heard the Lord and afterward burnt a Martyr of Christ was ordained Bishop of Smyrna by Saint Iohn So Hierome Another Polycarpus Bishop and Martyr was placed by John Bishop of Smyrna So Eusebius A third before him By John was Polycarpus constituted Bishop of Smyrna So Tertullian And before him a fourth testifieth as one that had seen this Polycarpus That after that he had been instructed by the Apostles of Christ with whom he had been conversant he was made by them Bishop of Smyrna So Ireneus We ascend somewhat higher to one who write an Epistle to the same Polycarpus intituling him the Bishop of Smyrna and in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna saluting him as their Bishop Ignatius in these Epistles and sayings which Vedelius the Professour in the Church of Geneva and an exact discerner and discoverer of the corruptions crept into his writings doth hold as genuine and legitimate Can our Opposites require a greater confirmation of any historicall point which they themselves maintain as more amply testified then this is whereto as many of our former Protestant Divines did subscribe so is there not one to our knowledge from this Saint Iohn that ever did contradict it XXVII THESIS That Christ himself shewed his approbation of the Prelacy which the foresaid Angels had in their severall Churches THere was yet never either favourites to Episcopacy nor opposites against it but have granted that whatsoever the Government was meant in these seven Churches it had the approbation of Christ by the tenour of his Epistles written unto them First from the words of the Chap. 1. 1. The Revelation of Jesus Christ sent by his Angel to his Servant John to acknowledge the Epistles to have been dictated by Christ himself conveied by an Angel to Iohn and as it followeth in the second and third Chapters distributed by Iohn to the severall Angels and communicated to the Churches After this by the vertue of the same letters an inquisition is made as it were a Visitation kept upon every Angel of the Churches concerning the discharge of their offices wherein two of them are found of weight and commendable the other five more or lesse criminally deliquents yet so as to manifest a justification of the Offices The approbation of the function is seen not only which reason none can deny by Christ his commending their diligence zeal and faithfullnesse but even likewise in his processe of convictions reprehensions and denuntiations against their remissenesse dissolutenesse and faithfulnesse of others but how certainly so that the condemnation of their vices and abuses argued an approbation of their Offices and Functions because it was done not with an absolute intent to remove them at the first but onely to reforme them and continue them upon their Reformation therefore was it said from Christ to one Repent or else c. Chap. 2. 5. 16. to another Repent if not I will come against thee and the like this we see was no deprivation of the Officers at first much lesse abolition of the Offices which were to continue from age to age The last poynt will be our Assumption from all these premisses which is that these Angels being so amply evidently and with so unanimous consent of the most and best approved Protestant Divines agreeable to Historicall practise of Apostolicall Churches proved to have been such Bishops as had a Prelaey over the Clergy with Christs own approbation a truth which the evidence of these Scriptures did expresse in part from Beza himself his sentence is large consisting of these briefes First that the Episcopacy which seemed to him to be regulate was to be collected out of this Scripture of the Apocalyps Secondly that the same was a Presidency and Prefectureship of one Presbyter over the rest Thirdly that it was a Prelacy of Authority Fourthly that Hierome was of judgement Fifthly that to hold otherwise were to doate and play the foel all which prove the difference of Bishop and Presbyter both to have been of Apostolicall Institution because under Iohn in the Church of Asia and to have had the approbation of Christ because of Christ his commendation of the faithfull discharge of this Function which fully makes good unto us both our conclusions That Episcopacy for the Office and Function it self is according to the word of God and in respect of use therefore the Best The Originall of BISHOPS and METROPOLITANS briefly laid down by James Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH THe ground of Episcopacy is derived partly from the patterne perscribed by God in the Old Testament and partly from the imitation thereof brought in by the Apostle's and confirmed by Christ himself in the time of the New The government of the Church of the Old-Testament was committed to the Priests and Levits unto whom the Ministers of the New do now succeed in like sort as our Lords-day hath done unto their Sabbath that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet touching the vocation of the Gentiles I will take of them for Priests and for Levits saith the Lord. That the Priests were superiour to the Levits no man doubteth and that there was not a parity either betwixt the Priests or betwixt the Levits themselves is manifest by the word of God wherein mention is made of the Heads and Rulers both of the one and of the other 1 Chron. XXIV 6. 31 and Ezr. VIII 29. The Levits were distributed into the three families of the Gershonites Cohathites and Merarites and over each of them God appointed one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ruler Num. III. 24. 30. 