Father granted to be the first Bishop there Saint Ambrose could say upon Gal. 1.18 that S. Paul saw James at Ierusalem because he was made Bishop of that place by the Apostles So also saith Eusebius in his second booke of Ecclesiasticall History at the first and 23. Chapters Ireneus saith in his third Booke and third Chapter against Heresies that he could reckon who were Bishops from the Apostles to his owne times Eusebius is able to doe the like and in expresse termes saith that Timothy and Titus were the first Bishops of Ephesus and Crete Eccles Hist l. 3. c. 4. The subscriptions at the end of two of S. Pauls Epistles have also said it and though no part of the Text yet of age enough to beare witnesse with the rest But come we to Ignatius a man who was not onely one of S. Johns Disciples but a faithfull Martyr and one that had likewise seen Christ in the flesh and he in his first Epistle saith Quid enim aliud est Episcopus quam is qui omni principatu potestate superior est And a little after Quid vero Presbyterium aliud est quam sacer catus Conciliarii Assessores Episcopi Quid vero Diaconi quam imâ—…itatores angelicarum virtutum purum est inculpatum Ministerium illi ministrantes Meaning in the generall that a Bishop is superiour to his Bench of Presbyters they next to him and the Deacons inferiour to both Lo then here wee have three orders which hee likewise sheweth a little before and esteemes them no better then out of the Church who will not obey their Bishop in the first place and then the rest accordingly Also in his Epistle ad Magnesios he rejoyceth in them that obey their Bishop Hee also saith That neither Presbyter nor Deacon nor Lay man can doe any thing viz. in matters Ecclesiasticall without their Bishop And in his Epistle ad Philadelphenses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Episcopo attendite Presbyteris Diaconis Obey your Bishop Presbyters and Deacons And in the same Epistle a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doe nothing without your Bishop The like to which he writeth to those of Smyrna and in the the same Epistle saith he saw our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection The same doth Saint Hierom also witnesse of the same Father in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers And in the foresaid Epistle he willeth That the Layman be subject to the Deacons the Deacons to the Bishop the Bishop to Christ as Christ is to his Father And in his Epistle to Polycarpus the Angell of Smyrna Let nothing saith he be done without thy minde neither doe thou any thing without the minde of God And in his Epistle to the Ephesians Studete dilecti obedire Episcopo c. Study beloved to obey your Bishop Nor doth he but name who was the Bishop of that Church then viz. Onesimus mentioned likewise in the Scripture But I have done And now if this which hath beene said be not sufficient to prove the Divine right of Episcopacy I must for ever acknowledge the Starres to bee more glorious then the Sunne and Glow-wormes to carry more fire and light in their tailes then the greatest flame which till I want my senses I will never doe Yea by this it appeareth how wrongfully our Dialogue-writer hath alledged that there were no other Bishops then ordinary Preachers of Gods word untill 334. yeares after Christ which false tenet wee may finde at the 27. page of his Book And know moreover that whilst my answer to this present Dialogue of his was at the Presse there came to my hands a new Edition of his book containing still the same things excepting some one or two left out but here and there chopped and changed in their order from what they were in that which I first received and intermingled likewise with a few weake Additions and scurrilous railings against the government of the Church by Bishops as Antichristian affirming that they themselves are Antichrists that the Clergy of England are like those of the Church of Laodicea neither hot nor cold but luke-warme All which with what else his new Edition hath affoorded he might very well and wisely have spared untill he had found himselfe fully able to defend his first writings which because hee cannot the rest will fall of it selfe without any further answer especially seeing there is very little or nothing more then what will come within the compasse of this FINIS
up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel and I will blesse them All which is still done by the Ministers of the Gospell they blesse they teach they instruct they rebuke they reprove they exhort they consecrate the Bread and Wine to holy uses they offer up the Prayers of the people nay more they do as it were offer Christ in a Mystery and sacrifice him objectively by way of commemoration In which we differ farre from the Church of Rome for the Romish Church professeth the Body and Blood of Christ to be the proper subject we nay but the proper object of our Celebration We take then a Priest and Presbiter now to be all one and list not to quarrell any longer about the word For should we descend to Grammer we are told as much as comes fully home namely that the word Priest hath his right place in him whose meer function and charge is the service of God Whereunto let me only adde that which I find in Bishop Jewell We know saith he that the Priest or Minister of the Church of God is divided from the rest of his brethren as was the tribe of Levi from the children of Israel and hath a speciall office over the people Neither may any man force himself into that office without lawfull calling But as touching the inward Priest-hood and the exercise of the soule we say even as Saint Peter and Saint John and Tertullian have said in this sence every faithfull Christian man is a Priest and offereth to God Spirituall Sacrifices In this only sence I say and none otherwise Thus he granting that there is a Priest-hood internall and a Priest-hood externall For saith he there is not one of us that ever taught otherwise See this in his Defence