to the Apostles and Bishops in Scripture-times of which they say that express mention is made in Scripture onely of these two i. e. Priests and Deacons To which two though the Church added other inferiour and lower degrees mentioned in Ancient Writers yet there is no mention of them in the Scripture but in some old Councils and namely in the four African where all the kinds of Orders be rehearsed Now in that Council you may find the several Rites of Ordaining 1. Bishops 2. Presbyters 3. Deacons 4. Subdeacons 5. Acolythi 6. Exorcists c. And Canon 27. Vt Episcopus de loco ignobile ad nobilem non transeat nec quisquam inferioris ordinis Clericus Inferioris vero gradus Sacerdotes possunt concessione suorum Episcoporum ad alias Ecclesias migrare So that in the Judgment of that Council Priests were an inferiour Order to Bishops and consequently they were so in the Judgment of our Reformers who quote it to that end See Binius Tom. 1. p. 728. This also appears from the Milevitan Council which is also quoted by the Reformers in which St. Augustine was also present wherein a Canon was made Quo prohibiter ne Presbyteri Diaconi vel caeteri inferiores Clerici in causis suis ulla extra Africam adeant judicia So that by both these Councils Priests as well as Deacons are proved to be inferiour to Bishops which was the thing intended by our Reformers in that Paragraph So that when these Dissenters from this passage viz that of these two Orders onely i. e. Priests and Deacons Scripture maketh express mention do in the words immediately following infer That all others meaning particularly that of Bishops were afterward added by the Church p. 2. and name this inference as if it were the very words of that excellent Book is no less a sin than the bearing false witness against them for they treat onely of other inferiour and lower degrees So that if the word Order be taken in the first sense for the power or faculty of administring holy things conferred by the Bishops it is their plain sense That the Scripture maketh express mention of these two inferiour Orders onely i. e. Priests and Deacons and not of Subdeacons Acolytes c. Moreover two things especially seem designed by the Reformers concerning the Sacrament of Orders The first is to shew that Bishops are of Divine Institution and had not their dependance on the Pope whom his Favourites made the only Bishop and all the rest deriving their power and authority from him The second was to shew that of all those seven Orders which were made Sacramental onely those of Bishops Priests and Deacons had foundation in Scripture the rest were added in after-times And to confirm both these they describe the manner of ordaining both Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Holy Scripture to discharge it from those superstitious Ceremonies introduced by the Pope and made necessary to their Ordination As for the Superiority of Bishops to Priests there is no question made much less of their Identity or sameness of Office. For the Divine Right of Bishops they assert it in four several places that they have it from Christ and prove it by Scripture and from thence infer this Conclusion That whereas the Bishop of Rome hath heretofore claimed and usurped to be Head and Governour of all Bishops and Priests of the Catholick Church by the Laws of God it is evident that his Power is utterly feigned and untrue and was neither given him by God in Holy Scripture nor allowed by the Fathers in Ancient General Councils nor by consent of the Cotholick Church And they declare That the Authorities Powers and Jurisdictions of Patriarchs Primates Arch-bishops and Metropolitans were given them by the positive Laws of men onely and not by any Ordinance of God in Holy Scripture And the power usurped by any one Bishop over another not given him by the Consent of men is no lawful Power but plain Usurpation and Tyranny Which they prove from the Ancient Councils and Fathers against the Pope Secondly They shew that of those seven Orders owned by the Church of Rome as Sacramental onely Bishops Priests and Deacons had their Institution in the Holy Scripture and that Subdeacons Acolytes Exorcists c. were added by the Church as also the Rites and Ceremonies by which they were conferred And thirdly to confirm what they had said they describe the manner of ordaining Bishops Priests and Deacons to clear it from those superstitious Ceremonies brought in by the Church of Rome as the Ring and Crosier-staff several Unctions and Garments some of which must come from Rome whereas the Scripture mentions onely the imposition of Hands and Prayers In these words Of these two Orders onely i. e. Priests and Deacons the Scripture maketh express mention and how they were conferred of the Apostles by Prayer and imposition of their Hands And evident it is to me that by the word Orders they intended onely the manner of Ordaining not the distinction of Orders for they all held the Superiority of Bishops to Priests And this will appear first from the word used by the Latine Translation which is De his tantum Ordinationibus of these Ordinations onely not of these two Orders onely the Scripture makes mention and describeth the manner of conferring them And doubtless those learned men did not confound the words Ordo and Ordinatio For the understanding whereof I shall explain the English Edition by the Latine Thus in the beginning they say That these Orders were given by the