also we must maintain peace such as they are capable of a mixt kinde of peace temper'd with that which they call nor lis but urgiun a friendly and loving strife and contention that they may be thorough-lovely and capable of entire and thorough peace As for the first kinde of Peace with good and Godly men it may be easily preserved and maintained because there is the same best ground of Love and from hence a mutual affection and reciprocal compliance and sweet harmony of souls and spirits intimately maintained on both sides whether the parties so agreeing be otherwise personally known or unknown unto us near unto us or further off from us Yet peace peace to him that is afar off and to him that is near Esa 57.19 as in a musical instrument the greater and less strings though far off one from the other yet have an harmonical agreement and are consonant one with the other whether in Diapason or Disdiapason the distance hinders not the agreement And the reason is Quae conveniunt in uno tertio inter se quoque conveniunt They which agree in one third agree also among themselves Now the God of Love and Peace is the God of all the world and therefore the people of God being every where dispersed in every Nation all the world over agreeing in God and working all their works in God agree also among themselves And this is that peace which all good men desire to advance with all men O that the Lord would enlarge all our hearts to the enterrainment of so large so general so necessary so truly a Christian Peace 2. Who the Parties are who are at difference THe parties at disterence have some things common among themselves And it is a sad thing to name it They are both by profession Ministers of the Gospel of Peace whose common Office it is to be Ambassadors of Peace These are the Parties at difference The Apostle describes them according to their common Function That they are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 Howbeit though the parties at difference have one common Name and Office and are both called Ministers of the Gospel of Peace and Stewards of the Divine mysteries yet are they distinguished one from another in place and dignity And so there are three degrees of Ministers Bishops Presbyters and Deacons It is not my business or principal intention to decide the Questions whether a Bishop and a Presbyter be one and the same or whether a Bishop a Presbyter and a Deacon be distinct Orders and Degrees or whether a Bishop be of Divine Ordination or onely Ecclesiastical Constitution These and other Questions emergent have been judiciously handled by divers Learned men of the Church of England as Doctor Field Mr. Hooker Hadrian Saravia and others howbeit I shall not wholly decline the Controversies as I meet with them but shew my judgement and the ground of it Thus much we may generally observe that although every one of these Names importeth a proper and distinct Function yet is every one of them equivocally taken in Scripture as the name Bishop Acts 20.28 Presbyter 1 Pet. 5.1 Deacon 2 Cor. 3.6 besides other places I shall speak of them as they import their proper and distinct Function As to the first of these the Bishops The Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Episcopatus Episcopacy or Bishoprick is an Office which imports inspection and oversight of others An Office of great care and labor pains and industry He who desires it desires a good work 1 Tim. 3.1 This Office of Episcopacy or Inspection proceeds from proficiency and growth according to the increase of God in the obedient man as I shall shew more anon The Bishops Office is the same with the Apostles and is distinctly so named as one and the same with the Apostleship Acts 1.20 Let another take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Bishoprick And he who desires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bishoprick c. Nor is there any doubt but the Office under that name is by Apostolical tradition being so universal in all Churches where the Gospel was preached which therefore must be of Divine Institution unless we should think that the Apostles delivered any thing to the Church without Divine Authority And because there may be greater degrees of proficiency and growth according to the increase of God As also because there may be need even to the Overseers themselves of one or more who may oversee them qui custodiat ipsos Custodes as David though a Prophet yet had he his Seer besides the Bishops themselves there have been Archbishops and Overseers of the Bishops themselves Such degrees of Proficiency and Orders there were or at least the ground of them among the Apostles themselves So St. Paul saith he was not behinde the very chiefest Apostles 2 Cor. 11.5 such therefore there were And these were Pillars to support the Church Gal. 1. And of how great extent St. Peters Diocese was I know not but St. Pauls was as Oecumunical and universal as large as the Church it self For so he tells us That the care of all the Churches came upon him daily 2 Cor. 11.28 Nor is the like testimony to confirm St. Peters universal Archiepiscopacy as this is And therefore if St. Peter were an Archbishop and Primate of the Church St. Paul was an Archbishop and Primate of all the Churches and the exercise of that Function proves him to be an Archbishop for since Timothy and Titus must be Bishops who ordained Elders surely St. Paul must be an Archbishop who ordained