35. the Priests were divided by David into four and twenty courses 1 Chron. XXIV Who likewise had their Heads who in the History of the New-Testament are ordinarily called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief of the Priests and clearly distinguished from that singular one who was the type of our great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God Yea in the XI of Nehemy we find two named Bishops the one of the Priests the other of the Levits that dwelt in Jerusalem The former so expresly tearmed by the Greek in the 14. the latter both by the Greek and Latin Interpreter in the 22 vers and not without approbation of the Scripture it self which rendreth the Hebrew word of the same originall in the Old by the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New-Testament Of Levi it was said by Moses the man of God They shall teach Jacob thy judgements and Israel thy law they shall put incense before thee and whole brunt sacrifice upon thine Altar Because this latter part of their office hath ceased with them and the Leviticall Altar the truth prefigured thereby being now exhibited is quite taken away May not we therefore conclude out of the former part which hath no such typicall relation in it that our Bishops and Presbyters should be as the
Apostle would have them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain-sayers Nay and out of the latter part it self where God had appointed that the Priests the Levits and all the Tribe of Levi should eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire doth not the Apostle by just analogy inferre from thence that for asmuch as they which waited at the Altar were partaker with the Altar even so had the Lord ordained that they which preached the Gospell should live of the Gospell With what shew of reason then can any man imagine that what was instituted by God in the Law for meere matter of Government and preservation of good order without all respect of type or ceremony should now be rejected in the Gospell as a device of Antichrist That what was by the Lord once planted a noble vine wholly a right seed should now be so turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine that no purging or pruning of it will serve the turne but it must be cut down root and branch as a plant which our heavenly Father had never planted But nothing being so familiar now a dayes as to father upon Antichrist whatsoever in Church matters we do not find to suite with our own humors The safest way will be to consult with Christ himself herein and hear what he delivereth in the cause These things saith he that hath the seven Starres Revel III. 1. he owneth then we see these Starrs whatsoever they be And the Mystery of them he thus further openeth unto his beloved Disciple The seven Starrs which thou sawest in my right hand are the Angels of the seven Churches Revel I. 20. From which words a learned man very much devoted to the now so highly admired Discipline deduceth this conclusion How great therefore is the dignity of true pastours who are both STARRES fixed in no other firmament then in the right hand of Christ and ANGELS He had considered well that in the Church of Ephâ—sus one of the seven here pointed at there were many PRESBYTERS whom the holy Ghost had made BISHOPS or Overseers over all that flook to feed the Church of God which he had purchased with his own blood And withall he saw that by admitting one Angel there above the rest all as well extraordinary Prophets as ordinary Pastours being in their own severall stations accounted Angels or Messengers of the Lord of Hosts he should be forced also to acknowledge the eminency of one Bishop above the other Bishops that name being in those dayes common unto all the Presbyters and to yeeld withall that such a one was to be esteemed as a starre fixed in no other firmament then in the right hand of Christ. To salve this therefore all the starrs in every Church must be presupposed to be of one magnitude and though those starrs which typified these Angels are said to be but seven yet the Angels themselves must be maintained to be farre more in number and in fine where our Saviour Saith unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write it must by no means be admitted that any one Angel should be meant hereby but the whole Colledge of Pastors rather And all upon pretence of a poor shew of some shallow reasons that there was not one Angel of Ephesus but many and among them not any Principal Which wresting of the plain words of our Saviour is so extream violent that M. Beza though every way as zealously affected to the advancement of the new Discipline as was the other could by no means digest it but ingenuously acknowledgeth the meaning of our Lords direction to have been this To the Angel that is to the President as whom it behoved specially to be admonished touching those matters and by him both the rest of his colleagues and the whole Church likewise And that there was then a standing President over the rest of the Pastors of Ephesus and he the very same as learned Doctor Rynolds addeth with him whom afterward the Fathers called Bishop may further be made manifest not only by the succession of the first Bishops of that Church but also by the clear testimony of Ignatius who within no greater compasse of time then twelve years afterwards distinguisheth the singular and constant President thereof from the rest of the number of the Presbyters by appropriating the name of Bishop unto him As for the former we find it openly declared in the general Council of Chalcedon by Leontius Bishop of Magnesia that from Timothie and so from the dayes of the Apostles there had been a continued succession of seven and twenty Bishops all of them ordained in Ephesus Of which number the Angel of the Church of Ephesus mentioned in the Revelation must needs be one whether it were Timothie himself as some conceive or one of his next Successours as others rather do imagine For that Timothie had been some time * the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the appellation that Justin Martyr in his second Apology for Christians Dionysius of Corinth not long after him in his epistle to the Church of Athens and Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra in his Letters to Julius Bishop of Rome do give unto a Bishop or Autistes or President of the Ephesine Presbytery is confessed by Beza himself and that he was ordained the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians we do not only read in the subscription of the second Epistle to Timothy and the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius but also in two ancient Treatises concerning the martyrdom of Timothy the one namelesse in the Library of Photius the other bearing the name of Polycrates even of that Polycrates who was not only himself Bishop of this Church of Ephesus but born also within six or seven and thirty years after S. John wrote the fore-named Epistle unto the Angel of that Church as it appeareth by the years he was of when he wrote that Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome wherein he maketh mention of seven kinsmen of his who had been Bishops he himself being the eight I come now to the testimony of Ignatius whom Theodoret and Felix Bishop of Rome and John the Chronographer of Antioch report to have been ordained Bishop of Antioch by S. Peter in special Chrysostome who was a Presbyter of the same Church by the Apostles in general and without all controversie did sit in that See the very same time wherein that Epistle unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus was commanded to be written In the Isle of Patmos had S. John his Revelation manifested unto him toward the end of the Empire of Domitian as Ireneus testifieth or the fourteenth year of his government as Eusebius and Hierome specifie it From thence there are but twelve years reckoned
unto the tenth of Trajan wherein Ignatius in that last journey which he made for the consummation of his glorious Martyrdome at Rome wrote another Epistle unto the self-same Church of Ephesus In which he maketh mention of their then Bishop Onesimus as it appears both by Eusebius citing this out of it and by the Epistle it self yet extant In this Epistle to the Ephesians Ignatius having accknowledged that their numerous multitude was received by him in the person of their Bishop Onesimus and blessed God for granting unto them such a Bishop as he was doth afterwards put them in minde of their duty in concurring with him as he sheweth their worthy Presbytery did being so conjoyn'd as he saith with their Bishop as the strings are with the Harp and toward the end exhorteth them to obey both the Bishop and the Presbytery with an undivided minde In the same journey wrote Ignatius also an Epistle unto the Church of Smyrna another of the seven unto whom those letters are directed in S. Johns Revelation wherein he also saluteth their Bishop and Presbytery exhorting all the people to follow their Bishop as Christ Jesus did his Father and the Presbytery as the Apostles and telling them that no man ought either to administer the Sacraments or do any thing appertaining to the Church without the consent of the Bishop Who this Bishop and what that Presbytery was appeareth by another Epistle written a little after from Smyrna by Polycarpus and the Presbyters that were with him unto the Philippians And that the same Polycarpus was then also Bishop there when S. John wrote unto the Angel of the Church of Smyrna who can better inform us then Irenaeus who did not only know those worthy men who succeeded Polycarpus in his See but also was present when he himself did discourse of his conversation with S. John and of those things which he heard from those who had seen our Lord Jesus Polycarpus saith he was not only taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of those that had seen Christ but also was by the Apostles constituted in Asia Bishop of the Church which is in Smyrna whom we our selves also did see in our younger age for he continued long being very aged he most gloriously and nobly suffering Martyrdome departed this life Now being ordained Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostles who had finished their course and departed out of this life before S. John the last surviver of them did write his Revelation who but he could there be meant by the Angel of the Church in Smyrna in which that he still held his Episcopal office unto the time of his Martyrdome which fell out LXXIV years afterward may sufficiently appear by this testimony which the brethren of the Church of Smyrna who were present at his suffering gave unto him He was the most admirable man in our times an Apostolical and Propheticall Doctor and Bishop of the Catholick Church which is in Smyrna Whereunto we may add the like of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who lived also in his time and in his neighbourhood affirming Polycarpus to have been both Bishop and Martyr in Smyrna So saith he in his Synodica Epistle directed unto Victor Bishop of Rome about 27 years after the Martyrdome of Polycarpus he himself being at that time 65 years of age About the very same time wherein Polycrates wrote this Epistle unto Victor did Tertullian publish his book of Prescriptions against Hereticks wherein he avoucheth against them that as the Church of Smyrna had Polycarpus placed there by John and the Church of Rome Clement ordained by Peter so the rest of the Churches also did shew what Bishops they had received by the appointment of the Apostles to traduce the Apostolical seed unto them And so before him did Irenaeus urge against them the successions of Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the charge of the Church in every place For all the Hereticks saith he are much later then those Bishops unto whom the Apostles committed the Churches And we are able to number those who by the Apostles were ordained Bishops in the Churches and their Successours unto our dayes who neither taught nor knew any such thing as these men dream of For proof whereof he bringeth in the