of Office to continue for the sake whereof those excellent Epistles were written And we have no greater Assurance that these Epistles were by S. Paul than we have that there were Bishops to succeed the Apostles in the Care and Government of the Churches CHAP. IX Apostolical Authority was communicated to the Angels mention'd Revel 1.20 who were Bishops of the Asiatick Churches WHat Timothy was at Ephesus and Titus in Crete that were the Angels mention'd Revel 1.20 in their several Dioceses They govern'd the seven Churches of Asia with Apostolical or Episcopal Authority This is what you oppose and one might therefore have expected from you another Account of them to which you would adhere but you fix upon nothing a practice very common amongst many that are engaged with you in the same work who combine indeed in their attempts against the Truth but without any steady Principles and in great confusion Amongst the rest the Assembly of Divines tell us that these Titles of Angels are Mysterious and Metaphorical and that it cannot not be safe or solid to build on them the structure of Episcopacy And yet they are not of the mind of the old Alogians who derided the Revelation of S. John saying of what advantage is it that he talks of seven Angels and of seven Trumpets They affirm that this Book is of singular use to Christians to the end of the world They have also furnished us with Annotations on it such as they are and particularly without any he sitation they give their Interpretation of this expression which yet they would have us believe is so Mysterious and Obscure As for their Argument that Symbolical Theology is not Argumentative it is no farther to be admitted than as it signifies that Parables and Figures are not to be stretched beyond the plain intention of any Author But if no determinate sense can be gather'd from them this would make a great part of the Holy Scriptures useless to us and leave us mightily in the dark concerning the Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper which yet the Reformed think and that with good reason they clearly apprehend Yet after all we do not read of the Mystery of the Angels but of the Seven Stars of which the Angels are the explication and therefore must be suppos'd to be intelligible And indeed there seems to be no difficulty in this but what has been created by those that would amuse us with exceptions that they may find some way to escape You pretend not to have any certainty that the Title of these Angels was Metaphorical For what say you if by the Name of an Angel an Angel properly so call'd should be understood Should this be so then farewel to any ground for Diocesan Bishops in the Directions of the Epistles to the Angels And should it not be so you are not unprovided of other shifts but if they succeed no better than this the Diocesans are safe enough For to your Quaere 'tis easie to reply that these Angels of the Churches could not be Celestial Spirits unless we may believe that one of those Spirits was faln and summon'd to repentance that another of them had a name to live but was dead and that a third was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked which I think is sufficiently absurd But the Revelation you tell me goes much upon the Hypothesis and Language of Daniel and in Daniel we read of the Guardian Angels of Nations and in such a manner that what refers to the Nations or to their Governours is said of the Angels themselves Which signifies nothing to the purpose unless you were able to shew that to charge the Blessed Angels with the sins of men and call them to Reformation of Life hath a Congruity with the Prophetick Scheme of Daniel or with the nature of those holy Beings who are so constant and chearful in their obedience to the Divine Will Walo Messalinus and some others affirm that these Angels were the Churches themselves and to comply with them we must believe that the Angels of the Churches were the Churches of the Churches which I think is no good sense Grotius reflecting on their Exposition does justly charge it with a manifest contradicting of the Holy Scripture which declares that The Candlesticks are the Churches and that the seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches But Whither says he may not men be drawn by an itch of contradiction when they dare confound those things which the Spirit of God does so plainly distinguish Yet I deny not that the Instructions which did immediatly relate to the Angels were communicated by the Spirit not only to them but to the Churches also it being fit that both should be made sensible how their Duty and Interest were combin'd and encourage one another in the performance of the things enjoin'd and in carrying on the work of Reformation with the greater vigour and application If these Angels were neither Celestial Spirits nor the Churches of Asia themselves it cannot be imagin'd that they were any thing else but the Pastors of those Churches Yet this being suppos'd some question has been made about their number which is omitted says Smectymnuus not without some mystery lest we should understand by Angel one Minister alone and not a company This you call a Critical nicety But I take it to be a prophane abuse of the Holy Scripture under a pretence of discovering a Mystery 'T is said expresly in Scripture that the seven Stars