Consecration and Imposition of the Bishops hands Per Consecrationem Impositionem manum Episcopi And as the Apostles themselves in the beginning of the Church did order Priests and Bishops so they willed the other Bishops to the like Thus the Latine Book Et Quemadmodum Apostoli ipsi Episcopos Presbyteros Ordinaverunt ita eosdem etiam instituisse ut in posterum succedentes Episcopi eundem ordinandi morem in Ecclesia servarent Again Here is to be noted That although this Form before declared is to be observed in giving Orders c. in the Latine Quanquam autem hunc in modum Scriptura Ordinationes fieri instituit Again Thus we have briefly touched the Ordering not the Orders of Priests and Bishops The Latine Hactonus quidem de Ordinatione Presbyterorum Neither speak of the Order but Ordering Moreover touching the Order of Deacons we read Acts 6. that they were ordered and instituted by the same Apostles by Prayer and Imposition of their hands The Latine Jam vero praeter Episcopos Sacerdotes Diaconorum etiam Scriptura meminit traditque hos ab Apostolis per Orationem manuum impositionem ordinatos institutos fuisse After all which it followeth Of these two Orders onely which I cannot understand the premises being considered in any other sense than as the Latine renders it Of these Ordinations onely and how they were conferred the
if they will stand to what is more maturely and pertinently by them alledged and proved agreeably also to their own practice for Diocesan Episcopacy as established in the Church of England If those Dissenters who were so importunate and industrious to advance their Discipline on the ruines of the established Church had proceeded on the Principles laid down by the Divines above-mentioned whereof this is one that they lay hold on viz. That the forms of Government not being plainly exprest in Scripture are alterable and may by the Authority of the Civil Magistrate be determined to this or that species which yet they will not grant of their own Discipline they ought then to acquiesce in that Government which was established and to which all those Divines most willingly submitted as the best in all the Christian World and though by reason of their dissent from it they had drawn on themselves the execution of some moderate Penalties yet if they had been fully perswaded that they did suffer for a good Conscience and for Righteousness sake they ought like good Christians to have taken it patiently and not by Railing by Sedition by forming Schisms and meditating Rebellions seek to avenge themselves and return evil for evil but contrarily blessing being thereto called by the Example and Precepts of their great Master but when they returned evil for good and hatred for good-will and thought themselves persecuted because they could not grasp a Power to persecute their Superiours this was not agreeable to that wisdom that comes from above which is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated And if our present Dissenters be satisfied of the purity of our Doctrine they may by the Principles which are laid down submit to that Discipline and Government that Authority doth establish there being nothing in it contrary to the Word of God but wholly agreeable to the constant practice of the Universal Church I think it sufficient to solve all that hath been alledged out of our Divines to clear these two things 1. What kind of Government was setled by the Apostles 2. What Answer may be given to the Objections so often mentioned from St. Hierom. As to the first it is evident that there was a Superiority in the Apostles to those to whom they committed the care of the several Churches whether they were Bishops or Presbyters and as the Apostles dyed their Successors in Ecclesiastical Power who in all Ages were the Bishops were the Subjects of that Superiority such as Timothy Titus Clemen Linus c. and their Successors as they stand recorded in Ecclesiastical History for what the Apostles did for the perpetual Order and Government of the Church was agreeable to our Saviour's Institution and all Antiquity bears proof to this Truth that from the Apostles days there were setled in the most eminent Churches of Hierusalem Rome Antioch and Alexandria several Bishops that had a Superiority over the Presbyters in their respective Churches and that the three Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons were established in those Churches in those purest and most Primitive times insomuch that they who will not admit those Testimonies will be to seek for one of the best Proofs for the Canon of the Scripture As therefore we believe the Succession of Roman Emperours from the Writings of such Historians as lived near their times so may we believe the truth of such Orders of Men and of their Successions as it is delivered by Men of good Credit and Honesty that lived near those times and have handed down in undoubted written Records from Age to Age St. Polycarp Ignatius Clemens who conversed with the Apostles Ireneus Justin Martyr and others that lived with them then Origen Clem. Alexandrinus Tertullian who succeeded them and many others who lived within two hundred years after the Apostles from whom Eusebius had the Materials of his History and refers to them for the truth of his Relations He had the Acts of the Martyrs and the Books of Hegesippus concerning the Acts of the Church from which and other helps from the very Persecutors of the Christians