succession of the Bishops of Rome from Liuus unto whom the blessed Apostles committed that Episcopacy and Anacletus by others called Cletus and Clement who did both see the Apostles and conferred with them unto Eleutherius who when Irenaeus wrote had the charge of that Bishoprick in the twelfth place after the Apostles Concerning whom and the integrity which then continued in each other succession from the Apostles dayes Hegesippus who at the same time published his History of the Church saith thus Soter succeeded Anicetus and after him was Eleutherius Now in every succession and in every City all things so stand as the Law and the Prophets and our Lord do preach And more particularly concerning the Church of Corinth after he had spoken of the Epistle written unto them by Clement for the repressing of some factions wherewith they were at that time much troubled which gave him occasion to tell them that the Apostles of whom he himself was an hearer had perfect intelligence from our Lord Jesus Christ of the contention that should arise about the name of Episcopacy he declareth that after the appeasing of this tumult the Church of the Corinthians continued in the right way untill the dayes of Primus whom he did visite in his sayling toward Rome Which Primus had for his successour that famous Dionysius whose Epistle to the Church of the Athenians hath beene before nominated wherein he put them in minde of the first Bishop that had been placed over them even Dionysius the Areopagite S. Pauls own convert a thing whereof they could at that time have no more cause to doubt then we should have if any question were now made of the Bishops that were here in King Edward the VI. or Queen Maryes dayes I might also say in the middle of the raigne of Queen Elizabeth her self if with Baronius I would produce the Areopagites life unto the government of the Emperour Hadrian This Hegesippus living next after the first succession of the Apostles as Eusebius noteth and being himself a Christian of the race of the Hebrews was carefull to record unto posterity the state of the Church of Ierusalem in the dayes of the Apostles and the alteration that followed after their departure out of this life Where first he sheweth that Iames the brother of our Lord surnamed the Iust did governe that Church together with the Apostles yet so as Clement of Alexandria who wrote some twenty years after him further addeth that he had this preferment even before the three prime Apostles Peter and
Matthew or some other of the disciples of the Lord and the things that Aristion and John the Elder our Lords disciples did speak The two last of whom he often cited by name in the processe of the work relating the passages in this kind which he had heard from them Neither can any man be so simple as to imagine that in the language of Clemens Alexandrinus the name of a Bishop should import no more then a bare Presbyter if he consider that not the difference only betwixt Presbyters Bishops and Deacons is by him acknowledged but further also that the disposition of their three offices in his judgement doth carry with it an imitation of the Angelicall glory To say nothing of the Emperour Hadrian who hard upon the time of the fore-named Papias writing unto the Consul Servianus touching the state of things in Aegypt maketh distinct mention in his letter of the Presbyters of the Christians and of those who call themselves the Bishops of Christ. And thus having deduced Episcopacy from the Apostolicall times and declared that the Angels of the seven Churches were no other but such as in the next age after the Apostles were by the Fathers tearmed Bishops we are now further to enquire why these Churches are confined unto the number of seven in the superscription of that Apostolicall Epistle prefixed before the book of the Revelation Iohn to the seven Churches in Asia Grace be unto you and peace where S. Iohn directing his letters unto them thus indefinitly without any mention of their particular names cannot by common intendment be conceived to have understood any other thereby but such as by some degree of eminency were distinguishable from all the rest of the Churches that were in Asia and in some sort also did comprehend all the rest under them For taking Asia here in that stricter sense wherein the New Testament useth it as denoting the Lydian Asia alone of the circuit whereof I have treated elsewhere more particularly it is not to be imagined that after so long pains taken by the Apostles and their disciples in the husbanding of that part of the Lords vineyard there should be found no more but seven Churches therein especially since S. Paul that wise master-builder professeth that he had here a great door and effectuall opened unto him and S. Luke testifieth accordingly that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Iesus both Iews and Greeks so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed Which extraordinary blessing of God upon his labours moved the Apostle to make his residence in those parts for the space of three years wherein he ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears So that in all reason we are to suppose that these seven Churches comprising all the rest within them were not bare Parochiall ones or so many particular congregations but Diocesan Churches as we use to call them if not Metropoliticall rather For that in Laedicea Sardis Smyrna Ephesus and Pergamus the Roman governours held their Courts of justice to which all the Cities and Towns about had recourse for the ending of their suites is noted by Pliny And besides these which were the greatest Thyatira is also by Ptolomy expresly named a Metropolis as Philadelphia also is in the Greek Acts of the Councell of Constantinople held under Menas Which giveth us good ground to conceive that the seven Cities in which these seven Churches had their seat were