translation it is not lawful say the Fathers of that Synod for the Choropiscopi Countrey or Village Bishops not for the Presbyters of the City to ordain Presbyters or Deacons unless that be committed to them by the Bishop being absent in another Diocess by his letters And therefore the Churches decree constituting Episcopacy abridged the Presbyters whether dividedly or conjunctly considered but onely in the exercise of their power Surely it must be beleeved that no ordination would be made by the Apostles excelling the ordination which our Saviour celebrated breathing upon his Apostles c. and giving them a comission to teach c. with promise to be with them unto the worlds end whereby the Presbyters were virtually ordained and comissionated astruly as the Bishops and therefore received thereby as much power as they in respect of the kind and nature which hinders not but that the exercise of some part of it might be taken from many of the persons ordained But some perhaps may say that Christ in that ordination ordained in the Apostles some as elder Brethren and others as the younger yet hence it will follow that the kind and nature of the ordination is the same in all as the nature of the Father is in all his Sons and that onely a principallity in the having and exercise of it belongs to the Bishops which is granted Others may say farther that Christ in ordaining the Apostles did virtually ordain some as the Sons of the Sons of the Apostles and others as their grand-children if this can be well proved it will indeed evince that the power of ordination as well as the exercise of it is proper to the Bishops but until it be made clear that this was the primary meaning and intention of Christ in that Act of ordination and not an effect onely of a consequent occasional providence of the Apostles and Churches it is probable that the power of ordination remaineth still in the presbyters restrained in the use by the canon of the Churches and Apostles The members of the Church which made the decree of Episcopacy and limited the use of the Eclesiastical power in the presbyters were the greater number of the presbyters themselves which remained in the unity of the mystical body with the greater part of the people and the Authors of it by way of approbation and confirmation were the holy Apostles The Apostles and Presbyters in the effecting of it exercised the ordinary Vicary Authority Basil constit mona c. 22. which they had as being by their ordination made the Vicegerents of the blessed Mediator Christ Jesus considered only as Mediator according to his own saying he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me the saying of the Apostle we are Embâ—ssadors for Christ and we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God 2. Cor. 5.20 That authority when it is duely exercised ought to be obeyed And because presbyters may erre in the using of it a spirit of discerning noxious doctrines and constitutions is given to Christians to examine and trie Bas l. reg 72. c. 1. with command to reject the evil and receive the good which good if the major part refuse being by their Pastors propounded to them Aug. de temp serm 143. they may do it upon their peril as they will answer it to God unity and peace interceding and forbidding that no Ecclesiastical constraint or censure proceed against the civil higher power or the major part of the people It is therefore requisite that constitutions to be made laws in the Church be by the leave of the supreme magistrate if he be a Christian propounded to the people that their consent being given the ministerial authority may make them laws Ecclesiastically obliging if no higher authority hinder Before these Law-makers constituted Episcopacy every singular Presbyter was to act according to the directions and rules of the Presbyterian Colledge which was the Church Law-giver and superintendent of the execution having the supreme dignity under the Mediator and preheminence in all things properly Ecclesiastical What is spoken concerning the Colledge of Presbyters must be applied proportionably to the several bodies of them in the Diocesan provincial imperial or universal Church The decree constituting Episcopacy took from the Colledge its high dignity and preheminence and conferred it upon one and so divided the exercise of the Legislative power among the Bishop and the Colledge that the one might not duely use it without the other For although the dignity and precedency of the Bishop may give more weight to his vote yet is the Vicary authority which cannot be separated from Presbyters as long as they be Presbyters as truly exercised in their votes whether in deciding controversies of faith or making of Canons c. as it is in the Bishops vote Which is manifest as by many testimonies of antiquity so by the practise of our English Synods which are conformable in the substance to the best and most ancient constitution of Councils The superintendency which the Colledge had over the execution of all Ecclesiastical duties and ordinances was chiefly in the Bishop yet so as without his Presbyters he could not regularly hear and determine Ecclesiastical causes as before was shewed out of the fourth Council of Carthage and might be further demonstrated out of St. Cyprian and other ancient writers Every suprem civil power on earth as Gods Vicegerent Sect. 10. is bound to advance and preserve the true Religion so far as the light of nature can