Timothy and Titus Bishops Next to the Bishops are the Presbyters in order and degree though according to the time of institution and ordination the Deacons were made before them as appears Acts 6. compared with Acts 14.23 Presbyter is so called from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies old or an old man yea honorable in regard of old age which is or ought to be grave and venerable and experienced in many things whence persons so qualified are honorable Ezra 6.8 Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Presbyter hath his name which may be Englished Elder We may describe such an one according to his Office a Minister of the Church who teacheth the Word of God and administreth the Sacraments according to Acts 14.23 1 Tim. 5.17.19 Titus 1.5 James 5.14 A Presbyter considered according to his proper degree and rank is inferior to a Bishop because a Bishop is President and Overseer of the Presbyters For although every Bishop be a Presbyter yet every Presbyter is not a Bishop Thus every Bishop is a Minister as hath been before shewn but every Minister is not a Bishop which he observed not who therefore proves that Timothy was no Bishop because St. Paul calls him a Minister 1 Tim. 4.6 There is yet a third Ministry which hath properly that name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deaconship and indeed there is little left of this Office
greater and a less And though you be brethren yet there is a first-born who rules over his brethren Yea this they themselves admit who most dispute against it when they constitute a Yearly Moderator over the Presbyters For although their Annual Officer hath no warrant from Antiquity yet in that they make a President over the Elders they acknowledge a necessity of precedency and order For were they all equal all would command and none would obey Every man would rule and no man would be ruled Every man would contemn and be contemned by every man No respect would be had by one to the vertue and merit of another So that from this jarring dis-harmony and discord there must needs follow a dissolution of the Common-weal and the greatest equality would molder away into the greatest confusion and inequality as Plaâ—o reasons in his 6th de Legibus Hence it appears that there are different Orders and due subordination of them in the Church and among the Ministers of it 3. Wherein do the Parties differ I Will not name all the Controversies between the Episcopael men and Presbyterians lest while I go about to make up the gap I make it wider I shall name those wherein principally the Parties differ and they are either concerning the Essence of Eviscopacy or what is annexed thereunto The Controversie between the Episcopal men and men of Presbyterian perswasion concerning the Essence of Episcopacy is either whether it be all one with Presbytery or if it appear not so to be whether it be taken away by the Covenant Touching the former the Presbyterians affirm that a Bishop and a Presbyter are one and the same And for proof they bring divers Scriptures as Acts 20. Tit. 1. where the same who are Presbyters are called Bishops And Phil. 1. where the Apostle salutes the Bishops and Deacons where by Bishops Presbyters must be understood otherwise this inconvenience would follow that theâ—e should be many Bishops of one Sea These Scriptures are brought by Hierom and Aerius was of the same judgement The Episcopals answer to these Scriptures affirming That the word Episcopus is equivocally attributed to the two superior Orders of Ministers And that an Argument founded upon an ambiguous term cannot be solid and firm And for Aerius Epiphanius hath sufficiently answered his Cavils and put him among the Hereticks And since Hierom upon the same ground defends the same erroneous Tenent if Aerius were an Heretick Hierom herein cannot be Orthodox The Stories of both evidently prove that Aerius magnified Presbytery because he could not be a Bishop Hierom because he would not And although the Presbyterians foundation be so weak yet almost all the Reformed Churches are built upon it against the practise of all the Christian Churches in all Ages from the Apostles times downward Zanchy a Learned man no way engaged in this controversie saith thus Quid certius ex Historiis c. what is more certain out of Histories out of Councils and out of all the Fathers Writings than that those Orders Bishops and Presbyters have been constituted and received in the Church by the common consent of the whole Christian Commonwealth But the Opposition against Episcopacy is of greater Antiquity than it 's commonly conceived For whereas most what it s referred unto the time of Aerius we finde exception against that name soon after the Apostles times as appears by that excellent Epistle of Clemens to the Corinthians which Cyril Patriarch of Constantinople sent in the Year 1632 to King Charl's of blessed memory bound up with a Copy of the LXX as an acceptable Present by way of thankfulness to his then Maâ—esty for enlargement and favor which by his Letters he obtained for the Christians of the Grand Signour That Epistle was publickly read in the Church in divers places saith St. Hierom in Catal. Script Eccles A very rare Monument of Antiquity which this latter Age owes to that glorious Kings mercy This Clemens is mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians chap. 4.3 Whom Ignatius in his Epistle ad Trallenses calls a