are the Angels there were therefore just so many Angels as there were Stars The Churches also were seven and every Church had its distinct and peculiar Angel and if any notwithstanding this deny that the number of the Angels and Churches was equal they seem not in a capacity to be convinced of any thing by the clearest demonstration As for the conceit that every Angel was a Company it is inconsistent with the Scripture for the Angels are not called Constellations but seven Stars And says Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet if these words sometimes happen to be us'd promiscuously we ought not however to depart from their genuine and usual signification without necessity Such a necessity there is not here for an Angel no more properly signifies a Colledge of Angels than a man signifies a Troop or a Corporation Nor are the descriptions of the several Angels applicable to a multitude unless we will suppose that all the Elders of the respective Societies deserv'd the same particular reproof or commendation which hath not the least shadow of Truth We read indeed that the strong Cattel before whom Jacob placed his Rods generally brought forth the speckled or ringstraked and this we impute to a Miracle and question not the thing because it is related by Moses in the Book of Genesis But what should make all the Presbyters of each of the seven Churches
Action for Irenaeus tells us that Polycarp was not only taught by the Apostles but constituted by them Bishop of Smyrna And his words deserve the greater credit because he was a Hearer of Polycarp in his younger years and understood doubtless what place he had in the Church and the manner of his Advancement to it I need make no Inferences from this Example because it is so obvious that it destroys your Hypothesis CHAP. XVIII The Testimony of the Fathers is necessary for the ascertaining to us the Canon of the Holy Scripture It is as Cogent for the Divine Original of Episcopacy THere are some that will hardly hear with patience any Arguments that are drawn from the Authority of the Fathers because as they conceive or pretend it favours the Papists A thing very acceptable to the Papists could it be prov'd But we do them too much honour if we believe that the Ancient Tradition is on their side when some of the most Learned amongst them dare lay no claim to it for the support of those Doctrines wherein they differ from us and many of their greatest Bigots have found themselves so press'd by it that they have appeal'd from it to their Oracle for the time Being the Pope I mean to whom Cornelius Mussus one of their number profess'd that he attributed more credit than to a thousand Austins Jeroms and Gregories and so ends the noise of Antiquity Vniversality and Consent It is not my business here to attempt a Vindication of the Fathers any farther than it answers my present design and I shall only observe that they that despise them most are sometimes forced to serve themselves of their Authority For example Gittichius says that his Friends who had read their Books found them plunged into the profoundest ignorance hardly understanding so much as one Article of the Christian Faith but like blind men moving irregularly and with a trembling pace And such confidence he had that the Censures which his party had pass'd on them were just or rather too modest that he declares The Truth of the Christian Religion was wholly lost a little after the death of the Apostles and commends Flaccius Illyricus for comparing the Disputations of the Fathers to a Fight of Drunkards at a Feast who are not solicitous to betake themselves to their Swords but supply the want of Weapons with Dishes or Trenchers with Bread or any thing that comes to hand Yet his Friends sometimes make use of the Testimony of those whom he so impudently charges with Apostasie and Folly and whom they are wont to reproach and they depend on it in matters of great importance They prove from thence in the Racovian Catechism that our Lord rose from the dead as the Scriptures relate and that the several Books of the New Testament were written by the Persons whose Names they bear herein following the Example of their Master Socinus who argues from the unanimous consent of the Primitive Christians that the four Gospels the Acts of the Apostles c. were written by those to whom they are attributed and for this he refers us to Eusebius At other times he treated the Ancients with great contempt because they stood in the way of this Animal of Glory when he was resolv'd to make himself the Head of a Sect yet he plainly shews that for the vindication of the Authority of the Holy Scripture an assent is necessary and due to their Suffrage And others who ascribe very little to that Suffrage cannot but perceive if they will attentively consider it that when there is a dispute about some passages or parts of the Holy Scripture whether they are genuine or not one would render himself extreamly ridiculous that should reject the Testimony of the Fathers as useless on this occasion and go about to determine the Controversie and to convince gainsayers by his own Instinct or the dictates of a private Spirit But if immediately after the Apostles decease there was a general departure from that Rule of Government which they appointed if all the Primitive Bishops were Usurpers of the