all of them Metropoliticall and so had relation unto the rest of the Townes and Cities of Asia as unto daughters rising under them This Lydian Asia was separated from Caria by the river Maeander upon the banks whereof Magnesia and Trallis were seated to the Christians whereof Ignatius directed two of his epistles wherein he maketh mention of Damas Bishop of the one Church and Polybius Bishop or Ruler as Eusebius calleth him of the other whom they had sent to visit him at Smyrna adding withall in that to the Trallians his usuall admonitions Be subject to the Bishop as to the Lord and to the Presbytery as to the Apostles of Jesus Christ our hope He that doth any thing without the Bishop and the Presbyters and the Deacons such a one is defiled in conscience Fare ye well in Jesus Christ being subject to the Bishop and likewise to the Presbyters Wherein we may note that with twelve years after mention of the seven Churches made in the Apocalyps for then as hath been shewed were these epistles of Ignatius written other Episcopal cities are found in the same Lydian Asia and two such as in after times are well known to have been under the government of the Metropolitan of Ephesus But whether this subordination were as ancient as the dayes of Ignatius whose Epistles are extant unto these three Churches and Damas the then Bishop of Magnefia with Polybius of Trallis were at that time subject to One simus the Bishop of Ephesus might well be doubted but that the same Ignatius directeth one of his Epistles unto the Church which had presidency in the place of the Region of the Romans and in the body thereof doth attribute unto himself the title of the Bishop of Syria Whereby as he intimateth himself to have been not onely the Bishop of Antiock but also of the rest of the province of Syria which was under that Metropolis so doth he likewise not obscurely signifie that the Bishop of Rome had at that time a presidency over the Churches that were in the Vrbicarian Region as the Imperiall Constitutions or the Roman Province as the Acts of the first Councell of Arles call it What that Vrbicarian Region was I will not now stand to discusse whether Tuscia onely wherein Rome it selfe was situated which in the dayes of Ignatius was one entire region but afterwards divided into Tuscia Suburbicaria and Annonaeria or the territory wherein the Praefectus Vrbis did exercise his jurisdiction which was confined within the compasse of a hundred miles about the City or with that those other provinces also whereunto the authority of the Vicarius Vrbis did extend or lastly the circuit within which those 69. Bishopricks were contained that were immediatly subject to the Bishop of Rome and frequently called to his Synods the names whereof are found registred in the Records of that Church The antiquity of which number as it may in some sort receive confirmation from the Roman Synod of seventy Bishops held under Gelasius so for the distinction of the Bishops which belonged to the city of Rome from those that appertained to Italy we have a farre more ancient testimony from the Edict of the Emperour Aurelian who in the controversie that arose betwixt Paulus Samosatenus and Domnus for the house which belonged unto the Church of Antioch commanded that it should be delivered to them
to whom the Bishops of Italy and Rome should by their letters declare that it ought to be given Which distinction aswell in the forecited Acts of the Councell of Arles as in the Epistles of the Sardican Synod and Athanasius may likewise be observed the name of Italy being in a more strict sense applyed therein to the seven Provinces which were under the Civill jurisdiction of the Vicarius or Lieutenant of Italy and the Ecclesiasticall of the Bishop of Millaine And it is well worth the observing that the Fathers of the great Councell of Nice afterwards confirming this kinde of primacy in the Bishops of Alexandria Rome and Antioch and in the Metropolitans of other Provinces do make their entrance into that Canon with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the ANCIENT customes continue Which as it cleareth the antiquity of the Metropoliticall jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome so doth it likewise confirm the opinion of those who conceive the Metropolitan of Alexandria to be meant in that passage of the Emperour Hadrians epistle unto Servianus Even the very Patriarch himself when he commeth into Egypt is by some compelled to adore Serapis and by others to worship Christ. As if upon his returning into Egypt either from his visitation of Lybia and Pentapolis which this same Nicene Canon sheweth to have of old belonged unto his care or from his flight in that present time of persecution he should suffer this distraction the heathen labouring to compell him to the worship of Serapis and his own Christian flock on the other side striving to keep him constant in the service of Christ. For that either the Heathen had will or the Christians power at that time to force the Jewish Patriarch of whom some do understand the place to the adoration of Christ hath no manner of probability in it That part also of the Canon which ratifieth the ancient rights of Metropolitans of all other Provinces may serve to open unto us the meaning of that complaint which some threescore and ten years before the time of this Synod S. Cyprian made against Novatianus for the confusion which by his schisme he brought upon the Churches of God that Whereas long since in all Provinces and in all Cities Bishops had been ordained in age ancient sound in faith tryed in affliction proscribed in persecution yet took he the boldnesse to create other false Bishops over their heads Namely subordinate Bishops in every City and Metropolitans in every Province In Africke at that time although there were many civill Provinces yet was there but one Ecclesiasticall whereof Cyprian