Deacon to St. Peter whose disciple he was saith Origen contemporary to Peter and Paul saith Epiphanius who was Bishop of Rome and Martyr after the Apostles saith Ruffinus Others also of the Greek and Latine Fathers make honorable mention of him as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Eusebius Basil Athanasius Optatus Milvirtanus Augustine Eucherius and others cited by that Learned Gentleman Master Patrick Yong who published this and another Epistle of Clemens ad Corinthus printed at Oxford Anno 1633. The first Epistle is genuine and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undoubtedly true as appears by Testimonies taken out of it by the forementioned Fathers This by divine providence most seasonably was brought to light after it had lien hid so many hundred years and if it had bin thankfully received from the good hand of God it might have prevented that Bellum Episcopale which broke out seven years after this Epistle was published In like manner the good God forewarned the whole Nation by a book found and ript out of the Maw of a Cod-fish in Cambridge-market on Mid-summer Eve 1626. a few days before the Commencement It bare Title A preparation to the Cross unto which two other Treatises of divine argument were joyned in the same volume written by John Frith who suffered as a Martyr in Queen Maries days this volume was published by Doctor Goad under the name of Vox piscis or The Bookfish So seasonably was the Epistle of Clemens set forth and upon an Argument importing a like state of things to that unhappy time of 1640. and to these present times The Church of Corinth was factious as appears by St. Pauls Epistle to them 1 Cor. 3.4 Which yet afterwards returned to their former sobriety moderation and piety as Clemens testifies And among their Commendations he mindes them that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that ye walked in the Laws of God being subject to your Leaders and giving due honor to the Presbâ—ters or Elders among you And afterward he exhorts them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us reverence those who are â—ver us let us honor our Elders c. Whom does Clemens here understand by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Bishops After whom he names the Presbyters or Elders as a distinct order and degree under the Bishop And to make it appear that the degrees of Bishop Presbyter and Deacon answer to the like Order in the Jews Hierarchy as hath been shewn page 53. Clemens transfers the same degrees Ecclesiastical among the Jews to the Christian Ecclesiastical Policy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. To the chief Priest is attributed his proper ministeries To the Priests are ordered their proper place On the Levites are imposed their proper services The Laik is bound by Laical precepts Let every one of you brethren in his own order and station give thanks to God with a
but a name Their Office we learn out of the express Scripture Acts 6. where we read of the first institution of it and the reason of it that they might take off part of the Apostles burden the daily ministring unto the poor that the Apostles might be wholly vacant attend the ministery of the word and prayer Yet were not the Deacons so wholly imployed in serving tables but that also they preached the Word as appears in the examples of Stephen Acts 6. and Philip Acts 8. who were two of those seven first chosen to that Office But whereas some will not allow them any other imployment then ministring to the poor the after practise of the Church best interprets their Office And whose Authority can we sooner follow than St. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and Martyr one who immediately succeeded the Apostles He on the way to his Martyrdom wrote unto Here his Deacon to take care of the poor widows and fatherless also that he should know the Laws himself and explain them unto others He mentions also in the same Epistle a third part of the Deacons Office That he should do nothing without the Bishops For they saith he are the Priests and thou art the Minister unto the Priests as at Jerusalem St. Stephen ministred to James and the Elders c. So that the care of the whole Church belongs to the Bishops and Priests To whose help the Deacons were given by Divine Ordination and we finde their patern in the Jewish Church as we often read of the Nethinims given as Anxiliaries to the Priests and Levites Whence it appears that the Deacons Office was sacred and thought worthy to be administred by the Apostles themselves and when they would impart it unto others see what manner of men they require men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom Acts 6.3 By all which a great defect is discovered among us especially in these last times We have known how to make numberless numbers of poor widows and orphans but how to make choice of widows indeed such as St. Paul describes 1 Tim. 5. if such be to be found I fear we know not or regard not And that high Office heretofore Apostolical and Ecclesiastical is now become Laical and administred by persons of very mean quality yea in divers places they are intrusted with taking care of the poor who are very poor men themselves and need others to take care of them It is an Office now become so poor so contemptible that no Episcopal man nor Presbyterian will strive for it I have described as briefly as I could these three Degrees of