manifest it or divine revelation doth make it known unto him so that a King which hath embraced Christian Religion which alone is the true Religion is obliged to maintain it and to cause that the Christian duties be by all in their several stations and charges duely performed and therefore a Christian King is a law-giver above the Ecclesiastical Law-makers but so that he ought not to hinder the due exercise of their legislative power and make laws purely or properly Ecclesiastical without their concurrence in Counsel and consent but by his Laws and power partly to cause them to meet for the due exercise of their duty partly to maintain and strengthen their right proceedings in performance of their office and lastly if their Edicts be cosistant with the peace of the common-wealth and meet for the edification of the Church to perfect and make them full and complete laws by putting the hand and seal of his highest Vicary authority as Gods Vicegerent to the resolves of the subordinate Vicary authority of the Vicegerents of our blessed Mediator as Mediator God and man the Lord Jesus Christ God is a God of order and hath ordained that this unity and harmony between these two authorities should be firmly kept otherwise by a supine neglect of duty or by an exorbitant usurpation on either side the unity and peace both of Kingdome and Church are equally in danger of being broken The
propounding of the true doctrine in decision of controversies or of constitutions of expedient or necessary to aedification are acts of religion most proper to the Bishops and presbyters the first an act of the praedication of the gospel the other an act of ecclesiastical Government The embracing of the truth and ordinances seen to be profitable together with the confirming of them by his decree and sanction or addition where he seeth it needful of a reward or mulct is the part of a Christian Prince discerning upon due search the truth and the usefulnesse of the ordinances propounded unto him whose embracing is his act of subjection to Christ and confirmation and sanction an act of his Vicary authority To make laws bestowing civil gifts or priviledges on the Church and ordaining civil punishments for offences committed against Christian religion and Ecclesiastical Canons and constituting Courts for the cognizance of such causes and the execution of those Laws is the peculiar and proper work of a Christian King which he may well doe without the authority of Bishops and presbyters but which he may best doe with their grave advice and counsel In the unanimous Votes of the Kings Majesty the honourable Houses of Parliament and the venerable convocation all Powers and interests are fully satisfied whether in decision of controversies in religion Chrysost in 2. Cor. hom 18 c. Sect. 11. or making Ecclesiastical Canons or any the like Ecclesiastical matters because they are the conjunct Votes of all the concerned Before the civil Magistrate became Christian the Clergy and people according to their severall rights concurred personally in the elections of Bishops and Presbyters and this remained in use under many Christian Emperors and Kings untill for the avoyding of contention and schismes and many abuses which became familiar to popular elections in a corrupted state of the Church and for the encouragement of Princes Nobles and others to erect and endow Churches it seemed good to Kings in their Parliaments and with the convocation or Synod of the Bishops and Clergy to ordain that Kings should present to the Colledge of Presbyters meet persons to be chosen and made Bishops and meet Presbyters to the Bishop for such Churches as they had built and endowed and that all other persons should in like manner present to the Bishop a fit person for the Church which they had endowed Patrons did indeed in some places put in whom they pleased without the Bishops consent Vide Epist Alexandr 3. ad Episcopos Angliae and for some time of publick confusion this was very usually done in England but this custome was no law as some would have it because it was an unreasonable custome and destructive to the Church and therefore always contradicted in all Councils where occasion was given to mention it All humane laws have their mixture of some bad with many good And certain it is that our Ecclesiastical laws have many imperfections and their ambiguous halting between the papal Canon-law whence their interpretation hath been wont to be fetched and the laws of the Realm is not the least which hath been one of the principal occasions of some actings which made the Clergy much abhorred by many and brought infinite calamities upon the Civil and Ecclesiastical state The ancient pure Episcopal government is much changed and the beginning of its change was not of late dayes Sect. 12. for in the fourth Century the Bishops and Presbyters began to advance Arch-presbyters and Arch-deacons to some part of the exercise of the Ecclesiastical government Optat. advers Parmenian l. 1. The first Archdeacon we read of was Caecilianus who reproved Lucilla a rich and proud woman which being thereat vexed became afterward a zealous promotrix of the Schism of the Donatists The first Arch-presbyter Greg. Nazianz. in land Basil crat that I can remember to be mentioned by the ancients was Basile who being made Bishop offered that honour to his old friend Gregory after the Bishop of Nazianzum But these were at that time but in some Churches and