himself was Archbishop as the Fathers of the Trullan Synod call him It pleased saith he in one of his Epistles all the Bishops constituted either in our Province or beyond the Sea intimating thereby that all the Bishops which were on his side the Sea did belong unto one Province For our Province saith he in another place is spread more largely having Numidia also and both the Mauritaniaes annexed unto it Whence that great Councell assembled by him for determining the question touching the baptizing of those that had been baptized by Hereticks is said to be gathered out of the Province of Africa Numidia and Mauritania For howsoever in the civill government the Proconsular Africa wherein Carthage was seated Numidia and both the Mauritanies Sitifensis and Caesariensis were accounted three distinct Provinces yet in the Ecclesiasticall administration they were joyned together and made but one Province immediately subject to the Metropoliticall jurisdiction of the prime See of Carthage Some threescore years before this African Councell was held by Cyprian those other Provinciall Synods were assembled by the Metropolitans of sundry nations fot the composing of the Paschall controversie then hotly pursued and among the rest that in our neighbour country out of the Parishes for so in the ancient language of the Church those precincts were named which now we call Dioceses of which Irenaeus had the superintendency whence also he wrote that free Epistle unto Victor Bishop of Rome in the person of those brethren over whom he was President At which time and before the most famous Metropoles of that Country and so the most eminent Churches therein were Lyons and Vienna in the one whereof Irenaeus was then no lesse renowned a Prelat then Cyprian was afterwards in Africa Dionysius the famous Bishop of Corinth was elder then they who among many other Epistles directed one to the Church of Gortyna and all the rest of the Churches of Crete wherein he saluted their Bishop Philip. Whereby it appeareth that at that time aswell as in the ages following Gortyna was the Metropolis and the Bishop thereof the Metropolitan of all the rest of that whole Island Which kinde of superintendency there Eusebius the ancientest Ecclesiasticall Historian now extant deriveth from the very times of Titus whom out of the histories that were before his time he relateth to have held the Bishoprick of the Churches in Crete With whom the Grecians of after times do fully concurre as appeareth both by the subscription annexed by them unto the Epistle of S. Paul to Titus ordained as there they say the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians and by the argument prefixed by them before the same speaking of him to the same effect that he was by Paul ordained Bishop of that great country and had commission to ordain the Bishops that were under him which they gather out of those words of S. Paul unto him For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee Out of which M. Calvin collecteth this doctrine unto us for the generall We learn out of this place that there was not then such an equality betwixt the ministers of the Church but that there was some one who was president over the rest both in authority and in counsell And S Chrysostom for the particular of Titus Had he not been an approved man he would not have committed that whole Iland unto him he would not have commanded him to supply the things that were defective he would not have committed unto him the judgement of so many Bishops if he had not had very great confidence in the man And Bishop Jewell upon him again Having the government of many Bishops what may we call him but an Archbishop Which is not so much to be wondred at when we see that the Bishops of another Iland stick not and that without any controll to deduce the ordination of their Metropolitan from the Apostolick times in the face of the whole generall Councell of Ephesus For whereas the Patriarch of Antioch did claim an interest in the ordaining of the Metropolitan of Cyprus the Bishops of that Iland prescribed to the contrary that from the time
take him at his own words in granting that it was some way an Authoritative Prelacy and for the distinction of extraordinary it will by and by receive an ordinary but a true answer yet we do not so much presse his confession as we may do his Reasons thereof deducted from the Texts themselves concerning their Prelaticall power of ordering matters that were amisse Tit. 1. 5. of receiving Accusation against Presbyters 1 Tim. 5. 19. and the like But our other Opposites will needs pose us requiring us to answer their first Objection videl That the Bishops whose pedegree was derived from the Apostles were no other then Presbyters then this is proved say they by two instances the first is The identity of their names which quoth they is a proof of no small consequence we answer yea rather of none at all Else was Master Beza but of small judgement when speaking of the Apostolicall Age be confessed that the Presbytery had then a President over them yea when the community of names So he of Presbyters and Bpâ— remained among them accordingly as Dr Reynolds hath said that the Presbytery had then one who was president over them when as yet the names of Bishop and Presbyter were the same who furthermore concerning the time of distinguishing the name of Bishop and Presbyter whither sooner or later here or there he saith The name of Bishop was afterwards appropriated by the usuall language of the Fathers of the Church to him that had the Presidentship over the Elders So he Hereby granting that the Presidentship by Bishops was of force before the title and name was appropriated and allotted unto them If our Opposites had acquainted themselves with these learned authors they would have spared their pains in oppugning Episcopacy How much more if they had consulted with Gods own Oracle in his word wherein we find which formerly we pointed at that Saint Peter intituled himself a Co-presbyter 1. Pet. 5. 