Ministers in the Christian Church which answer to their patern prefigured in the Church of the Jews wherein we finde three like Orders of Ecclesiastical persons High Priests Priests and Levites which typified in the Christian Church Bishops Presbyters and Deacons And that these degrees may not be sleighted or thought arbitrary or of mans device and invention the Ministery of the Jewish Church had their Idea and Example in heaven which Moses was commanded to copy out See thou do all things saith the Lord according to the patern which was shewn thee in the mount And that patern the Apostle discovers when he tells us that the Angels are all ministring spirits Accordingly Dionysius observes three Hierarchies of Angels and disposes three sorts of Angels in every Hierarchy and in the highest Seraphim Cherubim and Thrones In the next Dominions Vertues and Powers In the third and lowest Principalities Archangels and Angels which distribution is followed by some of the Fathers and School-men who from hence have taken their three Hierarchies of Angels Lucifer was an Hierarch and had his Regiment in the place of this world if he would have kept it whereof Jud v. 6. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angels that kept not their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierarchy or Principality Yea he hath yet a Regiment in the evil world ruling in the sons of disobedience until he be cast out by a stronger then he and hence did his envy against our first Father Adam principally spring because he saw man was created to be an Hierarch in his place and stead But this is evidently enough to be proved out of the holy Scriptures that some among the Holy Angels are Superior some Inferior So much the very names of Angels and Archangels import which yet is strengthned by the exercise of their Functions See Zach. 2.2 3 4. where one Angel meets another and sends him with a message to the Prophet commanding him not onely to go but also to make haste and run St. Gregory from hence learnedly and judiciously collects thus much When one Angel saith to another run there is no doubt but they who send are the greater they who are sent are the less Which collection is far more rational then that of a certain Gentleman who because all the Angels are ministring spirits from thence concludes that all the Angels are equal Without doubt the man who so reasoned was out of his element Should one thus argue All the creatures are serviceable unto man therefore they are all equal among themselves who would not deny that consequence out of common sense and observation And shall we think that the onely wise God who hath created so various and different degrees of creatures in due subordination in this inferior world He hath not also ordained and constituted the services of all Angels in a wonderful order in the inferior world Is the God of order more pleased with order in the earth then he is with order in heaven Or shall we rather more truly affirm that they who have endeavored to drive all order out of the Church and to bring in an Ecclesiastical policy like that of the Cyclops on earth the same Titans are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighters against God and endeavour to rout and disorder the host of heaven Christian religion requires not a parity neither among the people nor among their Governors They are not equal for it cannot be that any Common-weal or society of men should long continue as the Christian church must do if it consists of an Arithmetical equality But as by the contrary qualities of the elements and the opposite motions of the Sun Moon and Stars those Ordinances of heaven the world is disposed and temper'd for eternity Jer. 31.35 6 7. so of necessity must the world of men consist of diverse degrees ranks and orders like the strings of an Instrument if they make melody they must be tun'd in due Symmetry and proportion some higher some lower so among men some must be high others low some in authority others under authority they must not be equal not all in unison He is but a ridiculous Minstrel Chordâ qui semper oberrat eâdem that 's always harping upon one string What they alledge That he who is greatest among you Matth. 23.11 shall be your servant proves a
they who are in such a condition have a more explicit knowledge of God the Father Son and Spirit and other Articles of the Faith the Nicene Creed is added And because prayer is to be accompanied with alms-giving certain sentences are then propounded stirring us up thereunto And so that Service concludes with a prayer for the whole state of Christs Church c. The like reason there is of Evening-prayer The explication of these and other particular services would require a just Tractate Against this form of prayer the Presbyters except For why should any form of prayer be imposed upon the people of God Or if any why so long Why that which is clogg'd with so many repetitions Why not a prayer more spiritual Must one and the same fit all ages of the Church Why are Godly men thereby hindred from the exercise of their gifts Why must they use such a form of prayer as is taken out of the Mass-book Yea why are many Canonical Scriptures left out of the Kalendar and Apocryphal placed in the room Episcopal men alleadge for themselves that there is no Church in the world no not that which the Presbyters account the best reformed but it hath a form of prayer Because not onely they