Learning of whiâ—h sort it were easie to name some hundreds were all exposed by the Presbyterians at least as far as in them lay to the utmost extremities of want and beggery without the least Mercy or Moderation Had they been Heapers up of Riches as Presbyterians and Iews are observed generally to be you might have squeez'd them as spunges without much harm And if the men of your party upon the present shifting the scene of things shall be forc'd to feel what they inflicted as some have presaged whilst they were reading your two Dedicatory Epistles wherein you are subscribed a Faithful Subject and wherein you complain of the * Epist. Ded. before Kâ—y for Cath. p 10. Democratical Polititians who were busie about the change of Government they will feel it so much the less by how much the greater the Treasures are which their Avarice and Rapine have raked up for them against their Winter A Vindication of Bâ—shops and D. Hammond's Paraphrase Sect. 36. Your principal Argument against our Bishops by law established in England which you urge from Scripture and Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase from p. 22â—to p. 27. I do the rather think fit for my consideration because I think it not fit at all that so learned a person as Doctor Hammond should ever take it into his own It s pity a Person of his employments should descend to a taske of so little moment And whilst he is doing those things which cannot be done but by himself let me have leave to do that for which your Argument's inability hath made me abâ—e You know the summe of it is this that Preaching Confirming Discipline Care of the poor Visiting the Sick Baptizing Congregating the Assemblies Administring the Sacrament of the Lords Supper guiding the Assemblies Blessing the people Absolving the Penitent and more then these p. 27. are the works of the Antient Episcopall Function But no one man can now performe all these to so many hundreds of Parishes as are in one Dioecess Ergo our Dioecesan Bishop is not the same with the Antient Bishop This being the summe of your chiefest Argument may be enlarged by my consent in the Major Proposition to the utmost pitch of advantage to which your own heart can wish the difficulty improved to wit by urging that the Bishops were at first invested by the Apostles with all manner of Ecclesiasticall both Power and Office And so the Bishop in every Dioecesse being lineally the successor of that numerical Bishop who was ordained by the Apostles is by consequence invested with all this power From whence there flow's another Sequel as unavoidable as the former that not the least part of this Sacred power can be possibly received but from the Bishop 3. All which being granted as very true and my thanks being returned for your service to the truth whilst you resist it for Presbyterian Ordinations are hence evinced to be null I shew you the vanity of your Minor by putting you in mind of a plain distinction per se aut per alium mediatè vel immediatè your meer forgetfullness of which for ignorant of it you could not be made you imagin there was a force where you will speedily acknowledge there can be none For what a Bishop is not able to do by himself he may very well do by the help of others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is nothing more obvious then that when Moses is * Exod. 18.18 22 26. overtask'd he should take in others in partem Curae and yet lose nothing of his Preeminence And even for this very reason had the Bishops all power as well as power to communicate it either in whole or in part that what they could not perform alone they might by Proxy whether by Presbyters Deacons Subdeacons Arch-Deacons Chancellors Officials I will add Church-Wardens and Overseers of the Poor what is done by their Delegates is done by them 4. Now that this was the case in the earliest times of the Church our learned and Reverend Dr. Hammond hath irresistibly * Consulatur Summi viri Disseâ—t 4. p. 210 211. evinced And had you first been well acquainted with his four Latin dissertations you had not stumbled at the light of his English Paraphrase †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Rom. Clemens Romanus would have told you that in the Regions and Cityes where the Apostles had preached and gathered Churches they constituted Bishops to Rule those Churches and likewise Deacons to be subservient to those Bishops Why no Presbyters as yet Epiphanius would have inform'd you out of the oldest Records For whilst there was not saith he so great a * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiph. Haer. l. 3. t. 1. multitude of believers as to need the ordaining of any Presbyters between the two above said orders Bishops and Deacons they contented themselves with the Bishop onely who together with his Deacon whom he could not conveniently be without did then abundantly suffice for so small a Diocesse But when believers did so increase in the single Diocesse of a Bishop as that there needed more Pastors and fit men were to be had then they admitted into the Priesthood I do not say into the Prelacy that other sort of Church-Officers whom we now call Presbyters And I conceive that such Presbyters were ordained in Asia by St. Iohn because Ignatius in Trajan's time throughout his Epistles to those Churches of Asia doth distinctly make mention of all three orders If then the