he compiled his History and particularly the Succession of Bishops Clemens Rom. in his Epistle to the Corinthians speaks of the Officers of the Church in his time alluding to those under the Law The High-Priest hath his Office the Priest his Station and the Levite his Ministry the Lay-man his Office let every one worship God in his Order Ignatius mentions these Three Orders in his Epistles so plainly that the Enemies of those Orders have martyred him again in his Reputation denying his Epistles to be genuine which the Learned Bishop Pearson hath irrefragably asserted and so hath Dr. Beveridge the Authority of Apostolical Canons which have been owned by the Councils and expresly assert the Three Orders so that tho' while the Apostles lived the Names might be confounded yet immediately on their deaths all Ancient Writers have distinguished them because such as succeeded to their Power were Bishops and yet all the Minister's or Elders were not so for a Parity is usually the Parent of Confusion and if such a Parity had been setled by Christ or his Apostles how could it be that as St. Hierom says The whole World should agree for prevention of Schism to alter what Christ had established Was the whole World i. e. every particular Church which are it seems agreed on setting up a Bishop above Presbyters wiser than our Saviour or had they Authority so to do And if they did so by sufficient Authority why will the Presbyters as generally agree to pull them down now as their Ancients did to set them up So that I see no shadow of Reason why we may not subscribe to that which is said before the Book of Consecration That it is evident to all Men diligently reading the Holy Scripture and Ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been ever these Orders of Ministers in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons 2. As to St. Hierom's Testimony the import of it is this That tho' the Apostles had a Superiority over Presbyters yet when they died they did not bequeath that Power to others but left it in common to the Presbyters whose management of it was such as it begat Schisms and Animosities for suppression of which it was thought fit through the whole World to chuse out of the body of the Presbyters one that should have a Presidency over the rest so that this Presidency was not an Apostolical Institution but Ecclesiastical and Prudential Constitution wherein St. Hierom doth not only contradict the Joynt Suffrage of all the Ancients but his own Testimony Against this Opinion of St. Hierom some affirm that what he said was in a Discourse against some proud Deacons that would equal themselves with the Presbyters which was as great a presumption as to invade the Office of the Bishops seeing in most things as St. Hierom says the Bishops and Presbyters were of
Presbyters by divine authority where the publick Magistrate did permit it Dr. Cox. Although the Apostles had no authority to force any man to be Priests yet they moved by the Holy Ghost had authority of God to exhort and induce men to set forth God's honour and so to make them Priests Dr. Day The Apostles ordained Bishops by authority given them by God. Joh. 20. Sicut misit me c. Item Joh. ult Acts 20. 1 Tim. 4. Paulus ordinavit Timotheum Titum prescribit quales ille debeant ordinare 1 Tim. 1. Tit. 1. Dr. Oglethorp The Apostles by authority and command of God did ordain and institute Bishops leave being desired and obtained from the Prince or Magistrate who was then chief As I suppose Dr. Redman Christ gave his Apostles authority to make Bishops and Ministers in his Church as he had received authority of the Father to make them Bishops But if any Christian Prince had then been the Apostles had been and ought to have been obedient Subjects and would have attempted nothing but under the permission and assent of their earthly Governours Yet was it meet that they which were special and elect Servants of our Saviour Christ and were sent by him to convert the World and having most abundantly the Holy Ghost in them should have special ordering of such Ministry as pertained to the planting and increasing of the Faith whereunto I doubt not but a Christian Prince of his godly mind would most lovingly have condescended And it is to be considered in this Question with other like this word making a Bishop or Priest may be taken two ways for understanding the word to ordain or consecrate so it is a thing which pertaineth to the Apostles and their Successours only but but if by this word making be understood the appointing or naming to the Office so it pertaineth specially to the supreme Heads and Governours of the Church which be Princes Dr. Edgworth The Apostles made Bishops and Priests by authority given them of God and not for lack of any higher power notwithstanding where there is a Christian King or Prince the Election Deputation and Assignation of them that shall be Priests and Bishops belongeth to the King or Prince so that he may forbid any Bishop within his Kingdom that he give no Orders for considerations moving him and may assign him a time when he shall give Orders and to whom Example of King David 1 Chron. 24. dividing the Levites into twenty four Orders deputing over every Order one chief Bishop prescribing an Ordinal and Rule how they should do their duties and courses and what Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies they should use every day as the day and time required And his Son King Solomon diligently executed and commanded the same usages to be observed in the Temple after he had erected and finished it 2 Chron. 