Rights of those whom Heaven had made their Equals and all the Presbyters upon Earth did tamely abandon that Power which God had given them and all the Christians in the World with one Consent approv'd and promoted the evil designs of the former and the treachery of the last and if we must believe that the Primitive Writers conspir'd to put a Cheat upon us in the Representations they have made of the Affairs of the Church I would then be inform'd what assurance we can have that they have convey'd to us the true Canon of Scripture For it may seem that if they were Men so extreamly Corrupt they deserv'd no great Credit in any thing and might be suspected to have made as bold with the Oracles of God as they had done with his Institution of Church-Government I make no doubt to affirm that the Testimony of the Fathers is at least as cogent for the Divine Original of Episcopacy as it is when they ascertain to us the Canon of Scripture which yet is like to suffer nothing by this comparison For if we reject them as false Witnesses when they inform us that Bishops were appointed by the Apostles we must not only believe as I have intimated already that the Pastors of the Church notwithstanding their great distance from one another and their different Customs and Interests generally hit at the same time upon the same Project to destroy that Ecclesiastical Polity which had Christ for its Founder but that every where they had the same fatal Success We must also believe that however Government is a very nice thing and is not usually changed without fears and jealousies and mighty clamours and however the alterations of the Forms of Government are so easily observed yet did the Rising Prelates give so dextrous and nimble a Turn to the Government of the Church over all the World that that there was not the least notice taken of it or else we must believe that they destroy'd all the Records of that Transaction so that no Monuments remain of their Ambition And this we must also believe against the declarations of those that were conversant with the Apostles and their immediate Successors against the informations of Martyrs and Confessors in the best and purest times and against the common faith of Christians for above a thousand years after the death of our Saviour Being thus Credulous we shall much resemble one Vilgardus of Ravenna mention'd by Glaber Rodulphus who asserted that all the sayings of the Poets ought in every point to be believ'd And when we are arriv'd at that pitch of sense no body I suppose will be much concern'd at what we contradict or care to dispute with us who are only fit for the Entertainments of Inchanted Castles Thus Sir I have consider'd your Objections against that Authority which I still think our Saviour
to be acquainted with those Gentlemen to whom he dedicates his Book But if I am not mistaken in their Character they are of more Judgment than to believe that if others were as Candid as themselves this Idea which he so much magnifies would be of Infinite Advantage They will rather perceive that it would not otherwise put an end to the Fatal Controversies that have perplext the Church than Poison would cure Diseases that is by the death of the Patients For 't is evident that the design of it is to abrogate the Authority which Christ bestow'd on his Ecclesiastical Officers and consequently our Author instead of Intitling his Book The Nature of Church-Government Freely Discussed might more fitly have call'd it A Treatise of Church-Anarchy or Church-Confusion I know not whether the Applause of his Performances be continued to him in his own Person which he first receiv'd by Proxy from the neighbouring Dissenters But sure I am that he contradicts the avowed Principles of their Party and the sense of their Writers He contends that the Pastors of the Church have no Authority but what they derive from the State He makes Church-Government a meer Prudential Thing and Alterable in the Form of it according to the various Forms of the Civil Government and argues that it ought to take its Model from the appointment of the Civil Magistrate Whereas their other Writers tell us That a Spiritual Extraction of a Legitimate Ecclesiastical Power cannot be made from a Secular Root That the Introduction of Humane Authority into the Rule of the Church of Christ in any kind destroyeth the Nature of it That there is but one Form of Government laid down in the Word and that Unchangeable and that to think Church-Government must be fram'd according to the Common-wealth or Civil Government is as if one should fashion his House according to his Hangings But that his Friends may not resent the matter too highly when they find how they have been impos'd on by him I can assure them that in contradicting their Authors he uses them no worse than he does himself For having formerly concluded from 2 Thess 2.15 that it was the duty of Christians to preserve the same Government in the Churches after the Apostles days that was appointed and practis'd in them he now comes to prove that let the Government in those days be what it will it is but a Prudential and Ambulatory Thing and lyable to Changes according to the difference of Times and Occasions And that his Friends may not for the future expect to find him any more fix'd or steady he professes in his Epistle Dedicatory that he hath nothing