Primitive Bishops did thus communicate of his power to Inferiour Pastors and still reserve unto himself the super-intendency over all what should hinder their Successors from doing according to their example And why should any man presume to take any power unto himself but he whom the Bishop hath first ordained unto the office of a Deacon a kind of secundary Presbyter and after that to a Cure of soules which belongs to a Presbyter plenarius and after that too to the Episcopal Office of Ordination 5. Having shew'd you the full agreement betwixt the Ancient and modern Bishoâ—s I hope you see your Inadvertency and acknowledge the vanity of your Argumentation For 1. In the Infancy of the Church * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— Epiph. l. 3. t. 1. none were worthy to be made Bishops in diverse places and in such the Apostles did all themselves at least the place remained vacant †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Ibid. 2. Where need requir'd and worthy persons were to be had in such the Apostles ordained Bishops But 3. Whilst the Churches were so thin as that the Bishops with their Deacons could well discharge the whole work Epiphanius tell 's us expresly and that from the eldest of the Church Histories there was not yet a constitution of single Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And of this we have the first instance in Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem to whom
that they should pay you in your own Coin and say yee took too much upon you and that all the Congregation was at least as holy as themselves Had your spirituall Superiours been more venerable in yours yee had not certainly been so vile in the Peoples eyes Th Lord Primate's censure of Presbyterian Ordinations as Iâ—valid and Schismaticall Published by Dr. B. p. 125.126 2. Next for his Grace of Armagh whom I can never find you calling by a higher Title then Bishop Usher I shall but mind you how he hath pleaded for the Prelacy of England in other workes and onely recite his words at length out of that very piece in which you seem to have taken the greatest pleasure For even there he hath concluded your Ordinations by Presbyters to be invalid in as much as they were made where Bishops might have been had there being nothing but necessity in case Bishops cannot be had which in the judgement of the Primate can make such valid And that you may not flatter your self his Grace intended such a necessity as against all reason you sometimes offer to pretend you shall read him subjoyning these following words Holding as I do that a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above a Presbyter you may easily judge that the ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn Canonical obedience cannot possibly by me be excused from being Schismaticall You see what necessity the Primate admitted for an excuse and in what respect you are unexcusable For besides that you are not under any necessity of ordaining Presbyters without a Bishop no necessity can happen but what will be of your own making and such an home-made necessity will but aggravate the wickedness of them that made it I make no doubt but you will say the same thing if a power succeeding shall deal with you and your Function as you have dealt with your Superiours I shall not add more of the Primate now than that the Reduction of Episcopacy is a posthumous work and yet pretend's to no other modell than what may stand with the preeminence both of Bishops and Archbishops 3. Dr. Holdsworth's Iudgement is as well known Dr. Holdsworth's sufferings a declaration of his judgement as what he suffered for his judgement during the memorable Reign of the Presbyterians Which puts me in mind of what was said by that learned Gentleman Mr. Morrice * The Nâ—w-inclosures broken down Sect. â—1 p. 212. the digladiations about Discipline have laid open Doctrin to those destructive wounds it bleed's under the discountenancing and depressing of so many learned Champions of the truth hath been the leaving the Church without a Guard When you were swearing and fighting to level the Bishops with the ground for want of merit and suâ—ficiency to seat your selves among the Bishops you had not the patience to consider or not the prudâ—nce to believe that you were laying out your strength as blinded Sampson did his to pull down a house upon your heads by laying your hands upon its Pillars Iudg. 16.29 But now you are taught by sad experience that what you covenanted against was even the glory and support of your own profession you will I hope be so just as to blame yourselves if you shall live to suffer as heavy things as you have done Sect. 34. Whereas you say in your excuse The Presbyterian excuses are aggravations of their offences that some of your party did not swear obedience to the Bishops or did not disobey such Bishops as Bishop Vsher assureth us were the Bishops of the Antient Churches and that the Schism is not such as makes men uncapable of our Communion and that since Bishop Prideaux dyed there hath been none in his place p. 12.13 I briefly answer first that you speak against your knowledge unless you know not what you did when admitted into the Priesthood And that I may not repeat two or three pages of what I have said in another book I refer you for a sight of your great and manifold obligations to obey your