8. Dr. Symmons The Aposties made Bishops and Priests by authority given them of God. Dr. Tresham The Apostles had authority of God to make Bishops yet if there had been a Christian King in any place where they made Bishops they would and ought to have desired authority of him for the executing of such Godly acts which no Christian King would have denied Dr. Leighton The Apostles as I suppose made Bishops by authority given to them of Christ howbeit I think they would and should have required the Christian Princes consent and license thereto if there had been any Christian Kings or Princes Dr. Coren The Apostles made Bishops and Priests by authority given them of God Notwithstanding if there had been a Christian King at that time it had been their duties to have had his license and permission thereto Here you see they all affirm that the Apostles by authority from God did make Bishops as well as Priests and Deacons and that there needs no other authority for their Successours to do the like but what is given them of God. Now that they were distinct Orders will appear by the next Question Quest 10. Whether Bishops or Priests were first and if the Priest were first then the Priest made the Bishop The Bishop of St. Davids my Lord elect of Westminster Dr. Cox and Dr. Redman say That at the beginning they were all One. The Bishops of York London Rechester Carlisle Doctors Day Tresham Symmons Oglethorp be in other contrary Opinions The Bishop of York and Dr. Tresham think that the Apostles first were Priests and after were made Bishops when the overseeing of other Priests was committed to them My Lords of London Duresm Carlisle and Rochester Drs. Symmonds and Grayford think that the Apostles were first Bishops and they after made other Bishops and Priests Drs. Coren and Oglethorp say That the Apostles were made Bishops and the seventy two were after made Priests Dr. Day thinks that Bishops as they are now called were before Priests My Lord of London Drs. Edgworth and Robertson think it no inconvenience if a Priest made a Bishop in that time Quest 11. Whether a Bishop hath Authority to make a Priest by the SS or no and whether any other but onely a Bishop may make a Priest To the former part of the Question the Bishop of St. Davids doth answer That Bishops have no authority to make Priests unless they be authorized of the Christian Prince The others do all say That they be authorized of God. Yet some of them add That they cannot use their Authority without their Christian Prince doth permit them To the second part the Answer of the Bishop of St. Davids is That Lay-men have otherwhile made Priests So doth Drs. Edgworth and Redman say That Moses by a priviledge given him of God made Aaron his Brother Priest Drs. Tresham Grayford and Cox say That Lay-men may make Priests in time of necessity The Bishops of York Duresm Rochester Carlisle Elect of Westminster Drs. Coren Leighton Symmonds seem to deny this thing for they say They find not nor read not any such Example Quest 12. Whether in the New Testament be required any Consecration of a Pishop and Priest or onely appointing to the Office be sufficient The Bishop of St. Davids saith That onely the appointing And Dr. Cox That onely the appointing cum manuum impositione is sufficient without Consecration The Bishops of York London Duresm Carlisle Drs. Day Coren Leighton Tresham Edgworth Oglethorp say That Consecration is requisite Dr. Redman saith That Consecration hath been from the Apostles time and instituted of the Holy Ghost to confer Grace My Lord of Rochester Drs. Day and Symmons say The Priesthood is given per manuum impositionem and that by Scripture and that Consecration hath of long time been received in the Church So that in this Paper which contains a previous Consultation some years before to the things published in the Necessary Erudition they did generally agree That the Office of Bishops is mentioned in Scripture That they were of a superiour Order to Priests That the Apostles
made Bishops by authority from God and left their Successours power to do the like And to this they all subscribed in the Necessary Erudition Much more might be added from some publick Writings of that Age of which I shall name but one or two as first the Book called Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum a design first begun by King Henry the Eighth prosecuted by Edward the Sixth as by their two Orders prefixed to that Book doth appear and committed to the care of thirty two Divines and Civilians the Arch-Bishop being the chief wherein it is ordered That to the Bishop all are to give Obedience according to the Word of God p. 98. Episcope qui Ecclesiae praeficitur non solum Decanus Archidiaconus Archipresbyter reliqui Ministri parebunt c. And cap. 10. Episcopi quoniam inter caeteros Ecclesiae Ministros locum principem tenent ideo sana Doctriná gravi authoritate atque provido consilio debent inferiores Ordines Cleri regere ac pascere Dr. Burnet p. 71. of the second part says It is plain that Cranmer had quite laid aside those singular Opinions which he formerly held of the Ecclesiastical Functions for now in a Work of his own without the concurrence of any other speaking of his Catechism he fully sets forth their Divine Institution And now I shall consider how