of fondness in him for any Opinions He hath as little fondness in him for the Authority of the Apostles as he hath for his own Opinions For however he takes Diocesan Prelacy to be a Degeneracy or Defection from an Apostolical Constitution yet he boasts of his Vindication of it upon Prudential grounds He represents Episcopacy as a Corruption and yet he supposes that it is of Divine Right when it is by Law established The truth is he hath confusedly jumbl'd together the Notions of the Dissenters and the Principles of Hobbes and Erastus and with this odd kind of mixture he thinks himself sufficiently qualified to heal the Breaches of Christendom Before him one Peter Cornelius Van Zurick-zee set up for a Reconciler General and his Project for Union was that in every City and in every County there should be appointed a General Meeting-place in which the Christians of all Persuasions should be requir'd to assemble together that they might hear the Scriptures read and afterwards talk about them and give their Interpretations of them according to their various Sentiments Of this Device he had such a conceit that leaving his Family and Native Country he cross'd the Seas that he might reveal it in England expecting that here it would receive a kind entertainment and from hence break forth as a Light into all other Countries and Nations But whether this Man or the Free Discusser hath furnish'd us with a better Plan of an Universal Peace or whether Prudential Reason hath been more happy than a Freak of Enthusiasm in proposing a Method of Union or Scheme of Ecclesiastical Polity I leave you to determine In the mean time I am of opinion that the way of governing Churches which is agreeable to the will of God was not to be invented or first discover'd fifteen or sixteen hundred years after the Birth of our Saviour I suppose a thing of such use must needs have been known to the Primitive Christians And they generally believ'd 1. That our Saviour Christ who was the Founder of Church-Government bestow'd on his Officers such Authority as qualified them for the Administration of it 2. That this Government was Episcopal from the beginning On these two things I have chiefly insisted in this Discourse but far more copiously on the last against which I met with the greatest opposition By which opposition I do not only mean That which hath been made by my Adversary for I have considerd the utmost that I could find objected on That side And upon the whole I am satisfied that it requires no great Abilities to defend Episcopacy and that it proceeds from the Goodness of the Cause that the more Learned the Opposers of it are the more ready have they been to let fall such things as may serve for the Vindication of it and answer their own Objections This was the Case of Blondel and Salmasius but more particularly of the last who hath so many things that favour my Hypothesis that of all Modern Authors none has been more useful to me than Walo Messalinus But all the assistance I have receiv'd from him has been only to confirm the Notions which I had before grounded on the Holy Scriptures the Testimony of the Ancients from which I have prov'd That Episcopacy was of Divine Institution and that meer Presbyters were generally subordinate to Superior Pastors in the Apostles days and afterwards in the best and purest Ages And if so there can be no doubt concerning the succeeding Times or of the Truth of what was affirm'd by the Lord Falkland in a warm Speech which he made against some of the Bishops that the Order of the Bishops hath always remain'd in the Churches from Christ to Calvin What I have said on this subject fastens an Imputation of Novelty on the Dissenters but I cannot help it and they have no reason to be offended at it For their own Friends the Elders and Messengers of the Congregational Churches who met at the Savoy confess that it is true in respect of the publick and open profession either of Presbytery or Independency this Nation hath been a stranger to each way it 's possible ever since it hath been Christian And I will adventure to add that the Nation may be
in such terms as they could then receive it that when he was departed from them and sate down at the Right Hand of the Father they should act as the supreme visible Governours of the Church which is the Mystical Israel Another Objection which the Author of the Leviathan brings against Ecclesiastical Authority is taken from our Saviour's forbidding his followers to be called Masters But that proves too much or nothing for in what sense they might not assume the Title of Masters in that it may not be attributed to any man upon Earth but belongs to Christ The want of it therefore would abrogate all Humane Authority or none at all The like may be said of his Argument which he grounds on these words of S. Paul Not that we have Dominion over your faith for no man in the World hath any such Dominion as implies a right to coin new Articles of Religion or to impose things to be believ'd as the Doctrine of God which he hath no where reveal'd This is what was disclaim'd by the Great Justinian and ought to be so by all other Princes Since therefore there is a want of that Dominion equally in all men if such a defect were inconsistent with Authority it would destroy that of the Civil Magistrate or render it a mere Usurpation But the