Ordinary with reverence and other chief Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge was committed over you to acknowledge the order of our Church as then it stood to be according to the will of our Lord Iesus Christ to approve of Bishops and Archbishops to use the Common prayer to observe the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church and all according to the Lawes of this Realm I say I refer you for a sight of your great and manifold obligations to my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 2. p. 51.52 53. Next I must mind you that the Lord Primate did onely speak of Communion with the Transmarine Protestans in France and Holland upon this supposition that he were in those Countries But our English Presbyterians were under another consideration He never received the blessed Scrament at any one of your hands nor would he ever hold Communion with any one of your Revolting Scotizing Churches But if you return to our Communion from which you fell by transgression both our Armes and our hearts are alwaies open to receive you And that you may do it so much the sooner let me admonish you of the disorder which the Lord Primate wonder'd at in your late Presbyterian ordinations A disorder so great that it sufficeth of it self without your other imperfections to say no harder things of them to make a nullity in the things that you most confide in * See the Primates judgement of Ordinat by Pres. set out by Dr. Bern. p. 136.137 138 139. To give the Seal of Ordination as some are pleas'd to call imposition of Hands without any express Commission annexed or Grant of Authority to the person the Primate was wont to say seemed to him to be like the putting of a Seal to a blanck Your Presbyterian Ordinations he judg'd no better and the reasons of it at large you may find in those pages which I have cast into the Margin What Bishops there were in the Antient Churches or what the Primate thought of them it matter 's not Your disobedience was not the better for being acted against those to whom you had promis'd to yield obedience And those alone are the Bishops which here t is pertinent to speak of for they alone were the Bishops to whom the men of this Age had sworn Canonical obedience through the Non performance of which obedience you had extorted from the Lord Primate that heavy censure If since the Death of Bishop Prideaux none hath succeeded in his place remember what I said lately of self-created necessity and do not imagin your Sin is lessen'd by a principall part of its aggravation Add to this that there are Bishops though not perhaps in your County And where Bishops are to be had you were forbid by the Primate to ordain without them Sect. 35. Whereas you say of Bishop Prideaux Bishop Prideaux
Deduction And if the Deduction is irregular why is your dealing the very same to prove your irregular Ordinations exactly regular 4. Come we now from the Form to the matter of your Syllogism Your major is proved from the words of Dr. Hammond that the * See the whole Annotation on Act. 11.30 B. p. 406. to p. 409. Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture times belonged principally if not onely to Bishops there being no evidence that any of the second Order were then instituted Which words if you observe them do not deny but suppose that as soon as any of the second order were admitted into the Church they were immediately subject unto the First that is to say to the Scripture-Bishops there having been given him in Scripture a twofold power first a power of ordaining inferiour Presbyters next of Governing or Ruling them when so ordained Had you but fairly transcribed the Doctor 's whole Period you must have added to your Citation these following words though soon after even before the writing of Ignatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches And had you read unto the end of that excellent Annotation you would have found Epiphanius for Bishop Timothy his power or jurisdiction over Presbyters from 1 Tim. 5.1 19. Where whatever the word Presbyter may be concluded to import whether a single Priest in the common notion of the word Presbyter subjected to the Bishop or a Bishop subjected to the Metropolitan it equally make's against you that Bishop Timothy had power to rebuke and to receive an Accusation against a Presbyter which no meer Presbyter can pretend to have over another This would imply a contradiction to wit that an equall is not an equall because a Ruler and a Judge to the very same person to whom he is an equall The same use is to be made of what is cited from Theophylact concerning Titus * Ibid. to wit that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudgement as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordination of so many Bishops was committed to him And I pray Sir remember one special Emphasis which evidently lye's on the Doctor 's words Which do not run thus the Title of Presbyters in Scripture times belonged onely to the Bishops but if not onely yet at least Principally to them And therefore however the case might be whether onely or not onely all the course of his arguing will be equally cogent and unresistible 5. Now for your minor that most of your Ordainers are such Pastors you prove it by saying first they are Pastors But this is petitio principii with a witnesse to say they are because they are And 