agreeable their Design is to the Ancient Constitution of our Government about matters Ecclesiastical which as they say is very excellently described in the Book called The necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian-man composed by several Bishops and other great Doctors and approved by Authority in the days of King Henry the Eighth The Dissenters cannot have a greater Reverence for that Book than the Conformists have as to the Constitution of our Church And to corroborate this Authority they add that of another excellent Book viz. Dr. Burnet 's History of the Reformation for which as they observe the whole Kingdom have given the Doctor thanks And I shall think the worse of these Dissenters if they will not do the same P. 16. From these Books they attempt to prove that the establishing a Parochial or Congregational Church-Discipline the great thing which the Dissenters desire may be done consistently with the Ancient Constitution of the Government of this Realm to the fixing the desired firm and lasting Vnion P. 11. If this appear the Dissenters may well boast that they are the Genuine Sons of the Church of England as it was setled by the first Reformers and that they have been as they complain misrepresented as Enemies both to Church and State as if the adhering to old Protestant Principles about Church-Discipline had been the Overt Act of a Spirit seditious and phanatical p. 17. To these two they have appealed for the truth of their Assertion and I hope they will not shew themselves such double-minded men as to be unstable in all their ways and not stand to the Evidence and Arbitration of these two Authorities produced by themselves And if the reducing of us to the Ancient Constitution of Church-Government and Discipline in this Realm may fix the desired firm and lasting Union it will be still the Dissenters fault that we are not all agreed In that Judicious Tract 't is manifest say the Dissenters p. 2. 1. That Church-Government is Jure Divino Be it so 2. That to the constituting such a Church-Government those Church-Officers onely are necessary who are mentioned in the New Testament This is also granted 3. That in the New Testament there is mention made of no other Church-Officers but Priests and Deacons This is sub judice 4. That Bishops or Priests the sole Governours of the Church are of one and the same Order This also is to be determined To all this I shall oppose a short Syllogism viz. That Church-Government which is mentioned in the New Testament by the Compilers of the Necessary Erudition is Jure Divino But the Church Government mentioned c. is by Bishops Priests and Deacons Ergo the Church-Government by Bishops Priests and Deacons is Jure Divino according to the Necessary Erudition It chanced that on reading this Preface I had at hand that ancient Book printed in English 1543. and set forth by the King's Authority as appears by the Preface I had also a Translation of the same Book into elegant Latine printed the following year viz. 1544. This Latine Book hath a Preface more than I find in the English which seems to be compiled by the Arch-Bishop and the rest of the Reforming Clergy who give us this reason of the translating it into Latine Quam Institutionem Lector Carissime Illustrissimi simul Religiosissimi Principis industriâ primum vernaculo sermone editam nos nunc in Latinum versam in lucem damus Quòd indignum duximus ut hoc pacificandae Ecclesiae studium exemplum quo Regia Majestas immortalem sibi gloriam promerita est in obscuro lateret ac non potius orbi universo quo caeteri Principes ad similem componendae Religionis zelum excitentur innotesceret i. e. Which Erudition first published in English by the Industry of our most Illustrious and Religious Prince we now publish in Latine as thinking it an unworthy thing that the care and good Example of pacifying the Church whereby His Majesty hath deserved immortal Glory should lie hid and not be known to the World to stir up other Princes to the like Zeal From whence I desire the Reader to observe that this Book being set forth a year after the English one and being somewhat explained and inlarged as intended to inform the Foreign Churches with the matter and order of our Reformation is of the two the more exact and perfect as containing their second Thoughts and final Resolutions The place quoted out of that Book is that which concerns The Sacrament of Orders which say they are given of God to Christian men by the Consecration and Imposition of the Bishops hands And doubtless King Henry would have been very much in wrath with any that should have denied the Order of Bishops to be Sacramental when by their hands and by a power given them of God as is their asserted other Orders were to be conveyed But secondly I observe that whereas that Book nameth Bishops And Priests as two distinct Orders these Dissenters by a little trick learnt of the Jesuits of changing a small syllable would alter the sense of the whole Chapter for four or five times in the second and third pages the Dissenters name Bishops Or Priests making them one and the same thing which the Reformers in that Chapter of Orders do distinguish as two distinct Orders and eight times at least read Bishops And not Or Priests in sensu diviso In the first place it is said that St. Paul did consecrate and order Priests and Bishops for which they quote 1 Tim. 4. i. e. Jure Divino And again as the Apostles themselves did