acted onely in place of the Bishops and Presbyters and at their pleasure whereas their power in time increased and after some hundreds of years the Canons gave them an ordinary jurisdiction erected their Courts added new names of Ecclesiastical judges as Deans Chancellors Commissaries c. and filled them with numerous attendants which were mostly to live by the sins of the people If these had been Officers onely of the civil magistrate to execute the power which is proper to him over all persons and in all causes Ecclesiastical the Church could not in reason have been charged with their miscariages but because they exercised with the former acts of the power proper to Bishops and Presbyters and in which the civil magistrate had onely a superintendency over them all their misdoings were ascribed to the Bishops and the Clergy their Courts heard the causes of excommunication adjudg'd a person to excommunication and caused a Presbyter no judge in the cause to excommunicate the party whereas Christ by his Apostles made them judges in his place as well to hear the causes of the spiritual censures as to execute the same by the sentence of excommunication The spiritual censures are spiritual remedies and the Pastors of the Church are under Christ the Physicians how then can it be congruous to imploy one that is no Physician to search and take knowledge of the diseases of the Soul and leave orâ—y the application of the remedies to the Physicians in the hearing of the causes of spiritual censures pastoral acts are to be exercised as of teaching of redargution of sin and conviction which prepare the offendor for the due and profitable receiving of the spiritual Physick which acts are all wanting where a person that is no Pastor condemneth a sinner to be excommunicated by a Pastor There is another mischief that accompanies the mixture in one and the same person of the exercise of acts purely ministerial and acts proper to the civil magistrate in spiritual causes as it is in Arch-deacons and the like that is commutation of paenance as to take so much money a Cow a Horse and the like as it hath been used be it in pretence of giving it to the poor where suspension or excommunication was by the Apostolical ordinances to have been exercised If the power proper to the ministers the power proper to the magistrate were in distinct persons this too frequent abuse would be well avoyded For the sole spiritual power is not to medle with body or purse Cudgelling whipping imprisoning fining scandalous sinners were not at all in use before the times of Christian Emperours And as to the redemption of the wholesome severities which the paenitents were enjoyned willingly to exercise upon themselves it was not used until about the end of the fift Century I might mention other mischiefs as the intollerable abuse of excommunication for very small offences
wicked livers and Haereticks but it was not of the Church it was no part of the constitution of the Church although it did labour to insinuate and work it self into it it may be granted as very probable that the mystery of iniquity in particular and those dead members and by them working upon the Churches might more vitiate the Churches of the second century then the Churches in the first century and the Churches in the third century more then the Churches of the second and so of the rest to the end of the fifth century but that in any part of that time it prevailed so far as to become a part of the Ecclesiasticall Doctrine Discipline Liturgy or Ceremonies universally received and used is rather a surmise of an excess of jealousy then an opinion grounded upon probable reasons it is so far from being an approved truth After the year 500. and the division of the Empire and establishment of the Kings 2 Thes 2.3 Revel 17.12 13.16 which were to give their power and strength to the Beast and which in due time were to burn the Whore of Babylon the Churches grew generally more and more corrupt the civill and Ecclesiasticall confusions attending the Warrs in the severall Provinces giving advantage to the mystery of Iniquity to mingle it self first with the Discipline and Ceremonies and after with the publick Doctrine whereby first superstition then Idolatry and lastly Heresies took place in the publick profession of the Churches so that in persons who knowingly swallowed the good and bad together the infection of the mystery of Iniquity hindred the operation of the good portion of the whole lump and working the effect of its poyson into their vital parts corrupted and destroyed them And therefore these latter Churches were not by the first reformers of our Church proposed for patterns as the former were which preserved the purity of Doctrine Discipline and Ceremonies without the addition of any thing causing Superstition much less Idolatry or Haeresy Our Church hath separated the Pretious from the Vile the good of Doctrine Discipline and Rites from the pestiferous and noxious additions and now if either the abuse of prosperity or the iniquity of the late times hath added any evil quality to any of our Ecclesiasticall things or made us incapable of good by some Rite or particle of the Discipline or Liturgy or if any defect appear to be in our former reformations and especially if any of these have happened in any Rite of adoration wherein is the greatest danger it is not to be doubted but that all these things will be carefully looked into and