't is a gross transition ab Hypothesi ad Thesin to say they are such Pastors because they are Pastors The word Pastor in our dayes doe's commonly signify a Priest to whom is committed a Cure of Soules And when I have lately so us'd it it hath been onely in complyance with that vulgar Catachresis But in the use of Scripture and antient Writers Pastor signifies him to whom the charge of the Flock is Originally intrusted whereas our English acception of the word Rector which is not the Scriptural or antient stile is wholly extended to a deputed or partiary Government in the Church to wit a Government over part of the Pastors Diocess which Pastor in the old stile hath the plenary charge committed to him Your error therefore was very great in confounding the Pastors with the Rectors of the people unless you spake with the vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and supposing that so you did you spake completely besides the purpose And whereas you say in your Margin Mr. T. P. call's himself Rector of Brington I know not what you can mean by it unless an unkilfull intimation that I arrogate to my self somewhat more then is my due And therefore to undeceive either your self or your Readers I must tell you that in all Records which concern this Church or its Incumbent in all Leases and Compositions and Iudgments of Law in all Directions and Orders which have ever been sent by Supreme Authority the Church hath been stiled the Rectory and the Incumbent the Rector of it You may gather the reason from Mr. Sparrow's Learned Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer The chief Rector oâ— a Parish called the Cardinal Priest of old quia incardinatus in Beneficio was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest under him his Clerks Where there were Chantries as there were in most Churches of England their assisting the Rector of the Church made up that Form of speech the Priest and Clerks And Brington being a Parish consisting of five distinct Members hath occasion'd the Rector in all times to be at the charge of an Assistant I have told you what I mean whensoever I write my self Rector of Brington If Mr. Cawdrey hath meant more when he hath written himself as publickly the Rector of Billing I leave him to give you a Reason for it Having done with your Argument and with your persoâ—all reflection I shall observe but one thing more to wit that whilst you say most of your Ordainers are such Pastors as Dr. Hammond spake of in Scripture-times which yet I hope you will retract you imply a confession that some are not Nor can I see by what meanes you will excuse your selves unto your selves for having admitted of such Ordainers As for your second and third sentences in your Sect. 5. p. 199. You have an answer included in what went before and so you will have in that which follows For Sect. 38. In your seventh Chapter Presbyterians are not Bishops by having Deacons under them p. 203. Sect. 18. You again pretend to fetch an Argument from the words of the Reverend Dr. Hammond Your naked affirmation is express'd in these words Where there are no such Presbyters with a President it is yet enough to prove him a Bishop that he hath Deacons under him or but one Deacon Your pretended proof of this assertion is from the words of Doctor H. which now ensue When the Gospel was first preached by the Apostles and but few converted they ordained in every City and Region no more but a Bishop and one or more Deacons to attend him there being at the present so small store out of which to take more and so small need of ordaining more Reduce this proofe into a Syllogisme which may serve your interest in any measure and it will be like your former most dishonourably false For thus you must form it do what you can if you intend to make it in imitation of a proof A primitive Bishop had no more then a Deacon or Deacons to attend him A Presbyter hath no more then a Deacon or Deacons to attend him therefore a Presbyter is a Primitive Bishop Here you see are three affirmatives in the second Figure And by an Argument so form'd I will prove you to be anything either Fish or Fowle
with which you have any the least Agreement Reduce your proof then a second time into a syllogisme truly made and your case will be alter'd but nothing mended Your fall into the Fire will indeed be regular but you will get no more by it than if you continue in the frying-pan For your truly form'd Syllogism will be but thus whosoever hath none but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him is a Primitive Bishop A Presbyter hath â—one but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him Therefore a Presbyter is a Primitive Bishop Here the matter is as untoward as the Form was before The Major proposition being admirably false For though a man may be a Bishop who hath no more to attend him when no more are to be had and that because no more are needfull which is the thing that Dr. Hammond hath often taught you yet his having no more doth not prove him to be a Bishop which was the thing to be proved from Dr. Hammond When Ignatius reckons the Three Orders Bishops Priests and Deacons 't is as impossible for him to meane that Priests are Bishops as that Deacons are Priests For though every Bishop is a Priest it can no more follow that every Priest is a Bishop than it can possibly follow that every Animal is