of the Apology for the Church of England Part 2. pag. 130. DIALOGUE Gent. What do you think of the Priest and Clark when they do Church a woman Min. I will not tell you what I think but I will tell you what some doe say Gent. What do they say Min. They say that the Priest is like a witch Gent. Why doe they say that the Priest is like to a witch Min. Because he doth as a witch doth when she saith the Lords Prayer Gent. What doth a witch when she saith the Lords Prayer Min. She leaves out these words but deliver us from evill and so doth the Priest when he doth Church a woman Gent. Why will not a witch say these words Min. Because the Devill will not let her till she hath bewitched so many as he would have her For by the evill that is prayed against in that petition is meant the Devill and the sinne whereunto he tempteth therefore the Devill will not have her to say these words because when she saith them she prayeth that God will deliver her from him and the witchery whereunto he tempteth her ANSWER This is a cavill scarce worth the answering for it is most certain that the evill which you speak of is prayed against The most therefore which you could urge fairely is no more but this viz. That the order in saying that Prayer had been better without an answer interposed then by the interposing of one in which I think you should have met with few or none to quarrell you But to speak so basely and in such unbeseeming manner as you have done serves as a figne to shew with what a malignant spirit you wrote these things who do rather play the witch your selfe by speaking perverse words to draw away disciples after you then justly accuse the Priest in these your vain janglings But it is as Saint Paul gave notice a great while since when he called the Elders of Ephesus together as we read in the twentieth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles at the 30 verse DIALOGUE Min. The Priest doth also skip over the conclusion of the Lords Prayer for thine is the kingdome power and glory and therein also they say that he is like to a witch when she doth say the Creed for when she saith the second Article And in Jesus Christ his onely sonne she skips over these words Our Lord and so doth the Priest slip over the conclusion of the Lords Prayer Gent. Saint Luke leaves it out and therefore the Priest may leave them out Luk. 11.4 Min. It followeth not that therefore the Minister may leave them out for Saint Luke did not write any thing of himselfe but what the holy Ghost would have him to write Gent. Why would not the holy Ghost have him to write them Min. Because it was sufficient that Saint Mathew had writ them Math. 6.13 ANSWER Here you shew us still more of your skill in witchery and tell us of the Priests skipping over the conclusion of the Lords Prayer And indeed if there were not some President for it in Scripture it might not be But there is president for it in Luke 11.4 although you be pleased to passe it over with a non sequitur And yet for all that it may follow well enough For whereas it seemed good to the holy Ghost in one Evangelist to adde the Doxologie and in another to omit it the Church is blamelesse and may indifferently follow either the one or the other seeing both of them wrote by inspiration For who knows except you who know any thing whether it were the purpose of the holy Ghost to have Saint Luke omit it because Saint Matthew had recorded it and not rather to shew that it was a compleat Prayer at the end of the petitions although the reason of the petitions be not mentioned where the Doxology is omitted It is well then to repeat those words of the conclusion and not ill although they be not alwaies mentioned for our Church in so doing hath the pattern not only of all the Latine and some of the Greek Fathers but even of Saint Luke himself Quando dicimus libera nos à malo nihil remanet quod ultra adhuc debeat postulari as saith Saint Cyprian Cypr. de Orat. Dominic that is When we say Deliver from evill there remains nothing more to be prayed for DIALOGUE Gent. Some doe think because Saint Mark and Saint John doe make no mention of the Lords Prayer that therefore the Minister may omit the reading of it and that because the Evangelists and the Apostles did not use to say it as a Prayer therefore none neither Minister nor people ought to use it as a Prayer Min. The truth is that our Saviour Christ did make it for all Christians to use as a prayer and also for a pattern to pray by Gent. Where doe you finde that our Saviour Christ would have it used as a Prayer Min. In the 11 chapter of the Gospell written by Saint Luke and the second verse where it is written that our Saviour said When you pray say Our Father which c. Gent. Where doe
more eminent then his other Disciples for if the Seventy and the Twelve had been in all things equall Christ had surely mentioned more Thrones then twelve when he said You that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Sonne of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Mat. 19.28 It is true indeed that even those 70. were Ministers of the Gospel but those Twelve were as it were the Patriarches of the Church and noted still by an Article of eminence as one worthily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Twelve for thus in Scripture we finde them mentioned These therefore were Stars without doubt of the greatest magnitude and in that regard as when the vision concerned the seven Churches of Asia in particular it deciphers out the Angels thereof by Seven Starres to note out the Governours or Bishops there as shall bee afterwards shewed So when it concernes the Church in generall the glorious woman is brought forth with a Crowne of twelve Stars upon her head in honour of the twelve Apostles Rev. 12.1 It is recorded likewise in the first Chapter of the Acts that when a place was void among the Twelve by reason of the transgression of the traytor Judas another is elected by the casting of a Lot to succeed him in his charge which is in expresse words said tobe a Bishopricke as at the 20 verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is And his Bishopricke let another take Now the one of those who were nominated or presented hereunto that the choyce might be made was Ioseph called Barsabas whose Sirname was Iustus and hee as Dorothcus in his Synopsis mentions was one of the seventy Disciples Besides this is also true that other of the Ministery had the holy Ghost but these were so eminent as that they gave it The proofe is plain in Philip the Evangelist who as the said Auther saith was one likewise of the Seventie for though hee preached wrought miracles according to the extraordinary gifts of those times converted and baptized the Samaritanes yet neverthelesse till Peter and Iohn came down and prayed and laid their hands on them they received not the holy Ghost as is expresly written in the 8. Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles at the 14 15 16 and 17 verses But proceed we further the Apostles are still carefull to doe the work for which they are sent they plant therefore Mother-Churches in Mother-Cities they ordaine them Presbyters and so long as they themselves take the chiefe care of those Churches they have no other Bishops to govern them no otherwise then in common for even the whole company were invested with a kind of oversight in the Apostles absence whilst things were in fieri though afterwards when they were in facto such as these were rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is plaine enough and needs no question but in the mean while for this cause it was that the name as yet was promiscuously given to the whole Bench of Presbyters where the Apostles still were head and had set up none in particular above the rest An example whereof is in that of S. Paul to the Philippians chap. 1. vers 1. and in some place also where a particular Bishop was appointed the name for a while is still in common as wee see in the 1 Tim. 3.1 and in Titus chap. 1. v. 7. But it is not the name that we strive for the thing is that which makes the difference for though the name of Bishop was not suddenly appropriated to one more then another yet the thing it selfe was insomuch that the Bishoprick where the Apostles had ordained Presbyters was still to them in chiefe untill they began to set up were out or otherwise to with-draw upon occasion of planting in some other parts of the world which when they did both the name and office were then more neerly connected and distinct the office fully and the name as fully too even quickly after And without question this not well observed makes some talke strangely and bestirre them madly for a Parity urging upon us Scripture to none or little purpose The first that was setled was Iames Bishop of Ierusalem one of the Apostles under whom his Presbyters was the Church of Ierusalem his Deacon was S. Steven as Ignatius Epist ad Trall mentions This was his peculiar charge and for this Church they first provided before their departure from it And when sometimes after this they have occasion to come up thither James is mentioned as one setled there Gal. 1.18 His name is put in the first place because that was his peculiar charge Gal. 2.9 which at verse 12. is more manifest when S. Peter by the direction of S. Iames withdrawes himself from eating with the Gentiles We read also of S. Paul how at his last journey to Ierusalem hee went to James where hee and his Presbyters were assembled and takes advice from him because of his setled abode in that place how hee ought to behave himselfe towards those of the Circumcision which beleeved Act. 21.19 Afterwards although not presently Timothy and Titus are made Bishops the one of Ephesus the other of Crete And first for Timothy he is commanded to charge the preachers of Ephesus that they teach no other doctrine then was prescribed 1. Tim. 1.3 Now if Timothy were but an equall Presbyter with the rest who would not think how equally apt the rest would be to bid him keep within his own compasse and not to meddle with them Nor doe we but read againe at the third Chapter vers 10. that he must examine the Deacons and let them minister if they be found blamelesse And in the next Chapter at the 12. verse he is charged both to command and teach And in the Chapter after this at the 17. verse hee must see that the painfull Presbyters bee respectively used and liberally maintained And at the 19. verse he hath power to censure ill deserving Presbyters but upon faire grounds for hee may not receive an accusation against a Presbyter under two or three witnesses and will any man thinke that this could bee done without the power of a Iurisdiction Then at the next verse when he findes a Presbyter convicted by such testimony as aforesaid he may he must rebuke him before all that others also may feare This made that Father Epiphanius haeres 75. say not onely that the Divine speech of the Apostle teacheth who is a Bishop and who is a Presbyter in saying to Timothy Rebuke not an Elder but also How could a Bishop rebuke a Presbyter if he had no power over a Presbyter Then at the next verse hee is strictly charged to observe these things without preferring one before another and to doe nothing partially A plain proofe againe of his power and authority over the rest And finally in the verse after this he is forbidden to lay