whether by omission explanation or otherwise the Discipline and Rites by the help and blessing of God shall be reformed according to the best patterns and as shall most conduce to the godly unity and peace of the Church and Kingdome What do I speak only of future Reformation seeing the deep Wisdome and the most sincere piety of his Sacred Majesty hath by the blessing of God upon his Royal indeavours found out the best temperament for the healing of the present distempers and by his gratious Declaration hath established a most happy Interim the fittest that could be devised for the preparing different apprehensions and affections unto an unity meet to entertain the best form of a Christian Church which the infirmities of these last dayes of the last time can well bear The Regicides of late had proceeded far in breaking down this our House of God Psal 74. 1 King 6.7 with their iron tooles their Axes and Hammers but as it is said of King Solomons Temple that there was neither Hammer nor Axe nor any toole of iron heard while it was in building so our blessed Solomon in reedifying this decayed house of God doth the work without all iron instruments without all unpleasing sounds it goeth on sensim sine sensu and it is and will be the glorious effect of his Majesties incomparable providence guided by the most gratious direction of God cunctando restituisse rem But some of them which will read this small tractate may therein observe some passages which suppose the Church of England without the benefit of any proceedings of his Majesty towards her restauration and may therefore be ready to censure the Author as he well deserved if he had not this just Apology namely That he can make it good by many witnesses of worthy persons of known integrity that this treatise was ready written five months agon at the least at which time the Author could only write of the state and condition of things as they were then and not as they would be in times to come If any object It had been better if ever to have published this at that time for which it seemes more convenient to which I say That the Conscience of mine own infirmities retarded and had almost hindred the publication thereof But partly my desire to contribute my poor mite towards the restauration of Gods House prevailed with me partly believing the truth of that saying of Clemens of Alexandria that the science of preaching is in a manner Angelical and whether it be exercised by the tongue or hand writing profiteth either way and knowing my self to be not far from the time when the strength of voyce may decrease I thought it not amiss to put it to the trial by this beginning whether I might hereafter with any hope of acceptance and profit attempt to recompence the defect which if I live may likely happen in my voyce with the labour and pains of preaching by the pen. Some may think that I have made no good choise in preferring the judgment of St. Hierome a Presbyter and not well affected as many think to Episcopacy before the opinion of Epiphanius a Bishop and the elder of the two Aerius maintained that neither the Apostles were nor the Churches could lawfully be the authors of the preferment of a Bishop above the Presbyters and therefore he departed from the Communion of the Catholick Church and became an Independent Presbyter of an independant Congregation First I must deny that Hierome was disaffected to good Bishops or to the Episcopal dignity His works do abundantly testify that he bad in singular honour both the one and the other only he often reproveth and that sharply the Ambition Covetuousness and other vices of many Bishops which not he only but others before him and in his time even Bishops themselves did performe with no less sharpness and severity See one among others Gregory who was created Bishop of Sasimis executed his function in Nazianzum and after was advanced to the Arch-Bishoprick of Constantinople this Arch-Bishop wisheth there were no prerogative of the Throne nor Prelacy which saith he had indeed in former times been desired of good and prudent men but which now to shunne is counted an act of singular prudence What is this wise and holy Arch-Bishop for the abrogation of Episcopacy root
remission of sins Thus far Ambrose Whereby we see that the Holy Ghost gives unto Bishops and Presbyters the power of binding by excommunication and of loosing by absolution and that the Holy Ghost doth accompany their service to cure them that will not refuse to be healed Away then with the excommunication that hath not the Holy Spirit to warrant it nor the operation of the Holy Ghost to make it effectual to mans salvation Away with the lay excommunication that makes the Holy Ghost a servant to denounce it Away with Jeroboams Priests made of the lowest of the people which are not of the sons of Levi which have not received the Holy Ghost to make them able ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit It is the duty of the lay Christian magistrate to oversee facilitate and corroborate the due execution of the spiritual censure of excommunication performed by Bishops principally and Presbyters subordinately but if any ask whether he may not excommunicate either by himself or by a substitute although the answer is already given in the premises yet I say he may do so and if he have the gift may preach in publick and minister the holy Sacraments as lawfully as the 250 persons spoken of in the sixteenth chap. of Numbers