a man because it is true that every man is an Animal A Primitive Bishop and a meer Presbyter may have a Conversion per Accidens and another conversion by Contraposition but a simple conversion they cannot have To say they can without proof is but the begging of the Question which being sure to be denyed you I shall advise you to beg no more I will conclude this subject with a remarkable passage of Mr. Thorndike And I will do it so much the rather because the weightiness and the price of that excellent Volume may probably keep it from the perusal of vulgar Readers who onely meddle with the cheapest Bookes Mr. Thorndik's judgement of Presbyt Ordinations c. In his Epilogue to the Tragoed Of the Ch. of Engl. Concl. p. 408. The Presbyterians sometimes pleade their Ordination in the Church of England for the authority by which they ordaine others against the Church of England to do that which they received authority from the Church of England to do provided that according to the order of it A thing so ridiculously senseless that common reason refuseth it Can any state any society do an act by virtue whereof there shall be right and authority to destroy it Can the Ordination of the Church of England proceeding upon supposition of a solemn promise before God and his Church to execute the ministry a man receiveth according to the order of it inable him to do that which he was never ordained to do Shall he by failing of his promise by the act of that power which supposed his promise receive authority to destroy it Then let a man obtaine the Kingdom of Heaven by transgressing that Christianity by the undertaking whereof he obtained right to it They are therefore meer Congregations voluntarily constituted by the will of those all whosâ— acts even in the sphere of their ministry once received are become voide by their failing of that promise in consideration whereof they were promoted to it Voide I say not of the crime of Sacriledge towards God which the usurpation of Core constituteth but of the effect of Grace towards his people For the like voluntary combining of them into Presbyteries and Synodes createth but the same equivocation of words when they are called Churches to signifie that which it visible by their usurpation in point of fact not that which is invisible by their authority in point of right For want of this authority whatsoever is done by virtue of that usurpation being voide before God I will not examine whether the form wherein they execute the Offices of the Church which they think fit to exercise agree with the ground and intent of the Church or not Onely I charge a peculiar nullity in their consecrating the Eucharist by neglecting the Prayer for making the elements the dody and blood of Christ without which the Church never thought it could consecrate the Eucharist Whether having departed from the Church Presbyteries and Congregations scorne to learne any part of their duty from the Church least that might seem to weaken the ground of their departure or whether they intend that the elements remaine meer signes to strengthen mens faith that they are of the number of the elect which they are before they be consecrated as much as afterwards the want of consâ—cration rendering it no Sacrament that is ministred the ministring of it upon a ground destructive to Christianity renders it much more Immoderatâ— viâ—ulence towards those of the Episcopal way Sect. 39. I now returne to your long Preface from whence I stept into your book that the things of one Nature might be consider'd together in one Head That for which I am next to complain of you unto your self is your immoderate bitternesse to the Episcopal way and to the men of all qualities who dare to own it Many Gushes of it there are of which I will here transcribe a few * Praef. to Disp. of Church-Gov p. 17. We see that most of the ungodly in the land are the forwardest for your waies You may have almost all the Drunkards Blasphemers and Ignorant haters of godliness in the Country to vote for you and if they durst againe to fight for you at any time The spirit of prophaneness complyeth with you Ibid. and doteth on you in all places that ever I was acquainted in * Grot. Rel. p. 113. should one of you now pretend to be the Bishop of a Diocess you would have a small Clergy and none of the best and the people in most Parishes that are most ignorant drunken prophane unruly with some civil persons of your mind c. * P. 114. The cause of their love to Episcopacy is because it was a shadow if not a shelter to the Prophane heretofore and did not trouble them with discipline and because they troubled and kept under the Puritanes whom they hated But if you did not exercise Discipline on them your Churches would be but the very sinks of all other Churches about you to receive the filth that they all cast out and so they would be so great a reproach to Episcopacy that would make it vile in the eyes of sober men So that a Prelatical Church would in the common account be near kin to an Alehouse or Tavern to say no worse * â— 11â— So that for my part were I your enemy I would wish you a toleration but being really a friend to the Church and you I shall make a better motion c. Whilst you rail at this rate not onely without but against all reason nor onely beside but against your own knowledge as if it were your design to be voted for an ill