who are grown up in religion but the young ones also who are not able to pray of themselves may thereby be instructed and taught how to pray such were Johns disciples and such were Christs whom therefore they both taught to pray But if exception be against a form because a form every conceived prayer is a form unto those who hear it which is well to be considered by them who except against a form of prayer because a form But if a form of prayer be needful they ask why so long a form of prayer Why hath it so many repetitions It 's true the Liturgy hath repetitions in it Yet are not all repetitions vain or Heathenish such as our Lord forbiddeth nor for that end but to express the fervency and ardour of affection And therefore we read many iterations of the same petition or thanksgiving which will amount to the same exception used by David as else where so especially Psalm 136. For his mercy endures for ever twenty six times used in that one psalm Yea and our Lord himself is said in his prayer to have used the same words But although this blame were justly laid upon the Common-prayer yet do not many of them who except against it much mend the matter in their conceived prayers wherein they use most what many repetitions especially when they are at a loss and know not what else to say which is not seldom And as for length of prayer The whole Liturgy Litany and all is not so long as many of their conceived prayers And if their prayers be so long surely it is their own fault if all that time they do not exercise their gifts What they say of spiritual prayers are there any more spiritual in all the Latine or Greek Liturgies How much less in these mens conceived prayers And if there bâ— some of all Dispensations in all Ages of the Church why may not this form of prayer composed as I have shewn fit all Ages of the Church Nor do Episcopal men deny but that many of the Church-prayers are extant in the Mass-book And is it not for the credit of the Roman Missal that so excellent prayers are found in it What though all the Epistles and Gospels or the most of them may be read in that Book Are they therefore one jote the worse Or is the Scripture any whit the less true because it hath been cited by the father of lies Feign the Mass as abominable as any man can make it will any reasonable man refuse what is unquestionably good because it hath been ill used May not the Sun shine upon a dunghil and yet loose nothing of its purity It is true that some Canonical Scriptures are omitted in the Kalendar and Apocryphal set in their place as the two Books of Chronicles the Book of Canticles the latter part of Ezekiels prophesie much of the Revelation and some others And why not For although all Scriptures were written for our edifying yet all Scriptures do not edifie alike As for those Canonical omitted the Episcopal man dares appeal to the Presbyter whether Adam Seth Enosh and the rest of the Genealogy edifie so much as the Scripture Canonical or Apocryphal appointed to be read in place of it Yea whether the History of Judith may not edifie as well as the History of Jael Yea why he though with much study he hath hardly attained to the true meaning of the latter chapter of Ezekiel and the Book of Canticles and the Revelation yet should desire that the same Scriptures should be propounded to the understanding of the rude multitude ex tempore and hope that thereby they should be edified The Learned Jews were not thought to envy the people the Holy Scriptures when they forbade the novices the reading of the three first chapters of Genesis and some other Scriptures lest they should frame ill interpretations of them Many other exceptions are taken by the Presbyterians and others against the Book of Common-prayer which are so frivolous that its apparent their Palmarium their main Reason against it is Stat pro ratione voluntas They would not have it But the Presbyterians take great exceptions against the Forms of Godliness expressed in Ceremonies in Gesture as Bowing Standing Kneeling enjoyned at the performance of divers parts of the Divine Service with which the Church of God should not be burthened Concerning such Ceremonies Episcopal men say That a reason may be given of them according to the different parts of the Service where they are commanded to be used Divers of Episcopal perswasion have written particularly of these and therefore I refer the Reader to them for satisfaction I shall onely adde a Rule out of Ticonius cited by St. Austin When any thing in Scripture is prescribed to be done without the circumstances when where how c. it should be done which yet cannot be done without such circumstances that duty to be done must be circumstantiated out of the word elswhere mentioned or according to the ancient custom of the Church As when the Apostle saith Preach the word yet adds not when or where or how a due circumstance of place and maner may be taken from the practice of Ezra Nehem. 8.4 or of Solomon 2 Chr. 6.13 where the word turn'd a Scaffold signifies rather a Pulpit So when our Lord saith Baptize all Nations And touching that other Sacrament Do this as often as ye do it in remembrance of me The mode or way of administring and receiving these Sacraments is no where commanded and therefore it s left to be directed by the Fathers of the Church But whereas Forms of Godliness are either in gesture or vesture 1. In vesture as the Surplice At this some take most