took censer and offered incense 2 Chron. c. 27. and as lawfully as King Uzziah did the like And as to the curing of the Leprosy of the soul he may expect the like success as Naaman would have had as to the healing of the Leprosy of his body 2 King c. 5. if he had washed himself in any other river then Jordan wherein the Prophet commanded him to wash himself in order to his cleansing The Kings Proclamation prevaileth more with many to leave their scandalous vices and to live soberly then the Sermons of the best Bishops and Presbyters usually do with most men Will any therefore conclude that the Proclamation of the King is an effectual means for the infusion of Gods saving grace as well as the preaching of the Gospel by them that are lawfully called to that sacred work the Christian Magistrates power is versed about the externals of Christian virtues and reacheth onely accidentally and by Gods indulgence sometime to the souls of men and the life of virtues Whereas the ministerial power of the Gospel is primarily ordained to be a means alwayes effectual for the infusion of the soul and life of all saving Christian virtues if the operation of the Holy Ghost which doth constantly work with the ministery of the Gospel in all the offices thereof be not deliberately resisted Men are saved by means instituted and sanctified by the wisdome and power of God and not by means which onely the wisdome of man judgeth to be most probable to effect our eternal salvation We live by faith and not by sense The Independent congregations blame the reverend Bishops for some miscarriages about the heavy censure of excommunication and exclaim both against them and against Presbyters for being more zealous for ceremonies then for the due execution of our function in the maine offices thereof and for the power of godliness As for the abuse of excommunication the blame was to have been imputed unto others and not to the Bishops And to say the very truth in this matter of excommunication the Canons of our Church are defective and require amendment which perhaps some invincible hinderances would not permit to be done in times past As for the misplacing of the intention of our zeal First as being my self a Presbyter although one of the meanest I must answer for my self that although it may be no man will or can condemn me yet truely I cannot justifie my self before the judgment seat of Almighty God but must make my earnest supplication for mercy to my judge I fear least any soul miscarry or miscarried through my default that his blood should be required at my hands And therefore I tremble when I consider what account I am to give of my Stewardship And now having knowledge and experience of the most heavy weight of this sacred vocation and the great propensity of our nature strengthened by manifold temptations unto unfaithfulness therein if I were now to enter into it the conscience of my weakness and fear of miscarriage would cause me to decline it but being long since entred woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel and I will not be discouraged having the power and mercy of God in whom I trust to be my strength and comfort I desire all good men as charitably to censure us so to pray earnestly to God for us that the great afflictions which we have suffered may be sanctified to us that remembring the afflictions and miseries the Wormwood and the Gall our souls may be humbled in us and that the extraordinary deliverance and blessings may entirely ingage our hearts to serve the Lord with all diligence and faithfulness in the holy ministery and to feed the flock of God taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre a pestilence in the Church but of a ready mind neither being Lords over Gods Heritage so unbecoming the messengers of the Lamb of God who washed his Disciples feet but being examples to the flock of sobriety humility meekness Christian bounty to the poor c. it becomes not good men to censure us for using those Rites and Ceremonies which we are perswaded not to be prohibited by Gods Law and both they and we do surely know to be commanded to be used by mans Law duely made which is Gods ordinance to which we must be subject for conscience sake We pity the tender conscience which cannot without offence either obey or disobey that ordinance And where any of a good life is seen to have that tenderness without the malignity of pride and labour to propagate it and divide the Church the piety and discretion of the Bishop will use him gently instruct him pray for him waite patiently for his amendment and unlesse the example of the party is seen to corrupt the sound will hardly be drawn to go beyond a threatning because punishment to a man of that temper seems rather to be an addition of misery to him then wholesome Physick meet to cure him If any will attempt to be Authors of Combinations to extort by shew of multitudes and by tumults the alteration or abrogation of any part of the established laws Civil or Ecclesiastical they will thereby evidently manifest themselves to be but meer pretenders to a tender conscience and power of godliness for they that labour to extort a part if they prevaile must have the whole in their power And can they that attempt so great robbery love God and the power of Godliness By this cursed fruit we know these to be most vile Hypocrites Let no good people be deceived by their sheeps cloathing look upon this bitter fruit and you see