Objector assigns to Supreme Magistrates such Authority that by it he says All sorts of Doctrine are to be approved or rejected and according to him those Magistrates must be obey'd though they command their Subjects to profess an Assent to the Alcoran or to condemn the Gospel of Christ or to worship Idols And for this he pleads from the Example of Naaman the Syrian who bowed himself in the House of Rimmon when his Master leaned upon his hand But how impertinently he makes use of that Instance others have demonstrated and I shall only note that it is not strange that a person who shews such an enmity to Religion and to Christianity in particular should tell us That Temporal and Spiritual Government are but two words brought into the World to make men see double and mistake their lawful Sovereign Whosoever reads and believes the Scripture cannot but approve what he derides so manifest it is from thence that a Government distinct from the Temporal was establish'd by our Lord himself The Apostles were constituted by him the first Rulers of his Church but without any Commission from the Civil Magistrate They laid their Commands on the Christian Converts and expected an obedience to their Orders And we must believe they had Power to do this from Christ notwithstanding this man so confidently denies that he left them any such Authority They asserted the Right he gave them to preach notwithstanding the Prohibitions and Menaces of the Officers of State and this was so reasonable that they appeal'd to their enemies to be Judges of it Without asking leave of any Secular Powers they planted Churches they form'd Societies under their proper Rulers and did not teach them to see double when they requir'd them to honour and obey those that presided over them in the Lord Such Spiritual Governours remain'd after the Decease of the Apostles when they were so far from receiving their Office or any support and assistance in the discharge of it from Temporal Princes that they were hated and persecuted by them Yet they proceeded in their work and kept up their Discipline And it is certain that before the Empire was Christian the Church was govern'd by its proper Officers as a Society distinct from the State and independent on it yet were not the Christians then in danger of mistaking their lawful Sovereign You must excuse me Sir that I have been so long detain'd by the Exceptions of an Author of no good fame It is from him that you have taken some of your Principles and you are not neglected when they are consider'd as I find them in the Original You follow the Leviathan exactly where you tell me that the Apostleship itself was not a Magistracy but a Ministry For your meaning is not that the Apostles had no Secular Power about which there was no dispute but as it is manifest from your own words that they had no Authority at all unless it was to preach the Gospel and for this you quote 2 Cor. 4.5 Where S. Paul says We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord and our selves your servants for Jesus sake But if this be for your purpose and prove what you design by it then was the Office of the Apostles which has been so much magnified a servile thing Then were they put under the Dominion and left to the Disposal of their own Converts and made subject to the Churches which they had planted or which is all one the Chief Pastors were obliged to be govern'd by their Flocks And this comes of stretching a Metaphor beyond the person that us'd it You might have observ'd that the Apostles were not properly the Ministers of the Churches but of Christ and employ'd by him for the good of Mankind and this no more derogates from their Power than it does from the Dignity of the Blessed Angels that they are Ministring Spirits not of men indeed but for them that shall be heirs of salvation You might also have consider'd what S. Paul declares that he was so a servant unto all men as to remain free and consequently that he could not otherwise be their Servant but in a Figure And this which he us'd was very suitable to the condition of a person who was so abundant in his labours and comply'd so much with men of different tempers not out of weakness indeed or want of ability but out of zeal and an ardent desire of the happiness both of Jews and Gentiles Another reason for which S. Paul represented himself under this Figure is that as Servants then received no wages for their work so he reaped no temporal profit from his industry in communicating things that are Spiritual Yet this proceeded from his Choice and not from the necessary Obligation of his Office Nor did it signifie want of Power in him but a voluntary departing from his own Right He declar'd that the Labourer is worthy of his reward that the Lord hath so ordain'd that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel and that himself as well as others might justly have expected his maintenance from the Contributions of those whom he had instructed if he would have insisted on it But had he been literally their servant especially such a servant as those times afforded his acting amongst them as a Judge or Governour his passing Sentence of Condemnation on a Criminal and the Order he sends that his Decree should be put in Execution his declaring also that he was in readiness to revenge all disobedience must remain unaccountable The