1. Saint Iohn himself a Presbyter 1. John 1. And Saint Paul himself thrice he could then stoop no lower a Deacon Col. 1. 23. 25. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Yet notwithstanding all these inferiour appellations they held still the Authority of their Apostelship we end this point in hope that our Opposites will take out this lesson which Calvin learnt from the Divine Text in the Epistle of Titus what 's that Even our full conclusion in this cause We learn from hence that there was not then an equality saith he among the Ministers of the Church but that one was with Authority placed over others Their second convincing objection would be discuss'd XVIII THESIS That Timothy and Titus have had a Prelacy as Bishops over the Presbyters in the Apostles times notwithstanding the objection that they were called Evangelists according to consent of Protestants of reform'd Churches IN the next place we are to examine the second and only other objection which our Opposites enforce in this case to wit that Timothy and Titus with all other such Disciples of the Apostles the assistants and immediate successors did take care of the Churchs not as properly Bishops but as Evangelists who had no setled residence in any of the Churches So they but are encountred with other Protestant Divines of remote Churches in good number For Luther among his other Resolutions inserted this That Episcopacy was of divine Right grounding his judgement upon the Text specifying Titus his Government in Creete as being consonant to the judgement of Augustine 2. Their learned Scultetus sheweth that at this time they were not exercis'd in assisting the Apostoles for collecting of Churches at Evangelists but for Governing of them that had been collected as the generall praecepts given by the Apostles saith he do prove thereby to become the examples Types for the successours to follow and thereupon he concludeth them to have been the same who otherwise were called Evangeliste for preaching the Gospel although by their superintendency Bishops To the same purpose Master Moulin will have it known that whatsoever Timothy and Titus had whether as Bishop or Evangelist it was such as had a continual succession in the Church which is as others confesse as James had in Jerusalem and Marke in Alexandria which was Episcopall Titus saith Tossahus after his peregrinations with Paul was appointed Bishop of Creet and before these Zuinglius confess'd that Tim. at that very time when Paul advis'd him to pursue the work of an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4. was then Bishop in some place or other by all consequence Dr. Gerhard a late famous Theological Author is copious in this Argument who in the same sheweth that the word Evangelist given to Timothy when Paul wrote unto him was taken in a generall acceptation and not as properly belonging to him as he had been an Assistant even as Luther saith he understood it Besides he sheweth out of Scripture exactly the severall Stations which Timothy had with Saint Paul in exercising his office before that time that he was placed Bishop in Ephesus We forbeare the full allegation of the like Authours cited by others that we may hearken to our English Doctour Reynolds nothing inferiour to any of the rest even in the opinion of our Opposites themselves telling us of that very time when Paul assembled the Ministry at Miletum Act. 20. 28. One was chosen as chief in the Church of Ephesus to gâ—â—d it the same whom afterwards the Fathers of the Primitive Church called Bishop So he And for confirmation hereof sheweth that which must indeed be impregnable to wit A lineall succession of 27. Bishops as hath been proved from Timothy in the Church of Ephesus and for surplus age to all this we answer to the objected reasons propounded for Timothy's non-residence in Ephesus by that qualification which Calvin hath done in like cases namely that Pastours are not so strictly tied to their Glebe or charge as that they may not help other Churches upon necessary occasions As for the objected terme of Evangelists we moreover answer from Scripture where we find Philip preaching the word of God in Samaria Act. 8. 5. Called an Evangelist Act. 21. 8. And yet was one of the seven meaning Deacons Act. 6. 5. Our Quaere is why Timothy might not as well be called an Evangelist for preaching the word being a Bishop as Philip was for the same cause named in Evangelist being a Deacon We think all this should be satisfactory although no more were said But more we have XIX THESIS That Antiquity taught an Episcopacy both in Timothy and Titus OUr strongest Opposite Salmasius could not but confesse concerning Antiquity although he spurne against it That Chrysostome Epiphaneus Theophylact Theodoret and other Greek Commentatours have collected out of the words of Paul that Titus was verily Bishop of Creeâ—e and that there could not be divers Bishops in one City which is our
