to be short that Bps are the Successours of the Apostles in the Stevvardship and Rule of the Church is expresly taught by St. Cyprian and St. Hieron St. Ambrose and St. Austin by Euthymius and Pasianus by St. Gregory and St. Iohn Damascen by Clarus à Muscula and St. Sixtus by Anacletus and St. Isidore by the Roman Councel under St. Sylvester and the Councel of Carthage and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or succession of Bps from the Apostles hands in all the Churches Apostolical was as certainly known as in our Chronicles we find the succession of our English Kings and one can no more be denyed then the other The conclusion from these premises I give you in the words of St. Cyprian Cogitent Diaconi quòd Apostolos id est Episcopos Dominus ipse elegerit Let the Ministers know that Apostles that is the Bps were chosen by our blessed Lord himself and this was so evident and so believed that St. Austin affirms it with a nemo ignorat No man is so ignorant but he knows this that our blessed Saviour appointed Bps over Churches Indeed the Gnostics spake evil of this order for they are noted by three Apostles St. Paul St. Peter and St. Iude to be despisers of Government and to speak evil of dignities and what Government it was they did so despise we may understand by the words of St. Iude they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah who with his company rose up against Aaron the high Priest and excepting these who were the vilest of Men no man within the first 300 years after Christ oppos'd Episcopacy But when Constantine receiv'd the Church into his armes he found it universally governed by Bps and therefore no wise or good man professing to be a Christian that is to believe the holy Catholick Church can be content to quit the Apostolical Government that by which the whole Family of God was fed and taught and rul'd and beget to himself new Fathers and new Apostles who by wanting Succession from the Apostles of our Lord have no Ecclesiastical and Derivative communion with the fountains of our Saviour If ever Lirinensis's rule could be us'd in any question it is in this quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus That Bishops are the Successors of the Apostles in this Stewardship and that they did always rule the Family was taught and acknowledged always and every where and by all men that were of the Church of God and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this qestion We shall find our faith to fail in many other articles of which we yet are very confident For the observation of the Lords day the Consecration of the Holy Eucharist by Priests the Baptizing Infants the communicating of Women and the very Canon of the Scripture it self rely but upon the same probation and therefore the denying of Articles thus proved is a way I do not say to bring in all Sects and Heresies that 's but little but a plain path and inlet to Atheism and Irreligion for by this means it will not onely be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture but the Scripture it self and all the Records of Religion will become useless and of no efficacy or persuasion I am entered into a Sea of matter but I will break it off abruptly and sum up this enquirie with the words of the Councel of Chalcedon which is one of the four Generals by our Laws made the measures of judging Heresies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Sacriledge to bring back a Bishop to the degree and order of a Presbyter It is indeed a rifling the order and intangling the gifts and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour and a robbing them of those spiritual eminencies with which the spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of Bishops And I shall say one thing more which indeed is a great truth that the diminution of Episcopacy was first introduced by Popery and the Popes of Rome by communicating to Abbots and other mere Priests special graces to exercise some essential Offices of Episcopacie hath made this sacred order to be cheap and apt to be invaded But then adde this If Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the guifts and powers of the Apostolical order what shall we think of them that snatch them away and pretend to wear them whether the Apostles their Successors will or no This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bely the Holy-Ghost that is the least of it it is rapine and sacriledge besides the heresie and the schism and the spiritual lie For the government Episcopal as it was exemplified in the Synagogue and practised by the same measures in the Temple so it was transcribed by the eternal son of God who translated it into a Gospel Ordinance it was sanctifyed by the Holy Spirit who named some of the persons and gave to them all power and graces from above It was subjected in the Apostles first and by them transmitted to a distinct Order of Ecclesiasticks it was received into all Churches consigned in the Records of the Holy Scriptures preached by the universal voice of all the Christian