hands suddenly upon any one Hee had power therefore of the imposition of hands and to ordain Presbyters For the charge is particularly directed to him and not to them even as wee shall see it afterwards in the Church of Crete where the power of ordination is as peculiar to Titus as here to Timothy and in neither places committed to the Presbyters This therefore made one say that Their hands without His will not serve His without Theirs might An Apostle did so to him meaning to Timothy and he a Bishop might doe it to others For the Apostle doth not say here Lend thy hand to be laid on with others but appropriates it as his owne act saying even to him in particular Lay hands suddenly upon no man neither partake of other mens sias Bee there then what Presbyters there will although the Bishop and so is the practice of our Church may joyne their hands to his owne yet that they alone without him can make a man a lawfull Minister is utterly denied for a meere Presbyter or many Presbyters of themselves did never ordain others into the holy Ministery And Epiphanius gives the reason of it For how can it be saith he that a Priest should create qui potestatem imponendi manus non habet who hath no power of the imposition of hands Hierome himselfe could say Excepta ordinatione who being no fast friend to Bishops may be the better heard without suspition Quid enim facit Episcopus excepta ordinatione quod Presbyter non facit For what doth a Bishop except ordination which a Presbyter also doth not they be his owne words in an Epistle written to Evagrius And in the dayes of Athanasius when that worthy Hosius was also famous there was one Colluthus a certain Priest of Alexandria who tooke upon him to ordaine Presbyters but the Church in a generall Councell convented him and pronounced against his ordination that it was no other then a meere Nullity Quo pacto igitur Presbyter Ischyras aut quo tandem authore constitutus nunquid scilicet a Collutho saith Athanasius in his second Apologie Ischyras was no Priest because ordained by Colluthus He is therefore not onely opposed whilst hee had the holy cup in his hand but even devested afterwards of his pretended orders and with all the rest which Colluthus undertooke to maâ—e put amongst the Laicks ranked in their order and under their name admitted to the holy Supper But some perhaps will say that Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13.3 received imposition of hands by the Presbyters of Antioch and therefore meere Presbyters may ordaine No sure never a jot the more for this Imposition of hands was for more causes then one both Paul and Barnabas were in the Ministery before this and therefore by that which was now done they received not their consecration into holy orders It may rather be said that Paul had his ordination from Ananias a certaine Disciple of Damascus because he before this came and laid his hands upon him as we read in Act. 9.17 But neither was this to ordaine him into holy orders in regard that his calling was immediate and therefore saith he to those of Galatia that he was an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Iesus Christ God the Father Gal. 1.1 And to the Corinthians That he was not inferior to the very chiefe Apostles as he hath likewise told us in the 2. Cor. 12.13 What then It is true that God gave extraordinary gifts in those dayes even to the healing of the sicke and curing of the diseased in which regard S. Paul being blinde through the bright lustre of the vision is cured when Ananias comes laies his hands upon him and is also filled with the holy Ghost which seems to be for the strengthening of him after his conversion and for his settlement in Religion and the saith of Christ for we see that it was done by the speciall appointment of God and not so much before hee went abroad to preach as before hee was received into the Church by holy Baptisme yea the whole businesse was extraordinary even in respect of the instrument who had an immediate direction and an extraorinary gift to doe in this all that he did be it for what it will And as for them at Antioch they were not onely teachers but Prophets by whom the Holy Ghost declared likewise that they must separate Barnabas and Saul from the rest of the Ministers or Disciples there and not now make them Ministers that they were before yet because they must bee gone from them and goe further abroad among the Gentiles they solemnly commend them to the grace of God for they fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them and let them goe the expresse words of the text so that this may be rather termed a Manumission then an Ordination And all this while the way is plaine But there is yet a place in the first Epistle to Timothy chap. 4. verse 14. which is also urged to prove that Presbyters may ordaine the words being taken by some as if Timothy received his consecration into holy Orders by the hands of Presbyters But if Saint Paul may be suffered to be his owne interpreter he afterward shewes us that this was otherwise for I put thee in remembrance saith he that thou stirre up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands 2 Tim. 1.6 His then were the hands that ordained Timothy and according thereunto is the charge that hee also gave to the said Timothy when he bade him Lay hands suddenly upon no man there being no one word to invest every ordinary Presbyter with the like power What is it then The text objected saith not Neglect not the gift that is in thee c. by the imposition of the hands of the Presbyters nor by the imposition of the hands of a Presbytery but by the imposition of the hands of Presbytery that is by the laying upon thee the hands of Ordination termed the hands of Presbytery or Priesthood because that 's the office into which the party consecrated is then ordained more then which cannot bee fairely gathered thence especially seeing the Apostle doth so clearly put the matter out of doubt by saying that his were the hands that ordained Timothy as in that before I have already shewed And indeed if Timothy were ordained by a Presbytery then by more then one but Saint Paul in that other place hath said that his hands and no other were imposed on him Nor is this but granted even by Calvin himselfe to be the right sense of the place as in the fourth booke of his Institutions at the third Chapter is manifest But leaving Timothy looke next at Titus the large Island of Crete is expresly committed to his peculiar charge in which were many Cities and he expresly said to be set over them all no mention being made of any other For For this cause left I