the two sons of Zebedee Iames and Iohn to be chosen the peculiar Bishop of Ierusalem the then mother Church of the world After the death of Iames the Just Hegesippus declareth that Symeon the sonne of Clopas or Cleophas was constituted Bishop and so continued untill the dayes of the Emperour Trajan under whom he suffered a glorious Martyrdome about the same time that Ignatius did being then an hundred and twenty years of age and by that account borne before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour Where the observation of this prime Historian is not to be passed over that untill these times the Church was called a Virgin as being not yet corrupted with the overspreading of hereticall doctrine For howsoever heresies did spring up before yet they were so kept down by the authority of the Apostles and the Disciples who had heard our Lord himselfe preach that the authors and fautors thereof were not able to get any great head being forced by the authority of such opposites to lurk in obscurity But as soone as all that generation was gathered unto their fathers and none of those were left who had the happinesse to hear the gracious words that proceeded from the Lords own mouth the Hereticks taking that advantage began to enter into a kind of combination and with open face publickly to maintain the oppositions of their science falsly so called from whence they assumed unto themselves the name of Gnosticks or men of knowledge against the preaching of that truth which by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word had been ONCE delivered unto the Saints The first beginner of which conspiracy was one Thebûthis who had at the first been bred in one of the seven sects into which the people of the Jewes were in those dayes divided but afterwards because he missed of a Bishopricke unto which he had aspired this of Jerusalem as it may seem whereunto Iustus after the death of Symeon was preferred before him could think of no readyer a way throughly to revenge himself of this disgrace than by raising up the like distractions among the Christians Which as in the effect it sheweth the malignity of that ambitious Sectary so doth it in the occasion discover withall the great esteem that in those early dayes was had of Episcopacy When Hegesippus wrote this Ecclesiasticall History the ancientest of any since the Acts of the Apostles Eleutherius as we heard before was Bishop of the Church of Rome unto whom Lucius King of the Britains as our Bede relateth sent an Epistle desiring that by his means he might be made Christian. Who presently obtained the effect of his pious request and the Britains kept the faith then received sound and undefiled in quiet peace untill the times of Dioclesian the Emperour By whose bloudy persecution the faith and discipline of our Brittish Churches was not yet so quite extinguished but that within ten years after and eleven before the first generall Councell of Nice three of our Bishops were present and subscribed unto the Councel of Arles Eborius of York Restitutus of London and Adelfius of Colchester if that be it which is called there Colonia Londinensium The first root of whose succession we must fetch beyond Eleutherius and as high as S. Peter himself if it be true that he constituted Churches here and ordained Bishops Presbyters and Deacons in them as Symeon Metaphrastes relateth out of some part of Eusebius as it seemeth that is not come unto our hands But to return unto the Angels of the seven Churches mentioned in the Revelation of S. Iohn by what hath been said it is apparent that seven singular Bishops who were the constant Presidents over those Churches are pointed at under that name For other sure they could not be if all of them were cast into one mould and were of the same quality with Polycarpus the then Angel of the Church in Smyrna who without all question was such if any credit may be given herein unto those that saw him and were well acquainted with him And as Tertullian in expresse termes affirmeth him to have been placed there by S. Iohn himself in the testimony before alledged out of his Prescriptions so doth he else-where from the order of the succeeding Bishops not obscurely intimate that the rest of that number were to be referred unto the same descent We have saith he the Churches that were bred by John For although Marcion do reject his Revelation yet the order of the Bishops reckoned up unto their originall will stand for John to be their Founder Neither doth the ancient Writer of the Martyrdome of Timothy mentioned by Photius mean any other by those seven Bishops whose assistance he saith S. Iohn did use after his return from Patmos in the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians For being revoked from his exile saith he by the sentence of Nerva he betook himself to the Metropolis of Ephesus and being assisted with the presence of SEVEN Bishops he took upon him the government of the Metropolis of the Ephesians and continued preaching the word of piety untill the Empire of Trajan That he remained with the Ephesians and the rest of the brethren of Asia untill the dayes of Trajan and that during the time of his abode with them he published his Gospel is sufficiently witnessed by Ireneus That upon his return from the Iland after the death of Domitian he applyed himself to the government of the Churches of Asia is confirmed likewise both by Eusebius and by Hierom who further addeth that at the earnest intreaty of the Bishops of Asia he wrote there his Gospel And that he himselfe also being free from his banishment did ordaine Bishops in diverse Churches is clearely testified by Clement of Alexandria who lived in the next age after and delivereth it as a certain truth which he had received from those who went before him and could not be farre from the time wherein the thing it self was acted When S. John saith he Domitian the Tyrant being dead removed from the Iland of Patmos unto Ephesus by the intreaty of some he went also unto the neighbouring nations in some places constituting Bishops in others founding whole Churches Among these neighbouring Churches was that of Hierapolis which had Papias placed Bishop therein That this man was a hearer of S. John and a companion of Polycarpus is testified by his own Schollar Irenaeus and that he conversed with the disciples of the Apostles and of Christ also he himself doth thus declare in the Proëme of the five books which he intituled A declaration of the words of the Lord. If upon occasion any of the Presbyters which had accompanied the Apostles did come I diligently enquired what were the speeches which the Apostles used what Andrew or what Peter did say or what Philip or Thomas or James or John or